This may sound goofy, but have you tried forcing a flush of the socket before you try to close it? I vaguely remember running into this problem once in some C code. Come to think of it, that code was running on an AIX box, too. Unfortunately, it was years ago, so the details are fuzzy, but the setup sounds similar.

Also, I don't know if resetting $| will work on a socket as well as a filehandle, but I offer this suggestion for what it is worth. Sorry I can't be more definite or helpful.

--
tbone1
Ain't enough 'O's in 'stoopid' to describe that guy.
- Dave "the King" Wilson