IO::Socket::INET - 2 problems

[clemima]

Hi,
i have a script that listens on a port for simple text messages and then
executes sql to a remote mssql database . The script is started via crontab .
There are 2 problems :

1 . The line to the remote database appears to go to sleep in the sense that the script receives a null return from the database instead of a message containing the number of rows affected by the sql . The sql in such a case does not get executed against the database, i.e. no updates are done.

2. The line sometimes fails with 'connection refused' or 'Error: Global alarm in 5'

2 code excerpts that may be relevant :

The script TESTS the port at start and forks if the port is not accepting TEST messages :

$socket = IO::Socket::INET->new(
    PeerAddr    => '10.100.1.232',
    PeerPort    => 41004,
    Type        => SOCK_STREAM,
    Proto        => "tcp",
);
 
if ($socket) {
    if ($#ARGV >= 0) {
        $socket->send($ARGV[0]);
    } else {
        $socket->send('TEST');
        $mess = 'TEST send';
        wlog($mess);
        $socket->recv($instr,20);
    }
    $socket->close;
    wlog('Server running and using port 41004');
    exit;
}
 
#--- Fork to free child and close parent
$pid = fork;
if ($pid) {
    wlog('Closing parent process');
    close(LOG);
    exit;
}
 

The script loops receiving input messages :

$server = IO::Socket::INET->new(
    LocalPort    => 41004,
    Type        => SOCK_STREAM,
    Reuse        => 1,
    Listen        => 10,
) or die wlog("Cannot bind to port ");
 
while (($client,$peeradd) = $server->accept()) {
    ($clientport,$clientadd) = unpack_sockaddr_in($peeradd);
    $mess = "Server loop" . " " . inet_ntoa($clientadd) . " - " . $clientport;
    wlog($mess);
    #new
 
    $cadd = inet_ntoa($clientadd);
    print $cadd . "\n";
    #new
    if ($cadd eq '10.') {
        $mess = 'Bad store detected - abort';
        next;
    }
    $rc = $client->timeout(10);
 
    $client->recv($instr,200);
 
    # if message = TEST etc etc
 
    if (substr($instr,0,4) eq 'TEST') {
        $mess = 'TEST received';
        wlog($mess);
        $client->send('OK');
        next;
    }
}
 

much appreciated if you could offer any advice,

regards,

Clem