Looks like this was added in Kernel 2.6.37.
Commit diff from kernel Git and Excerpt from change log below;
commit
dca43c75e7e545694a9dd6288553f55c53e2a3a3
Author: Jerry Chu
Date: Fri Aug 27 19:13:28 2010 +0000tcp: Add TCP_USER_TIMEOUT socket option. This patch provides a "user timeout" support as described in RFC793. The socket option is also needed for the the local half of RFC5482 "TCP User Timeout Option". TCP_USER_TIMEOUT is a TCP level socket option that takes an unsigned int, when > 0, to specify the maximum amount of time in ms that transmitted data may remain unacknowledged before TCP will forcefully close the corresponding connection and return ETIMEDOUT to the application. If 0 is given, TCP will continue to use the system default. Increasing the user timeouts allows a TCP connection to survive extended periods without end-to-end connectivity. Decreasing the user timeouts allows applications to "fail fast" if so desired. Otherwise it may take upto 20 minutes with the current system defaults in a normal WAN environment. The socket option can be made during any state of a TCP connection, but is only effective during the synchronized states of a connection (ESTABLISHED, FIN-WAIT-1, FIN-WAIT-2, CLOSE-WAIT, CLOSING, or LAST-ACK). Moreover, when used with the TCP keepalive (SO_KEEPALIVE) option, TCP_USER_TIMEOUT will overtake keepalive to determine when to close a connection due to keepalive failure. The option does not change in anyway when TCP retransmits a packet, nor when a keepalive probe will be sent. This option, like many others, will be inherited by an acceptor from its listener. Signed-off-by: H.K. Jerry Chu <hkchu@google.com> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>