Opening read/write streams multiple times from a Socket

Question

In a class where I have ServerSocket listening for incoming connections, following is the code:

while(isRunning)
{
    try
    {
        Socket s = mysocketserver.accept();
        acknowledgeClient(s);
        new ClientHandler(s).start(); //Start new thread to serve the client, and get back to accept new connections.
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

And following is acknowledgeClient(Socket s) code.

ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(s.getInputStream);
ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(s.getOutStream);
String msg = in.readObject().toString();
System.out.println(msg+" is Connected"); //Show who's connected
out.writeObject("success"); //Respond with success.
in.close();
out.close();

The run() method of the ClientHandler.

try
{
    in = new ObjectInputStream(client.getInputStream());
    out = new ObjectOutputstream(client.getOutputStream());
    String msg = "";
    while(!msg.equalsIgnoreCase("bye"))
    {
        msg = in.readObject().toString();
        System.out.println("Client Says - "+msg);
        out.writeObject("success");
    }
    in.close();
    out.close();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
    ex.printStackTrace();
}

And following is the way how client program communicates with this Echo Server.

try
{
    int count = 10;
    client = new Socket("localhost",8666);
    in = new ObjectInputStream(client.getInputStream());
    out = new ObjectOutputstream(client.getOutputStream());
    out.writeObject("Foo");
    System.out.println("Connection Status : "+in.readObject().toString());
    while(count>0)
    {
        out.writeObject("Hello!");
        String resp = in.readObject().toString(); //Getting EOFException here.
        System.out.println("Sent with :"+resp);
        count--;
        Thread.sleep(1000);
    }
    out.close();
    in.close();
    client.close();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
    ex.printStackTrace();
}

As you might have noticed that, after the client is acknowledged after connection, I close the read/write streams, and from new thread which is serving the client, I'm opening the stream again, and from the server reading/writing from the connected socket is started, but as soon as I attempt to read server's response on sending Hello! by client, it crashes with EOFException instead of getting success.

I know the causes for which EOF occurs but not getting the clue that why is it happening here, I'm not attempting to read socket that has nothing in its stream (it should have success as written by server).

Is it too early that client is attempting to read socket before server has printed Hello! on its end and written success as response?

P.S. : I know its not a good way to ask question by putting so much code, we're expected here to get answers of the issue and understand it rather than having our problem fixed by others and get away. So, I've provided this much code to show all aspects from the problem.

Answer 1

Closing any input stream or output stream or reader or writer around a socket stream closes the socket, and by implication the other streams, readers, and writers.

Use the same streams, readers, writers for the life of the socket.

Answer 2

I studied the source code of ObjectInputStream, and it appears that the reference to the original input stream s.getInputStream() is stored inside the ObjectInputStream.

When you close the ObjectInputStream, s.getInputStream() is closed as well.

Once an input stream is closed, it cannot be opened again. Thus, you get an EOFException, which indicates that you are at the end of the stream (since the stream could not be opened again).

You should do something like this to acknowledge the client.

Inside the run() method of the ClientHandler:

try {
    // acknowledge client
    ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(s.getInputStream());
    ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(s.getOutStream());
    String msg = in.readObject().toString();
    System.out.println(msg+" is Connected"); //Show who's connected
    out.writeObject("success"); //Respond with success.
    // end acknowledge client

    String msg = "";
    while(!msg.equalsIgnoreCase("bye"))
    {
        msg = in.readObject().toString();
        System.out.println("Client Says - "+msg);
        out.writeObject("success");
    }
    in.close();
    out.close();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
    ex.printStackTrace();
}

If you want to isolate the acknowledge code in a seperate method, just be sure to maintain a proper reference to the same ObjectInputStream without closing the stream, then pass the reference around.

Answer 3

Well take a look at this program, i wrote it to understand multiple clients and server communication, your question is answered in this program.

The Client side code

public class ClientWala {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{

        Boolean b = true;
    Socket s = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 4444);

    System.out.println("connected: "+s.isConnected());


    OutputStream output = s.getOutputStream();
    PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(output,true);

    // to write data to server
    while(b){

        if (!b){

             System.exit(0);
        }

        else {
            pw.write(new Scanner(System.in).nextLine());
        }
    }


    // to read data from server
    InputStream input   = s.getInputStream();
    InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(input);
    BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
    String data = null;

    while ((data = br.readLine())!=null){

        // Print it using sysout, or do whatever you want with the incoming data from server

    }




    }
}

Server Side code

public class ServerTest {

    ServerSocket s;

    public void go() {

        try {
            s = new ServerSocket(44457);

            while (true) {

                Socket incoming = s.accept();
                Thread t = new Thread(new MyCon(incoming));
                t.start();
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {

            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }

    class MyCon implements Runnable {

        Socket incoming;

        public MyCon(Socket incoming) {

            this.incoming = incoming;
        }

        @Override
        public void run() {

            try {
                PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(incoming.getOutputStream(),
                        true);
                InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(
                        incoming.getInputStream());
                BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
                String inp = null;

                boolean isDone = true;

                System.out.println("TYPE : BYE");
                System.out.println();
                while (isDone && ((inp = br.readLine()) != null)) {

                    System.out.println(inp);
                    if (inp.trim().equals("BYE")) {
                        System.out
                                .println("THANKS FOR CONNECTING...Bye for now");
                        isDone = false;
                        s.close();
                    }

                }
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                try {
                    s.close();
                } catch (IOException e1) {
                    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                    e1.printStackTrace();
                }
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

        }

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        new ServerTest().go();

    }

}

Answer 4

I'm opening the stream again, and from the server reading/writing from the connected socket is started,

Once a stream is close, you can't open it again. In fact you can't use two Object stream on the same stream this way at all.

Instead you should create an object stream for input and output once and only once and not close it until you have finished.