C++: Classic communication exercise between server and client - c++

Good day.
As a computer science student, learning low-level C programming, i'm stucked in the "classic" practice exercise of writting a server-client communicating program.
The goal is to develop a server component which receives a command from a remote client component, and execute it as a local shell command; then, the command's output is send again to the client. Pretty simple.
My code send the command from the client, the server succesfully receive it, execute it and captures the output. But at this point, when the sayd server tries to reply with that output to the client ... something goes wrong and the client receives nothing. No clue if the problem is in the server part, or in the client counterpart.
Any idea? Thanks in advance!
Server:
struct sockaddr_in srvaddr, cliaddr;
memset(&srvaddr, 0, sizeof(srvaddr));
memset(&cliaddr, 0, sizeof(cliaddr));
int sk = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDP);
srvaddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
srvaddr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
srvaddr.sin_port = htons(42000);
bind(sk, (struct sockaddr*)&srvaddr, sizeof(srvaddr));
recvfrom(sk, recepcion, sizeof(recepcion), 0, (struct sockaddr*)&cliaddr, sizeof(cliaddr));
// [...] Portion of code with a Pipe pointing to a Fork which runs the command...
// And here is where, maybe, the communication is lost:
sendto(sk, recepcion, sizeof(recepcion), 0, (struct sockaddr*)&cliaddr, sizeof(cliaddr));
Client:
struct sockaddr_in srvaddr, cliaddr;
memset(&srvaddr, 0, sizeof(srvaddr));
memset(&cliaddr, 0, sizeof(cliaddr));
int sk = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDP);
cliaddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
cliaddr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
cliaddr.sin_port = htons(42001);
srvaddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
srvaddr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
srvaddr.sin_port = htons(42000);
// [...] Some other code catching the command from the argument paramenters:
sendto(sk, comando, strlen(comando), 0, (struct sockaddr*)&srvaddr, sizeof(srvaddr));
// And here's where the server reply should be, but theres nothing:
recvfrom(sk, buff, sizeof(buff), 0, (struct sockaddr*)&srvaddr, sizeof(srvaddr));
Say i print all the traces with:
fprintf(stderr, "");
So, loosing the terminal's focus due to forking should not be an issue.
Bye and thanks!

The problem is most likely the recvfrom call. If you check the manual page you will see that the source-address length is a pointer. I don't know how you managed to get it to compile without errors or warnings.
You need to initialize the size to the actual size of the socket-address structure, pass a pointer to it, and the recvfrom function will fill in the actual size:
socklen_t cliaddrlen = sizeof(cliaddr);
recvfrom(sk, recepcion, sizeof(recepcion), 0,
(struct sockaddr *) &cliaddr, &cliaddrlen);
Oh, and I do assume you check for errors in your actual code?

Related

Can a UDP multicast socket be configured so that write() can be called rather than sendto()?

I am writing a C++ multicasting application on Linux Ubuntu.
In my C++ multicast sender class I do this:
uint16_t port = 5678;
const char* group = "239.128.128.128";
int fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
struct sockaddr_in addr;
memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(addr));
addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(group);
addr.sin_port = htons(port);
const char* buf = "Hi there";
size_t bytes_to_write = 8;
size_t bytes_sent = sendto(fd, buf, bytes_to_write, 0, (struct sockaddr*) &addr, sizeof(addr));
Is there any way to configure the file descriptor so that I can call write() rather than sendto()? I would have thought there would be a setsockopt option or similar to do this?
Yes.
Per the documentation man 7 udp
When
connect(2) is called on the socket, the default destination address
is set and datagrams can now be sent using send(2) or write(2)
without specifying a destination address.
and, for generality, the POSIX spec for connect says
If the initiating socket is not connection-mode, then connect() shall set the socket's peer address, and no connection is made. For SOCK_DGRAM sockets, the peer address identifies where all datagrams are sent on subsequent send() functions, and limits the remote sender for subsequent recv() functions.
It's always worth checking the documentation for these, things, it isn't that impenetrable. FWIW I couldn't remember immediately whether you need connect() or bind() for this, and it took me a few seconds to find out.

