Multipe Send()'s and Recv()'s using Winsock2

Question

Hello,

I am working on a small networking project using Winsock2. I am using a TCP connection and actually am working with IRC as an example since IRC is fairly simple. What I am doing is connecting to the server and sending an initial buffer so the server recognizes a connection. This works fine.

What concerns me is that I cannot write to the socket again. It seems my program hangs if I do not use shutdown() (on SD_SEND) after I send the initial buffer.

So the next data (based on RFC 1459) I want to send is the USER and NICK information, however, I feel like using shutdown() is what is causing my current issue. Is there a way to reinitialize the write socket?

Thanks!

ADDED CODE

Note that these are located within a class so it still may be slightly obscured. I am writing it into a simpler example using the elements I have. Everything is properly defined, so if I forget to define things, I apologize, but many of my recurring variables are defined for the scope of the class.

int main(int argc,char *argv[])
{
        int iResult;
        SOCKET Connection;
    iResult = WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,2), &wsaData);
    if(iResult != 0)
        throw "Startup failed!";

    // Prep stuff
    ZeroMemory(&hints,sizeof(hints)); // This struct is defined addrinfo
    hints.ai_family   = AF_UNSPEC;
    hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
    hints.ai_protocol = IPPROTO_TCP;

    // Now resolve server addr
    iResult = getaddrinfo(argv[1],argv[2],&hints,&result);
    if(iResult != 0)
        throw "getaddrinfo() failed!";

    // Now try to connect
    for(ptr=result;ptr != NULL;ptr = ptr->ai_next)
    {
        Connection = socket(ptr->ai_family, ptr->ai_socktype, ptr->ai_protocol); // defined in that "hints" struct. argument number 2
        if(Connection == INVALID_SOCKET)
        {
            freeaddrinfo(result);
            WSACleanup();
            throw "Error at socket();";
        }

        // Connect to server
        iResult = connect(Connection, ptr->ai_addr, (int)ptr->ai_addrlen);
        if(iResult != 0)
        {
            closesocket(Connection);
            Connection = INVALID_SOCKET;
            continue;
        }
        break;
    }

    freeaddrinfo(result);

    // Send initial buffer so server know you're there :)
    iResult = send(Connection, "", 1, 0);
    if(iResult == SOCKET_ERROR)
    {
        close();
        throw "Could not send initial buffer!";
    }

    // Close this connection for the inital buffer
    iResult = shutdown(Connection, SD_SEND);
    if(iResult == SOCKET_ERROR)
    {
        close();
        throw "Could not close initial buffer socket!";
    }

        bool connected = true;

        // This is taken from my read function within the class
        // BEGIN READ FUNCTION
    iResult = 0; // Reset
    std::string data = ""; // Capture the output and send it all at once!

    // This only works if we're connected sweet cakes <3
    if(connected)
    {
        do
        {
            iResult = recv(socket, recvbuf, BUFLEN, 0);
            if(iResult > 0)
            {
                // Working properly
                // Save all data even if there is more than BUFLEN sent
                continue;
            }
            else if(iResult == 0)
                // Connection closed properly
                break;
            else
                printf("ERROR!");
        } while(iResult > 0);
    }
    data += recvbuf;
    ZeroMemory(&recvbuf,sizeof(recvbuf));
        // Function returns std::string but essentially this is what happens
        printf("%s",data.c_str());
        // END READ FUNCTION 

        // BEGIN WRITE FUNCTION
    iResult = 0; // Reset
        SOCKET socket = Connection; // Write function arg 1
        char *data; // Write function arg 2

    iResult = send(socket,data,(int)strlen(data),0);
    if(iResult == SOCKET_ERROR)
    {
        close();
        printf("Could not write data: %ld",WSAGetLastError()); 
                return 1;
    }

    // Data sent, let's close the write socket
    iResult = shutdown(socket, SD_SEND);
    if(iResult != 0)
    {
        close();
        printf("Could not close write socket!");
                return 1;
    }

    //return iResult;
        // END WRITE FUNCTION

        // Now that will produce "Could not write data: 0" for any value of data
        // So realistically I want to send the USER and NICK data, then read 
        // and probably process a PING string from the server and send my PONG response

        return 0;
}

I hope that clarifies things!

EDIT

I think I have figured out what is going wrong. I made the corrections listed below to my code; thanks guys. However, it's my read loop which is messing with things. Even after it has all the information it seems that it is waiting for the connection to be closed before it sends the output. Any ideas? My output currently looks like this (the bytes written/total is something I added to make sure everything was going down the wire correctly)

Bytes Written: 41
Bytes Total: 41
Data: ERROR :Closing Link: raged123[127.0.0.1] 6667 (Ping timeout)
...
:irc.foonet.com NOTICE AUTH :*** Found your hostname (cached)
PING :2ED39CE5
[A bunch of funny characters]WinSock 2.0

So it appears to have timed out because the PING did not receive PONG in time, however, I cannot send the PONG without first processing the PING request which means I would need to be able to read the output before the connection is closed. Any ideas?

Answer 1

There shouldn't be any need to send an "initial buffer" like you've done. The server will receive notification when a client connects, it doesn't depend on the client actually sending anything. (And in particular, the IRC protocol says that the server will start sending you stuff as soon as you connect.)

The call to shutdown() is highly suspicious. Why did you expect to need to do this? Shutting down a socket is something you do when you're done with the connection, not when you're just starting. You should remove this completely.

I'm not sure what type recvbuf is, but it looks like you're using it incorrectly. Something that can be appended to a std::string probably can't also have ZeroMemory() called on it, without one or the other of those being wrong. You also aren't using iResult which is the actual number of bytes received from the server.

Your write function also contains a call to shutdown(), which you should remove.

Answer 2

May I suggest a fun document on the subject? Chapter's 6 and 7 of Beej's Guide to Network Programming

It has several examples.

Answer 3

According to man send(2)

On success, these calls return the number of characters sent. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

What happens is probably that send does not send the full buffer at once, you must use a loop around it.

This might not be your actual problem however since you,re sending an empty string...

I'd highly recommend using Wireshark so you can check what goes down to the wire