Problem with socket

[Thomas Hervé]

My problem is not really python specific but as I do my implementation 
in python I hope someone here can help me.

I have two programs that talk through a socket. Here is the code :

<server>
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)

sock.settimeout(5.0)

sock.bind(("", port)
# We only handle one connection
sock.listen(1)

while 1:
     newsock, address = sock.accept()
     handle(newsock, address)

def handle(sock, address) :
     print "Connection from", address
     dataReceived = newsock.recv(1024)
     while 1:
         try:
             newsock.send(data)
         except socket.timeout, err:
             print "Connection timeout %s" % err
             break
         except socket.error, err:
             print "Connection broken %s" % err
             break

</server>

<client>
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.settimeout(5.0)
sock.connect((host, port))
sock.send("Gimme a piece of information, please\r\n")

while 1:
     r, w, e = select.select([s], [], [], 1.0)
     if r != []:
	handle_connection(s)


def handle_connection(sock):
     try:
         response_data = sock.recv(1024)
     except socket.timeout:
         print "Socket timeout"
         return
     manage(response_data)

</client>

Ok I hope it's clear. My problem is that "select" only tests if there's 
data on the socket, and not the state of the socket. I want to be able 
to know if socket is "alive" or something like that. But I don't want 
to make "send" in the client (stay passive). Then, if I know that my 
socket is closed or my link down, I can try to reconnect periodically.

I would rewrite the while in the client like that :
<client>
while 1:
     if not test_connect(s) :
	reconnect(s)
     # else continue normally
     r, w, e = select.select([s], [], [], 1.0)
     if r != []:
	handle_connection(s)
</client

My env: python2.3, linux/win32.

Thanks in advance,

-- 
Thomas Herve <sorry for my english>