Develop Reference

How do I read x amount from a buffer

For the sake of this question, let's assume nothing is wrong with the server and let's just focus on the client and how it receives the data.
So I have this client / server setup going and this is how it currently flows.
The server sends a packet that's 5000 bytes.
All the packets are structured like this.. The first 4 bytes are reserved for the length of the entire packet, the next byte is reserved for the OpCode.. The remaining bytes represents the actual payload.
Length (4 bytes) | OpCode (1 byte) | Payload (x bytes)
On the client I'm currently doing this
byte[] RawBuffer = new byte[Constants.BufferSize]; //Constants.BufferSize = 1024
int packLen = 0;
int totalReceived = 0;
private byte[] allData;
private void ReceiveCallback(IAsyncResult ar)
{
var stream = (NetworkStream)ar.AsyncState;
var received = stream.EndRead(ar);
Debug.Print($"Data received: {received} bytes");
//If we haven't assigned a length yet
if (packLen <= 0)
{
//Use "allData" as the final buffer that we use to process later down the line.
using (var ms = new MemoryStream(RawBuffer))
using (var reader = new BinaryReader(ms))
{
packLen = reader.ReadInt32();
allData = new byte[packLen];
}
}
Buffer.BlockCopy(RawBuffer, 0, allData, 0, received);
totalReceived += received;
if (totalReceived == allData.Length)
{
Debug.Print($"We've successfully appended {allData.Length} bytes out of {packLen}");
}
stream.BeginRead(RawBuffer, 0, Constants.BufferSize, ReceiveCallback, _stream);
}
That only works if I send 1 packet from the server to the client, but if I send 5 packets for instance it never actually splits them up.
How do I properly split them up so that once it's received the full packet based on the Length header, it prints out "Received packet successfully"

Reliable way to determine variable message length when receiving from socket

I have some Python code for capturing images from a camera and sending them to a C# server.
When sending the messages from the client- I precede the data with the message size so I know how much data to pull from the socket server-side.
It seems to work well most of the time, but occasionally - the message doesn't appear to start with the message size.
I'm not sure why this is happening but I can't figure out how to deal with it.
Python code:
while True:
send_message("SEND_FRAME_DATA_HERE")
def send_message(message):
message_size = len(message.encode())
print (f"Message: {message_size} - {message}")
my_socket.sendall(struct.pack(">L", message_size) + message.encode())
C#
private const int MESSAGE_CHUNK_SIZE = 4096;
private const int MESSAGE_PREFIX_SIZE = 4;
private void _receiveMessage(IAsyncResult ar)
{
StateObject state = (StateObject)ar.AsyncState;
Socket handler = state.workSocket;
List<byte> messageBuffer = new List<byte>();
byte[] tempBuffer = new byte[MESSAGE_CHUNK_SIZE];
try
{
handler.EndReceive(ar);
messageBuffer.AddRange(state.messageBuffer);
while (true)
{
while (messageBuffer.Count < MESSAGE_PREFIX_SIZE)
{
handler.Receive(tempBuffer, 0, MESSAGE_CHUNK_SIZE, 0);
messageBuffer.AddRange(tempBuffer);
}
int messageLength = _getMessageLength(messageBuffer);
// Occasionally the four bytes determining message length
// are read from what appears to be mid message
if (messageLength > 20)
{
Console.Write("halp");
}
messageBuffer = messageBuffer.Skip(MESSAGE_PREFIX_SIZE).ToList();
while (messageBuffer.Count < messageLength)
{
handler.Receive(tempBuffer, 0, StateObject.messageChunkSize, 0);
messageBuffer.AddRange(tempBuffer);
}
var wholeMessage = messageBuffer.Take(messageLength).ToList();
var messageString = Encoding.Default.GetString(wholeMessage.ToArray());
Console.WriteLine(messageString);
messageBuffer = messageBuffer.Skip(messageLength).ToList();
}
}
catch (SocketException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
private int _getMessageLength(List<byte> message)
{
byte[] bytes = { message[3], message[2], message[1], message[0] };
return BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, 0);
}
The message buffer should look something like this:
On a good run:
On a bad run:

