Java sending byte[] through sockets...wrong length read - java

For my homework assignment, I have a network of Nodes that are passing messages to each other. Each Node is connected to a set amount of other Nodes (I'm using 4 for testing). Each Link has a weight, and all the Nodes have computed the shortest path for how they want their messages sent. Every Packet that is sent is composed of the message protocol (a hard-coded int), an integer that tells how many messages have passed through the sending Node, and the routing path for the Packet.
Every Node has a Thread for each of its Links. There is an active Socket in each Link. The Packets are sent by adding a 4-byte int to the beginning of the message telling the message's length.
Everything works fine until I stress the network. For my test, there are 10 Nodes, and I get 5 of them to send 10000 packets in a simple while() loop with no Thread.sleep(). Without exception, there is always an error at some point during execution at the if(a!=len) statement.
Please let me know if I can clarify anything. Thanks in advance! Here is the code (from the Link Thread; send() and forward() are called from the Node itself):
protected void listen(){
byte[] b;
int len;
try{
DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(sock.getInputStream());
while(true){
len = in.readInt();
b = new byte[len];
int a = in.read(b,0,len);
if(a!=len){
System.out.println("ERROR: " + a + "!=" + len);
throw new SocketException(); //may have to fix...this will happen when message is corrupt/incomplete
}
Message m = new Message(b);
int p = m.getProtocol();
switch (p){
case CDNP.PACKET:
owner.incrementTracker();
System.out.print("\n# INCOMMING TRACKER: " + m.getTracker() + "\n>>> ");
owner.forward(m);
}
}
}catch (IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void send(int tracker){
String[] message = { Conv.is(CDNP.PACKET), Conv.is(tracker), owner.getMST().toString() };
Message m = new Message(message);
forward(m);
}
public synchronized void forward(Message m){
try{
OutputStream out = sock.getOutputStream();
//convert length to byte array of length 4
ByteBuffer bb = ByteBuffer.allocate(4+m.getLength());
bb.putInt(m.getLength());
bb.put(m.getBytes());
out.write(bb.array());
out.flush();
}catch (UnknownHostException e){
System.out.println("ERROR: Could not send to Router at " + sock.getRemoteSocketAddress().toString());
return;
}catch (IOException e1){
}
}

int a = in.read(b,0,len);
if(a!=len){
That won't work. The InputStream may not read all the bytes you want, it may read only what is available right now, and return that much without blocking.
To quote the Javadocs (emphasis mine):
Reads up to len bytes of data from the input stream into an array of bytes. An attempt is made to read as many as len bytes, but a smaller number may be read, possibly zero. The number of bytes actually read is returned as an integer.
You need to continue reading in a loop until you have all the data you want (or the stream is finished).
Or, since you are using a DataInputStream, you can also use
in.readFully(b, 0, len);
which always reads exactly len bytes (blocking until those have arrived, throwing an exception when there is not enough data).

