Problems with SocketChannel.write(ByteBuffer buff).

Question

I am using the following version of JDK on Red Hat Linux
java version "1.4.2_01"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_01-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_01-b06, mixed mode)
I am using SocketChannel's write method mentioned above to write data to the SocketChannel. When data is being written on the SocketChannel via this write method and the underlying socket is closed by the receiving endpoint, I expect this method to throw an exception. This method does not throw any exception and returns me 0 as the value of number of bytes written out.
The way my code is written out, it ends up going in an infinite loop. Now, I can very well fix my code to not run in an infinite loop, but is anybody else seeing this? Is this a valid behavior? Am I doing something wrong?
Following is the code snippet that writes data to the SocketChannel. Note that writeBuffer is an instance of ByteBuffer and sc is an instance of SocketChannel. Both these variables are member variables in my class:
public void write(byte[] buff, int offset, int length)
    throws IOException
    int toBeWritten = 0;
    while (length > 0)
        int writeOffset = offset;
        toBeWritten = writeBuffer.remaining();
        if (toBeWritten >= length)
            // All the bytes that are scheduled to be written will be
            // written.
            toBeWritten = length;
            length = 0;
        else
            // Only some of the bytes that are scheduled to be written will
            // be written.
            length -= toBeWritten;
            offset += toBeWritten;
        writeBuffer.put(buff, writeOffset, toBeWritten);
        // toBeWritten is the number of bytes that need to be written out.
        while (writeBuffer.position() != 0)
            // position = toBeWritten.
            writeBuffer.flip();
            // position = 0, limit = toBeWritten.
            int wrote = sc.write(writeBuffer);
            // position = wrote, limit = toBeWritten.
            // Compact the write buffer. It is very much possible that all
            // the bytes have not yet been written out.
            writeBuffer.compact();
            // The data that was written out, is now removed from the write
            // buffer. position = toBeWritten - wrote, limit = capacit
}Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

When ByteBuffer.write(...) return 0, it means this
socket is closed gracefully by another peer. the
socket is need to re-connect again.Oh.. I forgot to mention, I am using non blocking SocketChannel. As per the Java docs for write(ByteBuffer src) method in WritableByteChannel:
"Some types of channels, depending upon their state, may write only some of the bytes or possibly none at all. A socket channel in non-blocking mode, for example, cannot write any more bytes than are free in the socket's output buffer."
So, I cannot assume that if the write method returns 0, the socket is closed by another peer.