boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket doesn't read anything

Question

This is actually my first program in socket programming other than copy-pasting the tutorial code and having fun. Anyway it does not work. I think I have carefully read the documentation but maybe it wasn't enough. I'm suspecting my use of socket::read_some() in read_message() since my problematic program stops at the reading part. I thought the way I used it should be okay because the documentation of socket::read_some() stated that "the function call will block until one or more bytes of data has been read successfully, or until an error occurs." Below is my code. Any help appreciated.

void read_message(std::string& message, boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket& socket)
{
    std::stringstream message_stream;
    while (true)
    {
        std::array<char, 128> buffer;
        boost::system::error_code error;
        size_t len = socket.read_some(boost::asio::buffer(buffer), error);
        if (error == boost::asio::error::eof)
        {
            break;
        }
        message_stream.write(buffer.data(), len);
    }
    message = message_stream.str();
}

server.cpp

int main()
{
    while (true)
    {
        boost::asio::io_service io_service;
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::acceptor acceptor(io_service, boost::asio::ip::tcp::endpoint(
            boost::asio::ip::tcp::v4(), 9999));
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket socket(io_service);
        acceptor.accept(socket);
        std::cout << "connected with client, waiting for a message\n";
        std::string message;
        read_message(message, socket);
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::endpoint endpoint = socket.remote_endpoint();
        std::cout << "message received from " << endpoint.address().to_string() <<
            ':' << endpoint.port() << '\n' << message << '\n';
        boost::asio::write(socket, boost::asio::buffer(message));
        if (message.compare("quit") == 0)
        {
            break;
        }
    }
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

client.cpp

int main()
{
    while (true)
    {
        std::cout << "your message to be sent: ";
        std::string message;
        std::getline(std::cin, message);
        boost::asio::io_service io_service;
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver resolver(io_service);
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::query query("localhost", "9999");
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator endpoint_iterator = resolver.resolve(query);
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket socket(io_service);
        boost::asio::connect(socket, endpoint_iterator);
        std::cout << "connected to server\n";
        boost::asio::write(socket, boost::asio::buffer(message));
        read_message(message, socket);
        std::cout << "message received from server: " << message << '\n';
        if (message.compare("quit") == 0)
        {
            break;
        }
    }
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Answer 1

The problem is in read_message function: you read until eof, but you'll get eof only when the socket gets closed.

Perhaps you meant to return from read_message when some delimiter is encountered, eg. '\n'? Then you can either inspect the buffer manually, or use read_until function.

Using read_until function, read_message would look like this:

void read_message(std::string& message, boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket& socket)
{
  std::stringstream message_stream;
  boost::asio::streambuf buffer;
  boost::system::error_code error;
  size_t len = read_until(socket, buffer, '\n', error);
  if (len)
  {
    message_stream.write(boost::asio::buffer_cast<const char *>(buffer.data()), len);
    message = message_stream.str();
  }
}

Remember to append '\n' to the message you send from the client:

//...
std::cout << "connected to server\n";
boost::asio::write(socket, boost::asio::buffer(message + '\n'));
read_message(message, socket);
//...