Related

Java send data over TCP Socket seperately

I want to send multiple packets separately with using tcp socket in Java. Here's my code.
try {
DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
String[] array = new String[4];
array[0] = "stack";
array[1] = "over";
array[2] = "flow";
array[3] = "coding";
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
out.write(array[i].getBytes()); //send packet
}
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
I take all data in one packet right now. Here is the received packet's terminal output:
Incoming Transmission => stackoverflowcoding
That's what i want:
Incoming Transmission => stack
Incoming Transmission => over
Incoming Transmission => flow
Incoming Transmission => coding
How can i receive data as 4 packets separately?
Why do i want this ? Because in my client there's an event that listens the coming tcp packages. This event must be triggered for each elements of array separately.
TCP logically represents a continuous stream, similar to a file. Think of it as one continuous sequence of bytes until at some point in time it's closed and the stream ends. But there's no definite clear boundary between any two of those bytes. Sometimes you might have to wait to get more bytes, but there's no intrinsic way to tell if that's because the other side stopped sending or if there's some kind of network issue between the two of you.
While packets are used as an underlying mechanism you shouldn't rely on their separation, because they could in theory be split and merged along the way (realistically they are mostly just split and rarely merged).
The usual solution is to use some kind of protocol on top of TCP to clearly mark the different chunks you're intrested in. The simplest such protocol would simply start by sending the amount of bytes the next chunk will be long, followed with whatever the data is.
Alternatively, you could switch to UDP, which is actually packet-based and guarantees that if you receive something it'll be a single packet from the other side (though it doesn't guarantee order of packets or even their delivery).
You might be able to make this work by strategically placing out.flush() in your code, but depending on that will make your code very fragile.
TCP is a stream of bytes, it has no concept of message boundaries (like UDP does, for instance). There is no 1-to-1 relationship between sends and reads. Sent data can be joined and fragmented in whatever packets the network deems necessary for efficient transmission. The only guarantees that TCP provides you are:
data will be delivery (unless the connection is closed or lost)
data will be received in the same order it was sent
So, to do what you are asking for, you have to explicitly mark where one data ends and the next begins. For example, by sending the data's length before the actual data, eg:
try {
DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream()));
String[] array = new String[4];
array[0] = "stack";
array[1] = "over";
array[2] = "flow";
array[3] = "coding";
out.writeInt(array.length);
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
byte[] bytes = array[i].getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
out.writeInt(bytes.length);
out.write(bytes, 0, bytes.length);
}
out.flush();
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
This way, the receiver can first read an integer to know how many strings are being sent, then run a loop, where each iteration reads an integer for the string length then reads the bytes for that string, eg:
try {
DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(socket.getInputStream()));
int count = in.readInt();
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
int length = in.readInt();
byte[] bytes = new byte[length];
in.readFully(bytes);
String s = new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
System.out.println("Incoming Transmission => " + s);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}

Send int on socket as byte[] then recast to int not works

I'm trying to serialize Object between NIO SocketChannel and blocking IO Socket. Since I can't use Serializable/writeObject on NIO, I thought to write code to serialize object into an ByteArrayOutputStream then send array length followed by array.
Sender function is
public void writeObject(Object obj) throws IOException{
ByteArrayOutputStream serializedObj = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream writer = new ObjectOutputStream(serializedObj);
writer.writeUnshared(obj);
ByteBuffer size = ByteBuffer.allocate(4).putInt(serializedObj.toByteArray().length);
this.getSocket().write(size);
this.getSocket().write(ByteBuffer.wrap(serializedObj.toByteArray()));
}
and receiver is:
public Object readObject(){
try {
//Leggi dimensione totale pacchetto
byte[] dimension = new byte[4];
int byteRead = 0;
while(byteRead < 4) {
byteRead += this.getInputStream().read(dimension, byteRead, 4 - byteRead);
}
int size = ByteBuffer.wrap(dimension).getInt(); /* (*) */
System.out.println(size);
byte[] object = new byte[size];
while(size > 0){
size -= this.getInputStream().read(object);
}
InputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream(object, 0, object.length);
ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(in);
Object res = ois.readUnshared();
ois.close();
return res;
} catch (IOException | ClassNotFoundException e) {
return null;
}
}
The problem is that size (*) is always equals to -1393754107 when serializedObj.toByteArray().length in my test is 316.
I don't understand why casting not works properly.
this.getSocket().write(size);
this.getSocket().write(ByteBuffer.wrap(serializedObj.toByteArray()));
If the result of getSocket() is a SocketChannel in non-blocking mode, the problem is here. You aren't checking the result of write(). In non-blocking mode it can write less than the number of bytes remaining in the ByteBuffer; indeed it can write zero bytes.
So youu aren't writing all the data you think you're writing, so the other end overruns and reads the next length word as part of the data being written, and reads part of the next data as the next length word, and gets a wrong answer. I'm surprised it didn't barf earlier. In fact it probably did, but your deplorable practice of ignoring IOExceptions masked it. Don't do that. Log them.
So you need to loop until all requested data has been written, and if any write() returns zero you need to select on OP_WRITE until it fires, which adds a considerable complication into your code as you have to return to the select loop while remembering that there is an outstanding ByteBuffer with data remaining to be written. And when you get the OP_WRITE and the writes complete you have to deregister interest in OP_WRITE, as it's only of interest after a write() has returned zero.
NB There is no casting in your code.
The problem was write() returned 0 always. This happens because the buffer wasn't flipped before write().

