Communicate (IPC) between C++ to Python

Question

I have application server (server.py) and C + + as a client (client.exe). Client.exe send variable to server.py via 'named pipes'.

The problem is when I send eg "Default message from client" from client.exe in server.py only produce "D" (only first character send).

Can anyone help me??

C++

server.py

from ctypes import *

PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX = 0x3
PIPE_TYPE_MESSAGE = 0x4
PIPE_READMODE_MESSAGE = 0x2
PIPE_WAIT = 0
PIPE_UNLIMITED_INSTANCES = 255
BUFSIZE = 4096
NMPWAIT_USE_DEFAULT_WAIT = 0
INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1
ERROR_PIPE_CONNECTED = 535

MESSAGE = "Default answer from server\0"
szPipename = "\\\\.\\pipe\\mynamedpipe"


def ReadWrite_ClientPipe_Thread(hPipe):
    chBuf = create_string_buffer(BUFSIZE)
    cbRead = c_ulong(0)
    while 1:
        fSuccess = windll.kernel32.ReadFile(hPipe, chBuf, BUFSIZE,
byref(cbRead), None)
        if ((fSuccess ==1) or (cbRead.value != 0)):
            print chBuf.value
            cbWritten = c_ulong(0)
            fSuccess = windll.kernel32.WriteFile(hPipe,c_char_pc_char_p(MESSAGE),len(MESSAGE),byref(cbWritten),None)
        else:
            break
        if ( (not fSuccess) or (len(MESSAGE) != cbWritten.value)):
            print "Could not reply to the client's request from the pipe"
            break
        else:
            print "Number of bytes written:", cbWritten.value

    windll.kernel32.FlushFileBuffers(hPipe)
    windll.kernel32.DisconnectNamedPipe(hPipe)
    windll.kernel32.CloseHandle(hPipe)
    return 0

def main():
    THREADFUNC = CFUNCTYPE(c_int, c_int)
    thread_func = THREADFUNC(ReadWrite_ClientPipe_Thread)
    while 1:
        hPipe = windll.kernel32.CreateNamedPipeA(szPipename,PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX,PIPE_TYPE_MESSAGE | PIPE_READMODE_MESSAGE | PIPE_WAIT, PIPE_UNLIMITED_INSTANCES, BUFSIZE, BUFSIZE, NMPWAIT_USE_DEFAULT_WAIT,None)
        if (hPipe == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE):
            print "Error in creating Named Pipe"
            return 0

        fConnected = windll.kernel32.ConnectNamedPipe(hPipe, None)
        if ((fConnected == 0) and (windll.kernel32.GetLastError() == ERROR_PIPE_CONNECTED)):
            fConnected = 1
        if (fConnected == 1):
            dwThreadId = c_ulong(0)
            hThread = windll.kernel32.CreateThread(None, 0, thread_func, hPipe, 0, byref(dwThreadId))
            if (hThread == -1):
                print "Create Thread failed"
                return 0
            else:
                windll.kernel32.CloseHandle(hThread)
        else:
            print "Could not connect to the Named Pipe"
            windll.kernel32.CloseHandle(hPipe)
    return 0


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Client.cpp

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <windows.h> 
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <tchar.h>

#define BUFSIZE 512

int _tmain(int argc, TCHAR *argv[]) 
{ 
   HANDLE hPipe; 
   LPTSTR lpvMessage=TEXT("Default message from client."); 
   TCHAR  chBuf[BUFSIZE]; 
   BOOL   fSuccess = FALSE; 
   DWORD  cbRead, cbToWrite, cbWritten, dwMode; 
   LPTSTR lpszPipename = TEXT("\\\\.\\pipe\\mynamedpipe"); 

   if( argc > 1 )
      lpvMessage = argv[1];

// Try to open a named pipe; wait for it, if necessary. 

   while (1) 
   { 
      hPipe = CreateFile( 
         lpszPipename,   // pipe name 
         GENERIC_READ |  // read and write access 
         GENERIC_WRITE, 
         0,              // no sharing 
         NULL,           // default security attributes
         OPEN_EXISTING,  // opens existing pipe 
         0,              // default attributes 
         NULL);          // no template file 

