[Boost-users] asio: how to handle unreliable network/glitches/server down ?

Subject: [Boost-users] asio: how to handle unreliable network/glitches/server down ?
From: Avi Bahra (avibahra_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-03-25 14:08:52

Ok. I am a newbie to asio so bear with me:
I have the following piece of code for handling
a unreliable network and/or server crashed/servicing
where I do not want the client  to fail.
My solution basically involves looping round ,
sleeping and trying again.

....
int no_of_tries = clientEnv.no_of_tries();
while ( no_of_tries > 0 ) {
   try {
      boost::asio::io_service io_service;
      Client theClient( io_service, clientEnv.get_cmd(),
                                     clientEnv.host(), clientEnv.port()  );
      io_service.run();
      ...
       // Some kind of connection error fall through and try again.
   }
    catch (std::exception& e) {
         ....
    }

    sleep( RETRY_POLL_PERIOD );
    no_of_tries--;
}

This does not seem right to me,  but I am not sure how typical
my case is. Are there any known design patterns/idioms that
provide a more robust ways of handling unreliable
networks/glitches and cases where the server needs to be
taken down temporarily ?

  Best regards,
Ta,
   Avi