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Network Programming – MC9241

UNIT III - APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

TCP Echo Server – TCP Echo Client – Posix Signal handling – Server with multiple clients –
boundary conditions: Server process Crashes, Server host Crashes, Server Crashes and
reboots, Server Shutdown – I/O multiplexing – I/O Models – select function – shutdown
function – TCP echo Server (with multiplexing) – poll function – TCP echo Client (with
Multiplexing).

TCP Echo Server

1. The Client reads a line of text from its standard input and writes the line to the server.
2. The server reads the line from its network input and echoes the line back to the client.
3. The client reads the echoed line and prints it on its standard output.

voidstr_echo(intsockfd)
{
ssize_t n;

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char line[MAXLINE];
for ( ; ; ) {
if ( (n = Readline(sockfd, line, MAXLINE)) == 0)
return; /* connection closed by other end */
Writen(sockfd, line, n);
}
}

TCP Echo Client

}
voidstr_cli(FILE *fp, intsockfd)
{
char sendline[MAXLINE], recvline[MAXLINE];
while (Fgets(sendline, MAXLINE, fp) != NULL) {
Writen(sockfd, sendline, strlen(sendline));
if (Readline(sockfd, recvline, MAXLINE) == 0)
err_quit("str_cli: server terminated
prematurely");
Fputs(recvline, stdout);
}
}

Posix Signal Handling

• Signal (software interrupt): sent by one process to another process (or to itself) or by
the kernel to a process

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• SIGCHLD: by the kernel to the parent

• Disposition of a signal:
– catch the signal by a specified signal handler
– SIG_IGN: ignore it
– SIG_DFL: default: terminate or ignore
• To enable automatic restart of an interrupted system call by the kernel -- write our own
signal function.
Sigfunc *Signal(int signo, Sigfunc *func) /* for our signal() function */
{
Sigfunc *sigfunc;
if ( (sigfunc = signal(signo, func)) == SIG_ERR)
err_sys("signal error");
return(sigfunc);
}

POSIX signal semantics:

1. Once a signal handler is installed, it remains installed.
2. The signal being delivered is blocked while a signal handler is executing.
3. By default, signals are not queued.

Boundary Conditions

I) Crashing of Server Process

Procedure:
1. Server TCP sends FIN to client TCP, which responds with an ACK.
(TCP half-close)
(The client process is blocked in fgets when client TCP receives FIN.)
2. SIGCHLD signal is sent to the server parent.
3. The client process calls writen to send data to server.
4. The server TCP responds with an RST.
5. The client process returns from readline, 0, when client TCP receives RST.
6. The client process terminates.
Problem:
The client should be aware of server process crash when FIN is received.
Solution:
Use select or poll to block on either socket or stdio.

II) SIGPIPE Signal

(when writing to a socket that has received an RST )
Procedure:

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1. The client writes to a crashed server process. An RST is received

at the client TCP and readline returns 0 (EOF).
2. If the client ignores the error returned from readline and write more,
SIGPIPE is sent to the client process.
3. If SIGPIPE is not caught, the client terminates with no output.
Problem:
Nothing is output even by the shell to indicate what has happened.
(Have to use “echo $?” to examine the shell’s return value of last command.)
Solution:
Catch the SIGPIPE signal for further processing. The write operation
returns EPIPE.

III) Crash, Reboot, Shutdown of Server Host

• Crash of server host:
– client TCP continuously retx data and timeout around 9 min
– readline returns ETIMEDOUT or EHOSTUNREACH
– To quickly detect: timeout on readline, SO_KEEPALIVE socket option,
heartbeat functions
• Reboot of server host:
– After reboot, server TCP responds to client data with an RST
– readline returns ECONNRESET
• Shutdown (by operator) of server host:
– init process sends SIGTERM to all processes
– init waits 5-20 sec and sends SIGKILL to all processes

I/O Multiplexing

Scenarios for I/O Multiplexing

• client is handling multiple descriptors (interactive input and a network socket).
• Client to handle multiple sockets (rare)
• TCP server handles both a listening socket and its connected socket.
• Server handle both TCP and UDP.
• Server handles multiple services and multiple protocols

I/O Models

Models
 Blocking I/O

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 Nonblocking I/O
 I/O multiplexing(select and poll)
 Signal driven I/O (SIGIO)
 Asynchronous I/O

Two distinct phases for an input operation

 Waiting for the data to be ready (for a socket, wait for the data to arrive on
the network, then copy into a buffer within the kernel)
 Copying the data from the kernel to the process (from kernel buffer into
application buffer)
1) Blocking I/O

2) Nonblocking I/O

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3) I/O multiplexing(select and poll)

4) Signal driven I/O (SIGIO)

5) Asynchronous I/O

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Comparison of the I/O Models

Synchronous I/O , Asynchronous I/O

• Synchronous I/O

 causes the requesting process to be blocked until that I/O operation

(recvfrom) completes. (blocking, nonblocking, I/O multiplexing, signal-
driven I/O)

• Asynchronous I/O

 does not cause the requesting process to be blocked

Select Function

• Allows the process to instruct the kernel to wait for any one of multiple events to
occur and to wake up the process only when one or more of these events occurs or
when a specified amount of time has passed.

• What descriptors we are interested in (readable ,writable , or exception condition)

and how long to wait?