The problem appears to be with this code:
handler.Receive(tempBuffer, 0, StateObject.messageChunkSize, 0);
messageBuffer.AddRange(tempBuffer);
Socket.Receive() returns the number of bytes actually read into the tempBuffer. You need to save that value, and then use it to copy the correct number of bytes to messageBuffer.
int bytesRead = handler.Receive(tempBuffer, 0, StateObject.messageChunkSize, 0);
messageBuffer.AddRange(tempBuffer.Take(bytesRead));

Why does my TCP application misses some packets when sent rapidly

I'm writing a multiple clients per server application in C# using async sockets. Each client on connection sends 10 items. The problem is, when starting lots of clients quickly, it appears that each client sent less than the 10 items and sometimes it sends nothing, the server just logs them connecting only.
The packet structure is the first 4 bytes are an int with size of data in them. Here's a part of server code. Each connected client has its own receive buffer which BeginReceive should write to.
private void Recieve(IAsyncResult iar) //Called when socket receives something.
{
Socket server_conn = (Socket)iar.AsyncState;
if (!SocketConnected(server_conn))
{
server_conn.Close();
logthis("Client Disconnected");
return;
}
int n = server_conn.EndReceive(iar); //Stop Receiving and parse data, n is number of bytes received
ClientData asdf = null;
foreach (ClientData cls in clientlist)
{
if (server_conn.RemoteEndPoint == cls.clientsock.RemoteEndPoint) //Who sent this data
{
asdf = cls; //cls is who sent this data
//Start a new thread and pass received bytes to it in order to be parsed
var t = new Thread(() => parse(cls, n,cls.recvbuffer));
t.Start();
Thread.Sleep(100);
break;
}
}
asdf.recvbuffer = new byte[1024]; //Clear buffer of client
server_conn.BeginReceive(asdf.recvbuffer, 0, asdf.recvbuffer.Length, SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(Recieve), server_conn); //Start receiving again
}
private void parse(ClientData theclient, int nobytesreceived, byte[] bytesreceived)
{
ClientData cls = theclient;
int n = nobytesreceived;
byte[] receivedbytes = bytesreceived;
lock(s)
{
if (!cls.dataphase) //If there's no fragmented packets still waiting to be read
{
cls.dataphase = true;
byte[] sizeinbytes = new byte[4];
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
sizeinbytes[i] = receivedbytes[i];
}
int size = BitConverter.ToInt32(sizeinbytes, 0); //Read first four bytes of packet to get size of data
if ((n - 4) == size) //If received number of bytes - 4 is equals to datasize
{
byte[] payload = new byte[size];
Array.Copy(receivedbytes, 4, payload, 0, (n - 4)); //Copy data to separately to payload array to be displayed to user
logthis(cls.clientsock.RemoteEndPoint.ToString());
logthis(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(payload));
cls.dataphase = false; //packet read successfully
}
else if ((n - 4) < size) //If received amount of bytes is less than data size (fragmented data)
{
cls.data = new byte[size];
for (int i = 4; i <= n - 4; i++)
{
cls.data[i - 4] += receivedbytes[i];
}
cls.datasize = size; //And cls.dataphase will remain true so it can be handled correctly the next time we receive something from same client
}
else if((n-4) > size) //If received amount of bytes is bigger than data (lumped packets)
{
byte[] payload = new byte[size];
byte[] otherpacket = new byte[(n - 4) - size];
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
payload[i] += receivedbytes[i + 4];
}
logthis(cls.clientsock.RemoteEndPoint.ToString());
logthis(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(payload));
Array.Copy(receivedbytes, (size + 4), otherpacket, 0, ((n - 4) - size));
receivedbytes = new byte[(n - 4) - size];
receivedbytes = otherpacket;
cls.dataphase = false;
parse(cls, ((n - 4) - size), receivedbytes); //Send rest of packet to read again
}
}
else
{
//not implemented, supposed to handle fragmented packets
if (n >= cls.datasize)
{
}
else if (n < cls.datasize)
{
}
}
}
}

Your problem comes from
else
{
//not implemented, supposed to handle fragmented packets
I would put money on the fact that you are hitting that else statement and loosing data. As soon as you don't have a complete read of a packet or two packets lumped together returned from your read function (which is a lot more common than you think) your client is now stuck in cls.dataphase = true; and will never get out of it.

