Boost::asio::async_read doesn't stop on condition - c++

I have some issue with boost::asio::async_read
Here's my code
void TCPConnection::listenForRead() {
boost::asio::async_read(m_socket,
boost::asio::buffer(m_inbound_data),
boost::asio::transfer_at_least(64),
boost::bind(&TCPConnection::handle_read,
shared_from_this(),
boost::asio::placeholders::error)
);
}
And Here's the handler :
void TCPConnection::handle_read(const boost::system::error_code& error) {
if (error) {
std::cout << "Error read: " << error.category().name() << " -- " << error.value() << std::endl;
} else {
std::string archive_data(&m_inbound_data[0], m_inbound_data.size());
std::cout << "Message received: " << archive_data << std::endl;
listenForRead();
}
}
With
std::vector<char> m_inbound_data;
I get an infinite loop on the console when a client connect:
"Message received: " //no trace of message
If i print the data length, it is always at 0.
I connect with : telnet localhost 4242
Anyone know why ? should it not wait for at least 64 char ?

Boost.Asio will never resize your buffer.
When you create a buffer from an std::vector<char>, the size of the buffer is the size of the vector.
If you don't give it a size, it will be a zero-length buffer.
The transfer_at_least functor returns true if either at least N bytes are in the buffer or the buffer is full. In the case of a zero length buffer, it's always full, so it always returns true.

To go along with dauphic's answer:
You may initialize a char array like you did:
char data[64]
Or if you still want to use a vector you can initialize the vector to a certain size:
std::vector<char> data(64)
or
std::vector<char> data;
data.resize(64);

Related

Boost::Asio::Read is not populating buffer

Here is my server class, which renders an async event to send a string to my client, when connected.
The message is definitely dispatched to the client, as the writehandler is invoked successfully without any errors:
class Server {
private:
void writeHandler(ServerConnection connection, const boost::system::error_code &error_code,
std::size_t bytes_transferred) {
if (!(error_code)) {
std::cout << "SENT "<<bytes_transferred <<" BYTES"<< std::endl;
}
}
void renderWriteEvent(ServerConnection connection, const std::string& str) {
std::cout << "RENDERING WRITE EVENT" << std::endl;
connection->write = str;
boost::asio::async_write(connection->socket, boost::asio::buffer(connection->write),
boost::bind(&Server::writeHandler, this, connection,
boost::asio::placeholders::error,
boost::asio::placeholders::bytes_transferred));
}
};
Now on the client side, after successfully connecting to the server, I call
void renderRead(){
std::cout<<"Available Bytes: "<<socket.available()<<std::endl;
std::string foo;
boost::system::error_code error_code;
std::size_t x = socket.read_some(boost::asio::buffer(foo), error_code);
std::cout<<error_code.message()<<std::endl;
std::cout<<"Bytes read: "<<x<<std::endl;
std::cout<<"Available Bytes: "<<socket.available()<<std::endl;
std::cout<<foo<<std::endl;
//boost::asio::async_read(socket, boost::asio::buffer(read_string), boost::bind(&Client::readHandler, this, boost::asio::placeholders::error, boost::asio::placeholders::bytes_transferred));
}
which outputs "Available Bytes: 12"
Then, in calling boost::asio::read, I get 0 bytes read, and no error. I don't understand what's wrong. After the read, the number of bytes available for reading in the socket stream is still printed to be 12
A key point here is that read_some() doesn't allocate any memory, it fills memory that is provided to it. For your code, this means ASIO will only replace the data already existing inside of foo, and it will never exceed these bounds.
But you have std::string foo;, which is a default-constructed string, aka an empty string.
So ASIO is populating the buffer you are passing just fine. However, you are passing it a buffer with no room in it. ASIO fills it as much as possible: 0 bytes.
You can test this for yourself by adding the following to your code:
std::string foo;
std::cout << "Available room in buffer: "<< foo.size() << std::endl;
The fix would be to pass a buffer with memory already allocated. You could initialize the string with a length, but using a raw block of bytes that you interpret later as a string_view is more explicit.
constexpr std::size_t buffer_size = 32;
std::array<char, buffer_size> foo;
std::size_t x = socket.read_some(boost::asio::buffer(foo), error_code);
//...
std::string_view message(foo.data(), x);
std::cout << message << std::endl;