send a message to a remote rsyslog in c++

Is there a way to send a message to a remote syslog in c++ code?
equivalent to this line in linux command:
nc -w0 -u 192.168.1.1 514 <<< "logging from remote"
This code supposed to do the some thing with socket but it doesn't work.
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int listenfd = 0, connfd = 0,n;
struct sockaddr_in serv_addr;
struct hostent *server;
char sendBuff[1025];
sprintf(sendBuff,"bla bla");
time_t ticks;
listenfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM , 0);
memset(&serv_addr, '0', sizeof(serv_addr));
memset(sendBuff, '0', sizeof(sendBuff));
serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
server = gethostbyname("192.168.1.108");
bcopy((char *)server->h_addr, (char *)&serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr, server->h_length);
//serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
serv_addr.sin_port = htons(514);
if ((n=connect(connfd,(const sockaddr*)&serv_addr,sizeof(serv_addr))) < 0){
printf(" Connection to has failed Server ");
}
bind(listenfd, (struct sockaddr*)&serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr));
listen(listenfd, 10);
while(1)
{
connfd = accept(listenfd, (struct sockaddr*)NULL, NULL);
write(connfd, sendBuff, strlen(sendBuff));
close(connfd);
sleep(60);
}
}
On several Unixes, including Linux you may simply use the client command http://linux.die.net/man/3/syslog and install a current syslog server such as syslog-ng. This server will be able to not only filter the messages according to your rules but also send them to any remote syslog.
If you are on Windows, I'm afraid you have to implement your own syslog protocol. Luckily, it's not that difficult and more or less defined.
nc -u just sends data over UDP sockets. There's nothing particular about it, no specific protocol to follow: it's just raw data. You can simply send your messages through UDP sockets in C++ (see socket with AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM parameters and other related functions).
But this means you miss a lot of syslog's features like facilities and priorities.
#Moose is right: the syslog API is more relevant to your needs, since it is much more flexible (no need to modify your program if you want to change the behaviour, you'll only have to reconfigure the syslog daemon).

Socket programming in Linux by C++

I am developing a C++ app in openSUSE 12.3 and one of it's part is responsible to send data to a device via Socket (in LAN). I am using this code
int sockfd, portno, n;
struct sockaddr_in serv_addr;
struct hostent *printer;
portno = 9100;
sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
if(sockfd < 0) error("ERROR opening socket\n");
printer = gethostbyname("100.0.69.23");
if(printer == NULL) error("No such device on 100.0.69.23\n");
//set bit set to zero
bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr));
serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
bcopy((char *) printer->h_addr, (char *) &serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr, printer- >h_length);
serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno);
if(connect(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *) & serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0)
{error("ERROR connecting");
return;
}
n = write(sockfd, data, datalenght);
if(n < 0) error("ERROR sending command to printer");
n = read(sockfd, buffer, 200);
I think the code is correct but the connect function returns -1 and seems that could not connect to the device (printer) . This code was written in openSUSE 11 and was working OK and I could send/receive data to device but when I copy/paste it to new system (openSUSE 12.3) it gives me failure in connecting. I ping result on the specific IP which is in use show that device is reachable via LAN
I think you should consider the possibility that hostent returned by gethostbyname function might have AF_INET6 address family (in which case it will be IPv6 instead of IPv4 address).
http://linux.die.net/man/3/gethostbyname
So you can either use GNU extension function gethostbyname2 function that will allow you to specify address family.
printer = gethostbyname2("100.0.69.23", AF_INET);
Or instead you can use getaddrinfo function, as gethostbyname function is said to be obsolete, by the documentation.
As already mentioned, you are checking for printer == NULL before initializing it. I think you meant the following instead:
sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
if (sockfd < 0) error("ERROR opening socket\n");
printer = gethostbyname("100.0.69.23");
...
Also the structure of the code seems to indicate that when you want to send a command to the printer you connect(), write() then read(), which is OK if you are only ever sending one command, but suboptimal if you are sending multiple commands. In the latter case you want to separate the connect() from the write() as it's fairly expensive to connect so you want to do it just once.

C++: Linux: TCP/IP program crashes when calling write()

