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RFC 2349 / PROTOCOL MECHANISMS

Agree on a retransmission interval

01

The timeout option proposes how many seconds to wait before retransmitting. Acceptance echoes the requested value.

RFC 2349 · Timeout Interval · p.2EXAMPLE
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Agree on a retransmission intervalSeparate mismatched timeout 2 is rejected by client ERROR 8, terminating transfer.timeout: seconds before retransmittingClientServerSeparate invalid OACK: timeout = 2Client had requested 3ERROR 8: reject unacceptable OACKTerminate; no counter-offer acceptedSchematic fields · 00 is zero octet, not printable digit 0
04
Reject a different counter-offer

Separate invalid-reply example: the server returns timeout=2 after a request for 3. The client rejects this unacceptable OACK with ERROR 8 and terminates.

Source for this drawing: RFC 2349 · Read RFC source: Timeout Interval · p.2 ↗

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KEY POINT

timeout is case-insensitive; its value is an ASCII number from 1 through 255 seconds, terminated by a zero octet.

  • timeout is case-insensitive; its value is an ASCII number from 1 through 255 seconds, terminated by a zero octet.
  • If the server accepts timeout, the OACK value must match the client request; it is not a smaller counter-offer.
  • Only acknowledged options become active after the appropriate confirmation. A client rejects an unacceptable OACK with ERROR code 8 and terminates (RFC2347).
DETAILS

The RFC uses lowercase must, not an RFC2119 conventions block. Preserve its exact-match requirement. Names and values end with zero octets; field widths are schematic.

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