C/C++ recv hangs altough local server sends data

I am having a hard time figuring out a bug in my TCP client-server app. The problem I am facing: in my recv function do-while loop, if the condition is bytes > 0, the function hangs forever. Replacing that with bytes == NMAX, everything works fine, UNLESS NMAX is equal to 1. A few side notes: doing a single send-recv works fine, but trying to do a send-recv and then recv-send hangs forever. NMAX is a constant set to 4096 by default. Server is ran first, then the client.
This is my send function:
ssize_t sendData(const std::string data, int fd)
{
ssize_t total = data.length(), bytes, sent = 0;
do
{
ssize_t chunk = total > NMAX ? NMAX : total;
bytes = send(fd, data.c_str() + sent, chunk, 0);
if (bytes == -1)
{
throw std::system_error(errno, std::generic_category(), "Error sending data");
}
total -= bytes;
sent += bytes;
} while (total > 0);
return sent;
}
This is my recv function:
std::string recvData(int fd)
{
ssize_t bytes;
std::string buffer;
do
{
std::vector<char> data(NMAX, 0);
bytes = recv(fd, &data[0], NMAX, 0);
if (bytes == -1)
{
throw std::system_error(errno, std::generic_category(), "Error receiving data");
}
buffer.append(data.cbegin(), data.cend());
} while (bytes > 0); // Replacing with bytes == NMAX partially fixes the issue, why?
return buffer;
}
This is the client's main function:
std::cout << "Sent " << sendData(data) << " bytes\n";
std::cout << "Received: " << recvData() << "\n";
And this is the server's main function:
std::cout << "Received: " << recvData(client) << "\n";
std::cout << "Sent " << sendData("Hello from the server side!", client) << " bytes\n";
The problem with your program is that the receiving side does not know how many bytes to receive in total. Therefore it will just endlessly try to read more bytes.
The reason why it "hangs" is that you perform a blocking system call (recv) which will only unblock if at least 1 more byte had been received. However since the peer does not send more data this will never happen.
To fix the issue you need to have a proper wire-format for your data which indicates how big the transmitted data is, or where it starts and ends. A common way to do this is to prefix data with it's length in binary form (e.g. a 32bit unsigned int in big endian format). Another way is to have indicators inside the data that indicate it's end (e.g. the \r\n\r\n line breaks in HTTP).
Btw: Your send function is not ideal for cases where data.length() == 0. In this case you perform a send system call with 0 bytes - which is rather unnecessary.

