sockets -- basic udp client

[7stud]

My question pertains to this example:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import socket, sys, time

host = sys.argv[1]
textport = sys.argv[2]

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
try:
    port = int(textport)
except ValueError:
    # That didn't work.  Look it up instread.
    port = socket.getservbyname(textport, 'udp')

s.connect((host, port))
print "Enter data to transmit: "
data = sys.stdin.readline().strip()
s.sendall(data)
s.shutdown(1)
print "Looking for replies; press Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break to stop."
while 1:
    buf = s.recv(2048)
    if not len(buf):
        break
    print "Received: %s" % buf


As far as I can tell, the if statement:

if not len(buf):
   break

does nothing.  Either recv() is going to read some data or it's going
to block.   My understanding is that udp sockets do not have a
connection, so the server can't close the connection--hich would cause
a blank string to be sent to the client.

So, as far as I can tell, the only way that code would make sense is
if the server were programmed to send a blank string to the client
after it sent data to the client.  Is that correct?