Python to C# TCP transfer corrupts data beyond 1523rd byte

I'm trying to send a long string from a python server to a C# client. The string is 230400 bytes long. I'm both sending and receiving in chunks of 64 bytes. Server code:
import socket
def initialize():
global s
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
s.bind(('', 1719))
s.listen()
initialize()
while(1):
sock, addr = s.accept()
msgstr = generate_msg_string() # irrelevant
msglen = len(msgstr)
totalsent = 0
while totalsent < msglen:
sent = sock.send(msgstr[totalsent:totalsent+64])
totalsent = totasent + sent
sock.close()
Client code:
TcpClient tcpClient = new TcpClient();
tcpClient.Connect(ip, 1719);
byte[] ba = new byte[230400];
byte[] buffer = new byte[64];
tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize = 64
int i=0;
while(i != 230400)
{
stream.Read(buffer, 0, 64);
buffer.CopyTo(ba, i);
i += 64;
}
tcpClient.Close();
I've checked a few connections in a row - the first 1523 bytes are correct and all the rest are gibberish - at least seemingly random.
Any idea what might be the cause?

while(i != 230400)
{
stream.Read(buffer, 0, 64);
buffer.CopyTo(ba, i);
i += 64;
}
The fundamental error here is assuming that Read read 64 bytes. It can read any of:
0 if the socket gets closed for any reason
64 bytes if that happens to be available and it chooses to
1-63 bytes, just for fun
You are not guaranteed anything other than "non-positive if the stream is closed, else at least 1 byte and no more than 64 bytes"
You must must must read the return value of Read and only process that much of the buffer. This remains the case if you switch to Socket.Receive, by the way.
Also - why don't you just fill ba in the first place, increment in the offset and decrementing the count each time?
int count = 230400, offset = 0, read;
byte[] ba = new byte[count];
while(count > 0 && (read=stream.Read(ba, offset, count)) > 0)
{
offset += read;
count -= read;
}
if(read!=0) throw new EndOfStreamException();

It seems that I hurried with the question.
Changing TcpClient to Socket fixed the problem. The approach remained the same.

Network stream stuck on stream.Read(byte[] byte, int offset, int size)

What I'm trying to do is to received a large number of bytes (about 5MB data) sent from the client side
Below is the code where data(byte[]) is received
byte[] receivedBytesRaw = new byte[4000];
//first, initialize network stream
NetworkStream stream = client.GetStream();
//The bytesNeeded is the size of bytes which is a protocol sent by the client side indicating the size of byte which will be sent
int bytesNeeded = 4000;
int bytesReceived = 0;
do
{
int bytesRead = stream.Read(receivedBytesRaw, bytesReceived, bytesNeeded - bytesReceived);
networkValidation.addBytesToList(receivedBytesRaw, ref receivedBytes);
bytesReceived += bytesRead;
} while (bytesReceived < bytesNeeded);
But now I'm stuck on a problem:
Everytime when data arrives, the do while loop loops for the first time, and the return value (i) is 26, then it loops again, this time, when it goes to " i = stream.Read(receivedBytesRaw, 0, receivedBytesRaw.Length);", the program seems waiting for the client side to send data and have no response, also, when I check "receivedBytesRaw", the data was incomplete, only the first 13 bytes was received, the remaining space in the byte array remains null, and the stream.DataAvailable is false
Why the server side received incomplete data?
Note: when I try to send small data (a string), it's ok
=====================================================================
Edited
Below is the client side code which sends data:
private int sendData(byte[] dataSend, string IP, int portNumber)
{
TcpClient clientSide = new TcpClient();
int result = -1;
try
{
clientSide.Connect(IP, portNumber);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return 2;
}
NetworkStream netStream = clientSide.GetStream();
if (netStream.CanWrite)
{
byte[] replyMsg = new byte[1024];
netStream.Write(dataSend, 0, dataSend.Length);
netStream.Flush();
result = 0;
}
else
{
result = 1;
}
return result;
}