Asio two way communication with peristence socket

I have this requirement where my app have to connect to another app via sockets and will have to maintain persistent connection for quiet long time. My app will be a TCP client and the other is a TCP server. My app will send commands and the server will respond accordingly.
The problem am facing right now is how to read the whole data from server a string and return for app which will issue the next command. Reading synchronously (with asio::read) looked like a good option up until I observed socket hanging up until I terminate the server. Looking at the documentation I found that the library is correctly working.
his function is used to read a certain number of bytes of data from a stream. The call will block until one of the following conditions is true:
1. The supplied buffers are full. That is, the bytes transferred is equal to the sum of the buffer sizes.
2. An error occurred.
The problem is I don't know correct buffer size as the response from the server varies. So If I put a too small buffer it returns fine but missing some data. If I put too big it will hang forever until server quits.
So I thought I would do the async reading. It works only once and I don't know how to make it fetch data until whole data it read.
here is the relevant async code
#define ASIO_STANDALONE 1
#include <iostream>
#include <asio.hpp>
int main()
{
asio::io_context context;
size_t reply_length;
size_t length = 1024;
std::vector<char> buffer;
//create socket
asio::ip::tcp::socket socket(context);
socket.connect(asio::ip::tcp::endpoint(asio::ip::address::from_string("127.0.0.1"), 8088));
std::string dataOut = "list --files"; //some command to write
std::error_code error;
asio::write(socket, asio::buffer(dataOut), error);
if (!error)
{
std::cout << "Receiving...!" << std::endl;
buffer.resize(length);
asio::async_read(socket, asio::buffer(buffer), [&buffer, &context](const asio::error_code &ec, std::size_t bytes_transferred) {
std::copy(buffer.begin(), buffer.end(), std::ostream_iterator<char>(std::cout, ""));
std::cout << "\nRead total of:" << bytes_transferred << "\n";
context.run();
});
}
else
{
std::cout << "send failed: " << error.message() << std::endl;
}
context.run();
}
Searching didn't help much solving my issue.
So my question is, how can I read all the data in a persistent socket with asio? Am not using boost.
You need to loop async_read calls. If you don't want your client to hang on read operation you can define the smallest possible buffer i.e. 1 byte.
Define function which takes socket, buffer and two additional parameters according to async_read's handler signature, and this function calls itself with async_read to make the loop of async_read calls - it reads until some error occures:
void onRead (
asio::ip::tcp::socket& socket,
std::array<char,1>& buf,
const system::error_code& ec,
std::size_t bytes)
{
if (ec)
{
if (ec == asio::error::eof && bytes == 1)
std::cout << buf[0];
return;
}
std::cout << buf[0];
asio::async_read(socket,asio::buffer(buf),
std::bind(onRead, std::ref(socket), std::ref(buf),
std::placeholders::_1, // error code
std::placeholders::_2)); // transferred bytes
}
and the changes in main:
std::array<char,1> buf;
asio::write(socket, asio::buffer(dataOut), error);
if (!error)
{
std::cout << "Receiving...!" << std::endl;
asio::async_read(socket, asio::buffer(buf),
std::bind(onRead, std::ref(socket), std::ref(buf),
std::placeholders::_1,
std::placeholders::_2));
context.run();
}
else
{
std::cout << "send failed: " << error.message() << std::endl;
}
(I am using Boost, so you should replace system::error_code on asio::error_code).

