TCP send struct not working Unhandled exception - c++

Question

So I want to send a char and a const char from the tcp client to the server, but the code I have below
This is the sender
struct packet {
char caseRadio;//1byte
const char* path;//4byte
};
packet* clientPacket = new packet;
string a = "C:\\Users\\Desktop\\Project phoneedge\\ForJen";
clientPacket->caseRadio = '1';
clientPacket->path = a.c_str();
int iSend1 = send(TCPClientSocket, (char*)clientPacket, sizeof(packet), 0);
This is the reciever
struct packet {
char caseRadio;//1byte
const char* path;//4byte
};
packet* clientPacket = new packet;
int iRecv = recv(sAccecpSocket, (char*)clientPacket, sizeof(packet),0);
cout << clientPacket->caseRadio << endl;
cout << clientPacket->path << endl;
I only receive the caseRadio's 1
the path throws a Unhandled exception at 0x7A8308F0 (ucrtbased.dll) in Barebonesserver.exe:
At some point the path printed out something like this
\source\repos\Barebonesserver\Debug\Barebonesserver.exe
(this is a part of the project folder path, just how?)

Answer 1

Send a const char * over TCP does not make sense. A const char * is only the address of a string in the memory of the sender process. It cannot magically point to something interesting in the reader process. Furthermore, sending a struct over the network is not reliable, because different compilation options could lead to different paddings in the structures.
You need to serialize your data. A common way would be to send:
a single char for caseRadio
a 16 bit integer in network order for the size of the character string
the bytes of the character string
Sender side (tests of iSend1 omitted form brievety):
...
string a = "C:\\Users\\Desktop\\Project phoneedge\\ForJen";
int iSend1 = send(TCPClientSocket, '1', 1, 0);;
int iSend1 = send(TCPClientSocket, htons(a.size()), 2, 0);
int iSend1 = send(TCPClientSocket, a.c_str(), a.size(), 0);
Reciever side (test omitted ibidem):
char caseRadio
uint16_t size;
char *data;
int iRecv = recv(sAccecpSocket, &caseRadio, 1, 0);
int iRecv = recv(sAccecpSocket, &size, 2, 0);
size = ntohs(size); // revert to host order...
data = new char[size];
int iRecv = recv(sAccecpSocket, data, size, 0);
string a{data, size};
delete[] data;