[spacechild1]

How would I use such a socket class as a member variable? How do I reopen the socket?

[sgsjchs]

Reopen by constructing and assigning a new socket.

[spacechild1]

So I essentially have to wrap it in something like std::optional. Well, that's certainly one way to write a socket class, but I'd say it's not idiomatic C++. (I have never seen a socket class being implemented like that.)

[sgsjchs]

You don't need optional in this case, the assignment would just destroy the old socket and immediately move the new one in its place.

[spacechild1]

Well, reopening a socket implies that I have manually closed the socket, which does require an optional with your implementation.