C++ , return string from function; boost::asio read / write

I get a compile error, additionally I cannot boost::asio::read buf without giving it array elements.
std::string eport::read_data (void)
{
io_service io; // create the I/O service that talks to the serial device
serial_port port (io, PORT); // create the serial device, note it takes the io service and the port name
error_code ec; // address used for error checking
std::string buf [100]; // data with crc on end
try
{
read (port, buffer (buf), ec);
std::cout << "eport::read: result: " << buf << std::endl;
}
catch (error_code &ec)
{
std::cout << "eport::read: ERROR: " << ec << std::endl;
return "error";
}
std::cout << "eport::read: SUCCESS" << std::endl;
return buf;
The error:
eport.cc:83:9: error: could not convert ‘(std::string*)(& buf)’ from ‘std::string* {aka std::basic_string<char>*}’ to ‘std::string {aka std::basic_string<char>}’
Does the function need to be cast as const char* ? I am not sure what is wrong. Any help is appreciated, thank you.
UPDATED CODE
This is my code. I hope it can help someone because asio lacks good examples on the web. I know my write function could be written better, and this code has not been tested so I'm not sure if I'm doing this right or not. Thanks.
#include "../include/main.H"
#include <boost/asio.hpp> // asynchronous input/output
#include <boost/crc.hpp> // cyclic redundancy code (for data checking)
using namespace::boost::system;
using namespace::boost::asio;
const char *PORT = "/dev/ttyS0";
// serial port communication setup
serial_port_base::baud_rate BAUD (9600); // what baud rate do we communicate at (default is 9600)
serial_port_base::character_size C_SIZE (8); // how big is each "packet" of data (default is 8 bits)
serial_port_base::flow_control FLOW (serial_port_base::flow_control::none); // what flow control is used (default is none)
serial_port_base::parity PARITY (serial_port_base::parity::none); // what parity is used (default is none)
serial_port_base::stop_bits STOP (serial_port_base::stop_bits::one); // how many stop bits are used (default is one)
int eport::initialize (void)
{
io_service io; // create the I/O service that talks to the serial device
serial_port port (io, PORT); // create the serial device, note it takes the io service and the port name
// set serial port options
port.set_option (BAUD);
port.set_option (C_SIZE);
port.set_option (FLOW);
port.set_option (PARITY);
port.set_option (STOP);
return 0;
}
int eport::write_data (std::string data)
{
io_service io; // create the I/O service that talks to the serial device
serial_port port (io, PORT); // create the serial device, note it takes the io service and the port name
error_code ec; // address used for error checking
boost::crc_32_type crcresult; // used for communication checking
char buf [1024]; // buffer to hold data
int crc; // holds crc value
std::ostringstream convert; // used to convert int to string
std::string data_crc; // data with crc on end
std::stringstream ss; // used to add strings
strncpy (buf, data.c_str(), sizeof(buf)); // put data into buffer
buf [sizeof(buf) - 1] = 0; // make sure the last element has a null
crcresult.process_bytes (buf, sizeof(buf)); // get crc value from buffer contents
crc = crcresult.checksum(); // put crc value into integer
convert << crc; // convert integer to string
ss << data << convert.str (); // add crc string to data string
data_crc = ss.str (); // data string with crc appended to be used in reading / writing
std::cout << "eport::write: data with crc: " << data_crc << std::endl;
std::cout << "eport::write: writing: " << data_crc << std::endl;
write (port, buffer (data_crc, sizeof(data_crc)), ec); // write data with crc to serial device
if (ec) // if error code is true, print and return
{
std::cout << "eport::write: ERROR: " << ec << std::endl;
return -1;
}
std::cout << "eport::write: SUCCESS" << std::endl;
return crc;
}
std::string eport::read_data (void)
{
io_service io; // create the I/O service that talks to the serial device
serial_port port (io, PORT); // create the serial device, note it takes the io service and the port name