I have a loop which keeps writing data to a client through TCP/IP. The connection is opened as follows:
newsockfd = accept(sockfd,
(struct sockaddr *) &cli_addr,
&clilen);
The following line is executed continuously in a loop (with sleep of 0.1 sec) in order to write the data to the client:
n = write(newsockfd,data.c_str(),data.length()+1); //+1 to include NULL in null terminated string
if(n>=0)
{
cout<<"success"<<endl;
}
else
{
cout<<"Fail"<<endl;
close(newsockfd);
newsockfd = -1;
}
I want the server to become reading for receiving a new connections if the connection is broken for any reason. So if writing fails, I get ready again to accept a new connection with the first command.
My problem is the following: the method succeeds for the first time, so if the connection is broken from the client, write() returns a negative number and I know immediately that the connection has a problem, so I close it and expect a new one. The server receives the new connection, but at the next time when using write(), the program crashes immediately.
Why does this happen? Please help, I'm new in TCP/IP stuff.
Please ask for more information if you require it.
Requested from helpers:
Stack trace:
Error: signal 13:
/mnt/hgfs/Dropbox/common_src/LinuxTCP/Server/ServerLinux-build-desktop-Qt_4_8_1_in_PATH__System__Release/ServerLinux[0x402155]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x364a0)[0x7ffc57ac04a0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(write+0x10)[0x7ffc5836dcb0]
/mnt/hgfs/Dropbox/common_src/LinuxTCP/Server/ServerLinux-build-desktop-Qt_4_8_1_in_PATH__System__Release/ServerLinux[0x4023b6]
/mnt/hgfs/Dropbox/common_src/LinuxTCP/Server/ServerLinux-build-desktop-Qt_4_8_1_in_PATH__System__Release/ServerLinux[0x401b54]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xed)[0x7ffc57aab76d]
/mnt/hgfs/Dropbox/common_src/LinuxTCP/Server/ServerLinux-build-desktop-Qt_4_8_1_in_PATH__System__Release/ServerLinux[0x402081]
Variable definitions: it's a class:
Body:
int sockfd, portno, n;
struct sockaddr_in serv_addr;
struct hostent *server;
Constructor starts the stuff:
LinuxTCPServer::LinuxTCPServer(int port, bool nonblocking)
{
if(nonblocking)
sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_NONBLOCK | SOCK_STREAM, 0);
else
sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
if (sockfd < 0)
error("ERROR opening socket");
bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr));
portno = port;
serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno);
if (bind(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *) &serv_addr,
sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0)
error("ERROR on binding");
listen(sockfd,5);
clilen = sizeof(cli_addr);
}
Assuming Linux >= 2.2, replace this:
n = write(newsockfd,data.c_str(),data.length()+1);
with this:
n = send(newsockfd, data.c_str(), data.length()+1, MSG_NOSIGNAL);
send(2) will then return -1 with errno set to EPIPE, rather than generating a fatal SIGPIPE. Alternatively, ignore SIGPIPE.
When you receive the SIGPIPE, the connection behind newsockfd has been broken. We don't have enough code to reproduce the problem, client and server, so it's rather moot to say what might actually be wrong. However, converting SIGPIPEs to EPIPEs will at least give your server a chance to handle the broken connection.
Your stack trace indicates that the program is crashing with signal 13, which means you have a broken pipe.
That would indicate that your connection is broken, but you are still trying to write to it. See this thread for why that might causes the broken pipe error: What causes the Broken Pipe Error?
Now, on how to solve the issue, I suspect you're not actually getting a proper connection setup on your 'accept' call. Make sure you check the status of your 'accept' call before calling write.
The problems that are causing your accept call to fail are likely on the other side of the connection I think.

Reopen connected datagram socket

I have a connection protocol that has been defined by our customer. Data are sent between two linux computers using UDP and TCP protocols. The IP addresses and ports are fixed on startup.
We are sending messages at 200 Hz and I have been using connect to save some time on the transmissions.
My problem is that if there is a communication error, I need to tear down the connections and reinitialise.
I have a problem with one of the UDP connections as it will not rebind to the required address and returns errno 22.
The code I am using is something like:
int
doConnect(int& sock, int local_port, char *local_ip, int remote_port, char *remote_ip)
{
sock = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDP);
struct sockaddr_in addr;
memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(sockaddr_in);
addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
addr.sin_port = htons(local_port);
inet_pton(local_ip,&addr.sin_addr.s_addr);
if (0 > bind(sock, (struct sockaddr*)&addr, sizeof(addr)))
{
printf("Bind Error errno = %d\n", errno);
return ERR_BIND;
}
memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(sockaddr_in);
addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
addr.sin_port = htons(remote_port);
inet_pton(remote_ip,&addr.sin_addr.s_addr);
if (0 > connect(sock, (struct sockaddr*)&addr, sizeof(addr)))
{
printf("Connect Error errno = %d\n", errno);
return ERR_CONNECT;
}
return ERR_OK;
}
The way that this is used is like this:
int s1(-1), s2(-1);
doConnect(s1, 31003, "172.17.21.255", 31006, "172.17.21.1");
doConnect(s2, 31001, "172.17.21.3", 31004, "172.17.21.1");
When an error occurs
close(s1);
close(s2);
doConnect(s1, 31003, "172.17.21.255", 31006, "172.17.21.1");
doConnect(s2, 31001, "172.17.21.3", 31004, "172.17.21.1");
Here the local address is 172.17.21.3 and I am connecting to 172.17.21.1. s1 listens to a broadcast message.
s1 successfully reconnects to the remote machine, but s2 fails with error 22 from the call to bind.
I have tried explicitly calling bind and connect to an AF_UNSPEC address immediately before I close the socket. This doesn't solve the problem.
Are there any options that I should be using?
Perhaps you could try:
int val = 1;
setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &val, sizeof(val));
I also suggest you double check that you're not passing the same socket to the two consecutive doConnect() calls (as errno 22 = EINVAL, which in the case of bind() appears to mean that the socket is already bound to an address).
The underlying socket layer might hold the port & IP address still open, even after your call to close. Try some of the following:
do a sleep(10) (or more) between the close and the call to doConnect again
configure the sockets using setsockopt with the SO_LINGER set to off
This actually happens more commonly with TCP connections, but I see no reason UDP can't have this problem as well.