Reducing the timeout on a TCP connection

[Bill Moran]

I'm writing some monitoring scripts, and I'm having some trouble because
the TCP seems to wait 90 seconds before giving up on initiating a
connection.

(The script is in PHP, testing a PostgreSQL database.  Neither PHP nor
libpq (which PHP's PostgreSQL support is based on) seem to have any
settings that can be used to adjust this timeout).

If my memory of Stevens is correct, this is something that's set at the
OS level.  It doesn't seem as if it's a configurable value, however.
I guess I'm looking for confirmation on that point first.  If that's
the case, then I'll have to adjust my approach based on that knowledge.

If it can be adjusted, can it be adjusted on a per-connection basis?  I
don't want to mess with timeouts on other sockets, _just_ this one
monitoring script.

And of course, the final question: how would I adjust this setting if
it's possible?  If it's a sysctl, I'm missing it ...

Suggestions?

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.