Merged revisions 69520,69633,69672,69703-69704,69717,69731 via svnmerge from
svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/trunk

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  r69520 | benjamin.peterson | 2009-02-12 04:50:00 +0100 (Do, 12 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  os.fsync() should be used to ensure that data is written to disk
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  r69633 | hirokazu.yamamoto | 2009-02-15 10:19:48 +0100 (So, 15 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  Fixed typo.
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  r69672 | benjamin.peterson | 2009-02-16 15:54:34 +0100 (Mo, 16 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  note functions that are not aliased to PyBytes_ #5280
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  r69703 | raymond.hettinger | 2009-02-16 23:42:54 +0100 (Mo, 16 Feb 2009) | 3 lines

  Issue 5229: Documentation for super() neglects to say what super() actually does
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  r69704 | raymond.hettinger | 2009-02-17 00:00:25 +0100 (Di, 17 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  Add explanation for super(type1, type2).
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  r69717 | marc-andre.lemburg | 2009-02-17 13:48:19 +0100 (Di, 17 Feb 2009) | 5 lines

  Clarify the deprecation of platform.dist().

  Add versionadded tags.
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  r69731 | gregory.p.smith | 2009-02-18 06:46:11 +0100 (Mi, 18 Feb 2009) | 3 lines

  Clarify socket timeout behavior vs system network stack behavior on connect
  for issue5293.
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diff --git a/Doc/library/socket.rst b/Doc/library/socket.rst
index a435b820..d1b107e 100644
--- a/Doc/library/socket.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/socket.rst
@@ -731,12 +731,13 @@
 
 Some notes on socket blocking and timeouts: A socket object can be in one of
 three modes: blocking, non-blocking, or timeout.  Sockets are always created in
-blocking mode.  In blocking mode, operations block until complete.  In
+blocking mode.  In blocking mode, operations block until complete or
+the system returns an error (such as connection timed out).  In
 non-blocking mode, operations fail (with an error that is unfortunately
 system-dependent) if they cannot be completed immediately.  In timeout mode,
 operations fail if they cannot be completed within the timeout specified for the
-socket.  The :meth:`setblocking` method is simply a shorthand for certain
-:meth:`settimeout` calls.
+socket or if the system returns an error.  The :meth:`setblocking` method is simply
+a shorthand for certain :meth:`settimeout` calls.
 
 Timeout mode internally sets the socket in non-blocking mode.  The blocking and
 timeout modes are shared between file descriptors and socket objects that refer
@@ -747,7 +748,9 @@
 
 Note that the :meth:`connect` operation is subject to the timeout setting, and
 in general it is recommended to call :meth:`settimeout` before calling
-:meth:`connect`.
+:meth:`connect` or pass a timeout parameter to :meth:`create_connection`.
+The system network stack may return a connection timeout error
+of its own regardless of any python socket timeout setting.
 
 
 .. method:: socket.setsockopt(level, optname, value)