   // Break if the pipe handle is valid. 

      if (hPipe != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) 
         break; 

      // Exit if an error other than ERROR_PIPE_BUSY occurs. 

      if (GetLastError() != ERROR_PIPE_BUSY) 
      {
         _tprintf( TEXT("Could not open pipe. GLE=%d\n"), GetLastError() ); 
         return -1;
      }

      // All pipe instances are busy, so wait for 20 seconds. 

      if ( ! WaitNamedPipe(lpszPipename, 20000)) 
      { 
         printf("Could not open pipe: 20 second wait timed out."); 
         return -1;
      } 
   } 

// The pipe connected; change to message-read mode. 

   dwMode = PIPE_READMODE_MESSAGE; 
   fSuccess = SetNamedPipeHandleState( 
      hPipe,    // pipe handle 
      &dwMode,  // new pipe mode 
      NULL,     // don't set maximum bytes 
      NULL);    // don't set maximum time 
   if ( ! fSuccess) 
   {
      _tprintf( TEXT("SetNamedPipeHandleState failed. GLE=%d\n"), GetLastError() ); 
      return -1;
   }

// Send a message to the pipe server. 

   cbToWrite = (lstrlen(lpvMessage)+1)*sizeof(TCHAR);
   _tprintf( TEXT("Sending %d byte message: \"%s\"\n"), cbToWrite, lpvMessage); 

   fSuccess = WriteFile( 
      hPipe,                  // pipe handle 
      lpvMessage,             // message 
      cbToWrite,              // message length 
      &cbWritten,             // bytes written 
      NULL);                  // not overlapped 

   if ( ! fSuccess) 
   {
      _tprintf( TEXT("WriteFile to pipe failed. GLE=%d\n"), GetLastError() ); 
      return -1;
   }

   printf("\nMessage sent to server, receiving reply as follows:\n");

   do 
   { 
   // Read from the pipe. 

      fSuccess = ReadFile( 
         hPipe,    // pipe handle 
         chBuf,    // buffer to receive reply 
         BUFSIZE*sizeof(TCHAR),  // size of buffer 
         &cbRead,  // number of bytes read 
         NULL);    // not overlapped 

      if ( ! fSuccess && GetLastError() != ERROR_MORE_DATA )
         break; 

      _tprintf( TEXT("\"%s\"\n"), chBuf ); 
   } while ( ! fSuccess);  // repeat loop if ERROR_MORE_DATA 

   if ( ! fSuccess)
   {
      _tprintf( TEXT("ReadFile from pipe failed. GLE=%d\n"), GetLastError() );
      return -1;
   }



   CloseHandle(hPipe); 

   return 0; 
}

Answer 1

If you print out the .raw for the buffer received by the server you can see it's actually getting the whole message:

> print repr(chBuf.raw)

'D\x00e\x00f\x00a\x00u\x00l\x00t\x00 \x00m\x00e\x00s\x00s\x00a\x00g\x00e\x00 \x00f\x00r\x00o\x00m\x00\x00c\x00l\x00i\x00e\x00n\x00t\x00.\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00 ... \x00\x00'

The problem is that there are null values (\x00) interspersed between the legitimate characters, and those look like null terminators when you're trying to print chBuf.value. So why all the nulls? This is because your C++ client is sending a wchar_t * message (using LPTSTR), but the Python server is expecting a char * string.

Change this line:

chBuf = create_string_buffer(BUFSIZE)

to this:

chBuf = create_unicode_buffer(BUFSIZE)

This should fix the problem.

Oh, also, looks like you have a copy-and-paste error here:

fSuccess = windll.kernel32.WriteFile(hPipe,c_char_pc_char_p(MESSAGE),len(MESSAGE),byref(cbWritten),None)

it should be:

fSuccess = windll.kernel32.WriteFile(hPipe, c_char_p(MESSAGE),len(MESSAGE),byref(cbWritten),None)

I got a name error in the Python code until I changed that.

Answer 2

Maybe the server should try reading from the pipe in a loop until all the data that you expect to reach, has reached (according to your protocol with the client, e.g. until a null terminator was read).