TCPStartUp() in a UDF - best practice?

[orbs]

as i understand, TCPStartUp() works for the entire process, and is scope-agnostic. suppose i'm writing a UDF that makes use of TCP. i neither know nor care if the calling script uses TCP too. the calling script may or may not call TCPStartUp() or TCPShutDown() at its discretion. should i be concerned about that at all?

my initial thought was to mandatory call TCPStartUp() in my UDF, and register an OnExit function for TCPShutDown(). but what if the calling script does the same? what if the calling script calls TCPShutDown() while my UDF is using it still?

do i need to test for TCP status at the beginning of each function in my UDF, so i can start it if it isn't started yet? that seems too inelegant.

ideas?

[user4157124]

For a UDF, TCPStartUp() is the including script's responsibility (like caling _GDIPlus_Startup() or _SQLite_Startup() prior to using functions from a UDF that depend on these libraries). Check in each function helps debugging (uninitialized use will error eventually, a check at least identifies the cause), but TCP functions return @error WSANOTINITIALISED (10093) if called prior to TCPStartup() already.

Generally speaking, anything of global effect is the script's (not UDF's) responsibility (code becomes inflexible/unmanageable otherwise). Of course you can do as you please (it's a convenience vs. flexibility trade off eventually).