error_code ec; // address used for error checking
streambuf sb; // asio stream buffer to hold read data
std::string buf; // read buffer will be put into this string
size_t transferred = read (port, sb, ec); // read data from serial device
buf.resize (transferred); // resize the string to the read data size
sb.sgetn (&buf[0], buf.size ()); // stores characters from the stream to the array
std::cout << "eport::read: result: " << buf << std::endl;
if (ec)
{
std::cout << "eport::read: ERROR: " << ec << std::endl;
return "error";
}
std::cout << "eport::read: SUCCESS" << std::endl;
return buf;
}
The most generic way would be use a asio::streambuf
streambuf sb;
size_t transferred = read (port, sb, ec);
According to the docs:
This function is used to read a certain number of bytes of data from a stream. The call will block until one of the following conditions is true:
The supplied buffer is full (that is, it has reached maximum size).
An error occurred.
This operation is implemented in terms of zero or more calls to the stream's read_some function.
Then, copy it to a string:
std::string buf;
buf.resize(transferred);
sb.sgetn(&buf[0], buf.size());
Alternatively, preallocate a buffer of the expected size:
std::string buf(100u, '\0');
size_t transferred = read (port, buffer(buf), ec);
buf.resize(transferred);
For more complicated scenarios, use read_until:
streambuf sb;
size_t transferred = read_until(port, sb, "\r\n", ec);
This will read until "\r\n" was encountered (note: may read more than that, but won't invoke read_some again after seeing the delimiter).
Even more complicated stop conditions could use the overload that takes a MatchCondition functor.
Note on exception handling
If you pass ec to receive the error_code there will be no exceptions thrown
buf is an array of std::string. You should change your prototype or return just one string. buf[0] for example.
Most possibly what you want is:
std::string buf; // No [100]
There are issues with your code that you will need to answer, more specifically, how do you know the number of characters that will be sent to your read function?
However, the general answer to your question is to use a character array, and then return this as the std::string:
std::string eport::read_data (void)
{
io_service io; // create the I/O service that talks to the serial device
serial_port port (io, PORT); // create the serial device, note it takes the io service and the port name
error_code ec; // address used for error checking
char buf [100]; // data with crc on end
try
{
read (port, buf, ec);
std::cout << "eport::read: result: " << buf << std::endl;
}
catch (error_code &ec)
{
std::cout << "eport::read: ERROR: " << ec << std::endl;
return "error";
}
std::cout << "eport::read: SUCCESS" << std::endl;
return buf;
}
The std::string constructor will take care of copying the buf at the end to a std::string.
Now, if there is a way to determine the number of characters read, then the function has to be written differently. Most read functions have a parameter specifying the maximum number of characters to read, and somewhere it is returned the number of characters that are read.
Assuming you could rewrite (or call) a different read function that has both of these properties, the code would look like this:
std::string eport::read_data (void)
{
io_service io; // create the I/O service that talks to the serial device
serial_port port (io, PORT); // create the serial device, note it takes the io service and the port name
error_code ec; // address used for error checking
char buf [100]; // data with crc on end
int numCharsRead = 0;
try
{
numCharsRead = read2 (port, buf, 100, ec);
std::cout << "eport::read: result: " << buf << std::endl;
}
catch (error_code &ec)
{
std::cout << "eport::read: ERROR: " << ec << std::endl;
return "error";
}
std::cout << "eport::read: SUCCESS" << std::endl;
return std::string(buf, numCharsRead);
}
Note the difference in the return. A std::string is constructed from the character array, but only up to numCharsRead characters.