#include <sys/select.h>
#include <sys/time.h>

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int select (int maxfdp1, fd_set *readset, fd_set *writeset, fd_set *exceptset, const
struct timeval *);
//Returns: +ve count of ready descriptors, 0 on timeout, -1 on error
struct timeval{
long tv_sec; /* seconds */
long tv_usec; /* microseconds */ }

Possibilities for select function

• Wait forever : return only when descriptor (s) is ready (specify timeout argument
as NULL)
• wait up to a fixed amount of time
• Do not wait at all : return immediately after checking the descriptors. Polling
(specify timeout argument as pointing to a timeval structure where the timer value
is 0)
• The wait is normally interrupted if the process catches a signal and returns from the
signal handler
 select might return an error of EINTR
 Actual return value from function = -1
select function Descriptor Arguments
• readset  descriptors for checking readable
• writeset  descriptors for checking writable
• exceptset  descriptors for checking exception conditions (2 exception conditions)
 arrival of out of band data for a socket
 the presence of control status information to be read from the master
side of a pseudo terminal (Ignore)
• If you pass the 3 arguments as NULL, you have a high precision timer than the sleep
function.
maxfdp1 argument to select function

• specifies the number of descriptors to be tested.

• Its value is the maximum descriptor to be tested, plus one. (hence maxfdp1)
 Descriptors 0, 1, 2, up through and including maxfdp1-1 are tested
 example: interested in fds 1,2, and 5  maxfdp1 = 6
 Your code has to calculate the maxfdp1 value
• constant FD_SETSIZE defined by including <sys/select.h>
 is the number of descriptors in the fd_set datatype. (often = 1024)

Condition for a socket to be ready for select

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str_cli Function revisited

• Problems with earlier version
 could be blocked in the call to fgets when something happened on the socket
 We need to be notified as soon s the server process terminates
• Alternatively
 block in a call to select instead, waiting for either standard input or the socket to
be readable.
Condition handled by select in str_cli

Shutdown Function

• Close one half of the TCP connection

 send FIN to server, but leave the socket descriptor open for reading
• Limitations with close function
 decrements the descriptor’s reference count and closes the socket only if the
count reaches 0
 With shutdown, can initiate TCP normal connection termination
regardless of the reference count

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 terminates both directions (reading and writing)

 With shutdown, we can tell other end that we are done sending,
although that end might have more data to send us

•
#include<sys/socket.h>
int shutdown ( int sockfd, int howto );
/* return : 0 if OK, -1 on error */
howto argument
 SHUT_RD
 read-half of the connection closed
 Any data in receive buffer is discarded
 Any data received after this call is ACKed and then discarded
 SHUT_WR
 write-half of the connection closed (half-close)
 Data in socket send buffer sent, followed by connection termination
 SHUT_RDWR - both closed

Poll Function

poll
Provides functionality similar to select, but poll provides additional information
when dealing with stream devices.
#include <poll.h>
int poll(struct pollfd fds[], nfds_t nfds, int timeout);

Description
The poll() function provides applications with a mechanism for multiplexing input/output
over a set of file descriptors. For each member of the array pointed to by fds, poll() shall

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examine the given file descriptor for the event(s) specified in events. The number of pollfd
structures in the fds array is specified by nfds. The poll() function shall identify those file
descriptors on which an application can read or write data, or on which certain events have
occurred.
The fds argument specifies the file descriptors to be examined and the events of interest for
each file descriptor. It is a pointer to an array with one member for each open file
descriptor of interest. The array's members are pollfd structures within which fd specifies
an open file descriptor and events and revents are bitmasks constructed by OR'ing a
combination of the following event flags:

POLLIN
Data other than high-priority data may be read without blocking. For STREAMS, this
flag is set in revents even if the message is of zero length. This flag shall be
equivalent to POLLRDNORM | POLLRDBAND.

POLLRDNORM
Normal data may be read without blocking.For STREAMS, data on priority band 0
may be read without blocking. This flag is set in revents even if the message is of
zero length.
POLLRDBAND
Priority data may be read without blocking.For STREAMS, data on priority bands
greater than 0 may be read without blocking. This flag is set in revents even if the
message is of zero length.
POLLPRI
High-priority data may be read without blocking.For STREAMS, this flag is set in
revents even if the message is of zero length.
POLLOUT
Normal data may be written without blocking.For STREAMS, data on priority band 0
may be written without blocking.
POLLWRNORM
Equivalent to POLLOUT.
POLLWRBAND
Priority data may be written.For STREAMS, data on priority bands greater than 0
may be written without blocking. If any priority band has been written to on this
STREAM, this event only examines bands that have been written to at least once.
POLLERR
An error has occurred on the device or stream. This flag is only valid in the revents
bitmask; it shall be ignored in the events member.

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POLLHUP
The device has been disconnected. This event and POLLOUT are mutually-exclusive;
a stream can never be writable if a hangup has occurred. However, this event and
POLLIN, POLLRDNORM, POLLRDBAND, or POLLPRI are not mutually-exclusive. This
flag is only valid in the revents bitmask; it shall be ignored in the events member.
POLLNVAL
The specified fd value is invalid. This flag is only valid in the revents member; it shall
ignored in the events member.

TCP Echo Server with multiplexing

TCP echo server using select

• Rewrite the server as a single process that uses select to handle any number of clients,
instead of forking one child per client.
• Before first client has established a connection

TCP and UDP echo server using select

• Combine concurrent TCP echo server with iterative UDP server into a single server that
uses select to multiplex a TCP and UDP socket
• Source code in udpcliserv/udpservselect01.c
• Source code for sig_chld function (signal handler) is in udpcliserv/sigchldpidwait.c
 Handles termination of a child TCP server

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