C/C++: Write and Read Sockets

Question

I'm sending and receiving info with a unix socket, but I do not completely understand how it works. Basically, I send a message like this:

int wr_bytes = write(sock, msg.c_str(), msg.length());

And receive message like this:

int rd_bytes = read(msgsock, buf, SOCKET_BUFFER_SIZE);

This code works perfectly with thousands of bytes, what I don't understand is, how does the read function knows when the other part is done sending the message? I tried to read the read documentation and, on my understanding read will return once it reaches EOF or the SOCKET_BUFFER_SIZE, is that correct?

So I'm guessing that when I give my string to the write function, it adds an EOF at the end of my content so the read function knows when to stop.

I'm asking this question because, I did not add any code that checks whether the other part finished sending the message, however, I'm receiving big messages (thousands of bytes) without any problem, why is that happening, why am I not getting only parts of the message?

Here is the full function I'm using to send a message to a unix socket server:

string sendSocketMessage(string msg) {
    int sock;
    struct sockaddr_un server;
    char buf[1024];

    sock = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    if (sock < 0) {
        throw runtime_error("opening stream socket");
    }
    server.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
    strcpy(server.sun_path, "socket");

    if (connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *) &server, sizeof(struct sockaddr_un)) < 0) {
        close(sock);
        throw runtime_error("connecting stream socket");
    }
    if (write(sock, msg.c_str(), msg.length()) < 0){
        throw runtime_error("writing on stream socket");
        close(sock);
    }
    bzero(buf, sizeof(buf));
    int rval = read(sock, buf, 1024);
    return string( reinterpret_cast< char const* >(buf), rval );
}

And here is my server function (a little bit more complicated, the type vSocketHandler represents a function that I call to handle requests):

void UnixSocketServer::listenRequests(vSocketHandler requestHandler){
    int sock, msgsock, rval;
    struct sockaddr_un server;
    char buf[SOCKET_BUFFER_SIZE];

    sock = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    if (sock < 0) {
        throw runtime_error("opening stream socket");
    }
    server.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
    strcpy(server.sun_path, SOCKET_FILE_PATH);
    if (bind(sock, (struct sockaddr *) &server, sizeof(struct sockaddr_un))) {
        throw runtime_error("binding stream socket");
    }
    listen(sock, SOCKET_MAX_CONNECTIONS);
    while(true) {
        msgsock = accept(sock, 0, 0);
        if (msgsock == -1){
            throw runtime_error("accept socket");
        } else {
            bzero(buf, sizeof(buf));
            if((rval = read(msgsock, buf, SOCKET_BUFFER_SIZE)) < 0)
                throw runtime_error("reading stream message");
            else if (rval == 0){
                //do nothing, client closed socket
                break;
            } else {
                string msg = requestHandler(string( reinterpret_cast< char const* >(buf), rval ));
                if(write(msgsock, msg.c_str(), msg.length()) < 0)
                    throw runtime_error("sending stream message");
            }
            close(msgsock);
        }
    }
    close(sock);
    unlink(SOCKET_FILE_PATH);
}

Answer 1

what I don't understand is, how does the read function knows when the other part is done sending the message?

For a stream-type socket, such as you're using, it doesn't. For a datagram-type socket, communication is broken into distinct chunks, but if a message spans multiple datagrams then the answer is again "it doesn't". This is indeed one of the key things to understand about the read() and write() (and send() and recv()) functions in general, and about sockets more specifically.

For the rest of this answer I'll focus on stream oriented sockets, since that's what you're using. I'll also suppose that the socket is not in non-blocking mode. If you intend for your data transmitted over such a socket to be broken into distinct messages, then it is up to you to implement an application-level protocol by which the other end can recognize message boundaries.

I tried to read the read documentation and, on my understanding read will return once it reaches EOF or the SOCKET_BUFFER_SIZE, is that correct?

Not exactly. read() will return if it reaches the end of the file, which happens when the peer closes its socket (or at least shuts down the write side of it) so that it is certain that no more data will be sent. read() will also return in the event of any of a variety of error conditions. And read() may return under other unspecified circumstances, provided that it has transferred at least one byte. In practice, this last case is generally invoked if the socket buffer fills, but it may also be invoked under other circumstances, such as when the buffer empties.

So I'm guessing that when I give my string to the write function, it adds an EOF at the end of my content so the read function knows when to stop.

No, it does no such thing. On success, the write() function sends some or all of the bytes you asked it to send, and nothing else. Note that it is not guaranteed even to send all the requested bytes; its return value tells you how many of them it actually did send. If that's fewer than "all", then ordinarily you should simply perform another write() to transfer the rest. You may need to do this multiple times to send the whole message. In any event, only the bytes you specify are sent.

I'm asking this question because, I did not add any code that checks whether the other part finished sending the message, however, I'm receiving big messages (thousands of bytes) without any problem, why is that happening, why am I not getting only parts of the message?

More or less because you're getting lucky, but the fact that you're using UNIX-domain sockets (as opposed to network sockets) helps. Your data are transferred very efficiently from sending process to receiving process through the kernel, and it is not particularly surprising that large writes() are received by single read()s. You cannot safely rely on that always to happen, however.