GoServe 2.41 (and later versions) supports an experimental implementation of persistent connections (discussed in detail in the HTTP working group mailing list in July-August 1995, and also in IETF draft form). In brief, a client may request (by including the HTTP header 'Connection:' with value 'keep-alive' or 'maintain') that a server not close the connection after sending a response.
The server may choose to ignore this, or it may hold the connection open for a period of time (typically 15 to 30 seconds), to allow the client to send further HTTP requests over the same connection. In the latter case, the client is informed by the inclusion of a matching 'Connection:' header in the response. At any time, the transaction can be concluded by either the client or server closing the connection or no longer using the 'Connection:' header in the request or response header.
This persistent connection protocol is handled automatically by GoServe, under the control of the LIMITTIMEWAIT (connection maintain) setting. This setting limits the time that GoServe will wait for a new request after being asked to do so; it may be set to zero to force GoServe to accept only one request per connection; for the time being, this is the default setting.
Notes:
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From 'goserve.doc', version 2.50.
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