Google::protobuf + boost::asio failure

I have studied the existing examples:
Sending Protobuf Messages with boost::asio
Reading Protobuf objects using boost::asio::read_async
Google Protocol Buffers: parseDelimitedFrom and writeDelimitedTo for C++
Are there C++ equivalents for the Protocol Buffers delimited I/O functions in Java?
Sending Protobuf Messages with boost::asio
but I still can not figure out how to pass Google Protobuf messages using the Boost::asio API. In particular I have no clear understanding of the following problems:
Interaction between boost::asio::streambuf and google::protobuf::io objects (and the necessity of the applying of the last ones)
Correct implementation of the message streaming (due to the lack of writeDelimitedTo and parseDelimitedFrom methods in C++ API)
Here is my implementation based on boost::asio v. 1.39 ssl_client from examples.
class client
{
public:
client(boost::asio::io_service& io_service, boost::asio::ssl::context& context,
boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator endpoint_iterator)
: socket_(io_service, context),
request_stream(&b),
raw_output(&request_stream),
coded_output(&raw_output)
{
...
}
void handle_connect(const boost::system::error_code& error,
boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator endpoint_iterator)
{
...
}
//Debugging function
void print_buffers_condition(const char *step)
{
std::cout << "\nBuffer conditions after " << step << std::endl;
std::cout << "boost::asio::streambuf\t\tb: " << b.size() << std::endl;
std::cout << "google::protobuf::io::OstreamOutputStream raw_output: " << raw_output.ByteCount() << std::endl;
std::cout << "google::protobuf::io::CodedOutputStream coded_output: " << coded_output.ByteCount() << std::endl;
std::cout << std::endl;
}
//Sending test message after SSL Handshake
void handle_handshake(const boost::system::error_code& error)
{
std::cout << "-----------------------------SENDING-----------------------------" << std::endl;
print_buffers_condition("handle handshake");
if (!error)
{
SearchRequest msg;
msg.set_query("qwerty");
msg.set_code(12345);
std::cout << "Debugged" << std::endl;
msg.PrintDebugString();
//Writing the length of the message before and serializing
print_buffers_condition("before serialising");
coded_output.WriteVarint32(msg.ByteSize());
if (!msg.SerializeToCodedStream(&coded_output))
{
std::cout << "serailizing error" << std::endl;
}
else
{
std::cout << "serializing success" << std::endl;
}
//Sending
buffers_condition("before async write");
boost::asio::async_write(socket_,
b,
boost::bind(&client::handle_write, this, boost::asio::placeholders::error, boost::asio::placeholders::bytes_transferred));
buffers_condition("after async write");
}
else
{
std::cout << "Handshake failed: " << error << "\n";
}
}
void handle_write(const boost::system::error_code& error,
size_t bytes_transferred)
{
std::cout << " bytes_trransferred: " << bytes_transferred << std::endl;
if (!error)
{
std::cout << "No error" << std::endl;
...
}
else
{
std::cout << "Write failed: " << error << "\n";
}
}
void handle_read(const boost::system::error_code& error,
size_t bytes_transferred)
{
...
}
private:
boost::asio::ssl::stream<boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket> socket_;
boost::asio::streambuf b;
std::ostream request_stream;
google::protobuf::io::OstreamOutputStream raw_output;
google::protobuf::io::CodedOutputStream coded_output;
};
This code is operational, so after creating the message we fall into the void handle_write(const boost::system::error_code& error, size_t bytes_transferred) function. Printing the bytes_transferred_ value returns 0: server (implemented on the base of examples too) recieves nothing.
The usage of the debugging function void print_buffers_condition(const char *step) hints at loss of message during its transmission through a stack of different buffering objects:
$ ./client 127.0.0.1 5000
-----------------------------SENDING-----------------------------
Buffer conditions after handle handshake
boost::asio::streambuf b: 0
google::protobuf::io::OstreamOutputStream raw_output: 8192
google::protobuf::io::CodedOutputStream coded_output: 0
Debugged:
query: "qwerty"
code: 12345
Buffer conditions after before serialization
boost::asio::streambuf b: 0
google::protobuf::io::OstreamOutputStream raw_output: 8192
google::protobuf::io::CodedOutputStream coded_output: 0
serializing success
Buffer conditions after before async write
boost::asio::streambuf b: 0
google::protobuf::io::OstreamOutputStream raw_output: 8192
google::protobuf::io::CodedOutputStream coded_output: 13
Buffer conditions after after async write
boost::asio::streambuf b: 0
google::protobuf::io::OstreamOutputStream raw_output: 8192
google::protobuf::io::CodedOutputStream coded_output: 13
bytes_trransferred: 0
I have no idea how to do it in a proper way.
OS is RHEL 6.4.
Thank you.
I'm not familiar with asio, but it looks to me like the problem is that you aren't flushing your buffers. The data is stuck in CodedOutputStream and never finds its way into asio.
CodedOutputStream should be allocated on the stack, such that it is destroyed as soon as you're done writing the message. The destructor will flush the buffer. Note that CodedOutputStream is cheap to allocate so there's no performance problem with putting it on the stack (in fact, it's probably better that way).
OstreamOutputStream can similarly be allocated on the stack, but it heap-allocates a buffer which you might want to reuse. If you choose to reuse the same object, make sure to call Flush() to flush the buffer after the CodedOutputStream is destroyed.
Incidentally, OstreamOutputStream is not particularly efficient, because it has to do its own layer of buffering on top of what ostream is already doing. You may want to serialize to a string (str = message.SerializeAsString() or message.SerializeToString(&str)) and then write that directly to the socket (if asio allows this), as it will probably avoid a redundant copy.