Because it's a stream, and can be partial received. Are you sure you are always receiving packages with te size of 2048 bytes?
int i = 0;
int bytesNeeded = 200;
int bytesReceived = 0;
do
{
//read byte from client
int bytesRead = stream.Read(receivedBytesRaw, bytesReceived, bytesNeeded-bytesReceived);
bytesReceived += bytesRead;
// merge byte array to another byte array
} while (bytesReceived < bytesNeeded);
I think you need a frame protocol, try create a protocol like, writing the size of the data that follows.
example: (psuedo)
void SendData(byte[] data)
{
// get the 4 bytes of a int value.
byte[] dataLength = BitConverter.GetBytes(data.Lenght);
// write the length to the stream.
stream.Write(dataLength, 0, dataLength.Length);
// write the data bytes.
stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
}
void Receive()
{
// read 4 bytes from the stream.
ReadBuffer(buffer, 4);
// convert those 4 bytes to an int.
int dataLength = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, 0);
// read bytes with dataLength as count.
ReadBuffer(buffer, dataLength);
}
// read until the right amount of bytes are read.
void ReadBuffer(byte[] buffer, int length)
{
int i = 0;
int bytesNeeded = length;
int bytesReceived = 0;
do
{
//read byte from client
int bytesRead = stream.Read(buffer, bytesReceived, bytesNeeded-bytesReceived);
bytesReceived += bytesRead;
// merge byte array to another byte array
} while (bytesReceived < bytesNeeded); // <- you should do this async.
}
This is just an example..

Another solution you could try is using async reads.
I made a class that reads until all bytes are read. If it isn't a problem that the complete file is read, you could try this:
Example:
This example show that you can read a simple protocol. ReadPacket handles a length + data message. So the sender will first send an int value containing the length of data that follows.
The StartReading method reads a filename and the filedata. It will store up to 10mb max filesize. But this isn't originally designed for receiving files.
const int MaxFileSize = 10 * 1024 * 1024;
private void Example()
{
Socket socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
socket.Connect("localhost", 12345);
StartReading(socket);
}
private void StartReading(Socket socket)
{
ReadPacket(socket, (filenameData) =>
{
if (filenameData.Count == 0)
{
// disconnected
return;
}
// parse the filename
string filename = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(filenameData.Array, filenameData.Offset, filenameData.Count);
Trace.WriteLine("Receiving file :" + filename);
ReadPacket(socket, (fileData) =>
{
if (fileData.Count == 0)
{
// disconnected
return;
}
Trace.WriteLine("Writing file :" + filename);
// write to the file
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
stream.Write(fileData.Array, fileData.Offset, fileData.Count);
// start waiting for another packet.
StartReading(socket);
});
});
}
private void ReadPacket(Socket socket, Action<ArraySegment<byte>> endRead)
{
// read header. (length of data) (4 bytes)
EasySocketReader.ReadFromSocket(socket, 4, (headerBufferSegment) =>
{
// if the ReadFromSocket returns 0, the socket is closed.
if (headerBufferSegment.Count == 0)
{
// disconnected;
endRead(new ArraySegment<byte>());
return;
}
// Get the length of the data that follows
int length = BitConverter.ToInt32(headerBufferSegment.Array, headerBufferSegment.Offset);
// Check the length
if (length > MaxFileSize)
{
// disconnect
endRead(new ArraySegment<byte>());
return;
}
// Read bytes specified in length.
EasySocketReader.ReadFromSocket(socket, length, (dataBufferSegment) =>
{
// if the ReadFromSocket returns 0, the socket is closed.
if (dataBufferSegment.Count == 0)
{
endRead(new ArraySegment<byte>());
return;
}
endRead(dataBufferSegment);
});
});
}
The EasySocketReader class can be found on my blog: http://csharp.vanlangen.biz/network-programming/async-sockets/asyncsocketreader/
The original EasyPacketReader can be found here: http://csharp.vanlangen.biz/network-programming/async-sockets/easypacketreader/
For the sending part, you could use something like this:
private void SendFile(Socket socket, string filename)
{
byte[] filenameData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(filename);
socket.Send(BitConverter.GetBytes(filenameData.Length));
socket.Send(filenameData);
int fileSize;
byte[] fileData;
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
fileSize = (int)stream.Length;
if (fileSize > MaxFileSize)
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("File too big");
fileData = new byte[fileSize];
stream.Read(fileData, 0, fileSize);
}
socket.Send(BitConverter.GetBytes(fileSize));
socket.Send(fileData);
}