## org.apache.http
Interface HttpConnection

All Superinterfaces:
  Closeable

All Known Subinterfaces:
  HttpClientConnection, HttpInetConnection, HttpServerConnection, NHttpClientConnection, NHttpClientIOTarget, NHttpConnection, NHttpServerConnection, NHttpServerIOTarget

All Known Implementing Classes:
  AbstractHttpClientConnection, AbstractHttpServerConnection, DefaultHttpClientConnection, DefaultHttpServerConnection, DefaultNHttpClientConnection, DefaultNHttpServerConnection, NHttpConnectionBase, SocketHttpClientConnection, SocketHttpServerConnection

    public interface HttpConnection

extends Closeable

A generic HTTP connection, useful on client and server side.

Since:
  4.0

Method Summary
`void` `close()` Closes this connection gracefully.
`HttpConnectionMetrics` `getMetrics()` Returns a collection of connection metrics.
`int` `getSocketTimeout()` Returns the socket timeout value.
`boolean` `isOpen()` Checks if this connection is open.
`boolean` `isStale()` Checks whether this connection has gone down.
`void` `setSocketTimeout(int timeout)` Sets the socket timeout value.
`void` `shutdown()` Force-closes this connection.

Method Detail

### close

    void close()
               throws IOException

  Closes this connection gracefully. This method will attempt to flush the internal output buffer prior to closing the underlying socket. This method MUST NOT be called from a different thread to force shutdown of the connection. Use `shutdown` instead.

  Specified by:
    `close` in interface `Closeable`
  Throws:
    `IOException`

### isOpen

    boolean isOpen()

  Checks if this connection is open.

  Returns:
    true if it is open, false if it is closed.

### isStale

    boolean isStale()

  Checks whether this connection has gone down. Network connections may get closed during some time of inactivity for several reasons. The next time a read is attempted on such a connection it will throw an IOException. This method tries to alleviate this inconvenience by trying to find out if a connection is still usable. Implementations may do that by attempting a read with a very small timeout. Thus this method may block for a small amount of time before returning a result. It is therefore an expensive operation.

  Returns:
    `true` if attempts to use this connection are likely to succeed, or `false` if they are likely to fail and this connection should be closed

### setSocketTimeout

    void setSocketTimeout(int timeout)

  Sets the socket timeout value.

  Parameters:
    `timeout` - timeout value in milliseconds

### getSocketTimeout

    int getSocketTimeout()

  Returns the socket timeout value.

  Returns:
    positive value in milliseconds if a timeout is set, `0` if timeout is disabled or `-1` if timeout is undefined.

### shutdown

    void shutdown()
                  throws IOException

  Force-closes this connection. This is the only method of a connection which may be called from a different thread to terminate the connection. This method will not attempt to flush the transmitter's internal buffer prior to closing the underlying socket.

  Throws:
    `IOException`

### getMetrics

    HttpConnectionMetrics getMetrics()

  Returns a collection of connection metrics.

  Returns:
    HttpConnectionMetrics

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