How to manage lots of incoming packets

I have a socketserver set up with a remote client, and it is functional. Upon opening the client and logging in, I noticed that sometimes, there is an error that seems to be due to the client reading an int when it shouldn't be.
Upon logging on, the server sends a series of messages/packets to the client, and these are anything from string messages to information used to load variables on the client's side.
Occasionally, while logging in, an error gets thrown showing that the client has read a packet of size 0 or a very large size. Upon converting the large-sized number into ascii I once found that it was a bit of a string "sk." (I located this string in my code so it's not entirely random).
Looking at my code, I'm not sure why this is happening. Is it possible that the client is reading an int at the wrong time? If so, how can I fix this?
InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(host);
connection = new Socket(address, port);
in = new DataInputStream(connection.getInputStream());
out = new DataOutputStream(connection.getOutputStream());
String process;
System.out.println("Connecting to server on "+ host + " port " + port +" at " + timestamp);
process = "Connection: "+host + ","+port+","+timestamp + ". Version: "+version;
write(0, process);
out.flush();
while (true) {
int len = in.readInt();
if (len < 2 || len > 2000) {
throw new Exception("Invalid Packet, length: "+len+".");
}
byte[] data = new byte[len];
in.readFully(data);
for (Byte b : data) {
System.out.printf("0x%02X ",b);
}
try {
reader.handlePackets(data);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
//connection.close();
//System.exit(0);
//System.out.println("Exiting");
}
}
//Here is code for my write function (Server sided):
public static void write(Client c, Packet pkt) {
for (Client client : clients) {
if (c.equals(client)) {
try {
out.writeInt(pkt.size());
out.write(pkt.getBytes());
out.flush();
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
So looking at the write function, I don't really see how it could be confusing the client and making it read for the size of the packet twice for one packet (at least that's what I think is happening).
If you need more information please ask me.
The client side code looks fine, and the server side code looks fine too.
The most likely issue is that this is some kind of issue with multi-threading and (improper) synchronization. For example, maybe two server-side threads are trying to write a packet to the same client at the same time.
It is also possible that your Packet class has inconsistent implementations of size() and getBytes() ... or that one thread is modifying a Packet objects while a second one is sending it.

Input Stream only returning 1 byte

I am using java comm library to try accomplish a simple read/write to a serial port. I am able to successfully write to the port, and catch the return input from the input stream, but when I read from the input stream I am only able to read 1 byte (when I know there should be 11 returned)
I can write to the port successfully using Putty and am receiving the correct return String there. I am pretty new to Java, buffers and serial i/o and think maybe there is some obvious syntax or understanding of how data is returned to the InputStream. Could someone help me? Thanks!
case SerialPortEvent.DATA_AVAILABLE:
System.out.println("Data available..");
byte[] readBuffer = new byte[11];
try {
System.out.println("We trying here.");
while (inputStream.available() > 0) {
int numBytes = inputStream.read(readBuffer, 1, 11);
System.out.println("Number of bytes read:" + numBytes);
}
System.out.println(new String(readBuffer));
} catch (IOException e) {System.out.println(e);}
break;
}
This code returns the following output:
Data available..
We trying here.
Number of bytes read:1
U
As the documentation states
Reads up to len bytes of data from the input stream into an array of bytes. An attempt is made to read as many as len bytes, but a smaller number may be read.
This behavior is perfectly legal. I would also expect that a SerialPortEvent.DATA_AVAILABLE does not guarantee that all data is available. It's potentially just 1 byte and you get that event 11 times.
Things you can try:
1) Keep reading until you have all your bytes. E.g. wrap your InputStream into a DataInputStream and use readFully, that's the simplest way around the behavior of the regular read method. This might fail if the InputStream does not provide any more bytes and signals end of stream.
DataInputStream din = new DataInputStream(in);
byte[] buffer = new byte[11];
din.readFully(buffer);
// either results in an exception or 11 bytes read
2) read them as they come and append them to some buffer. Once you have all of them take the context of the buffer as result.
private StringBuilder readBuffer = new StringBuilder();
public void handleDataAvailable(InputStream in) throws IOException {
int value;
// reading just one at a time
while ((value = in.read()) != -1) {
readBuffer.append((char) value);
}
}
Some notes:
inputStream.read(readBuffer, 1, 11)
Indices start at 0 and if you want to read 11 bytes into that buffer you have to specify
inputStream.read(readBuffer, 0, 11)
It would otherwise try to put the 11th byte at the 12th index which will not work.

Is there a difference in Java's writeInt when executed on Windows vs an Intel based Mac

I currently writing a Java TCP server to handle the communication with a client (which I didn't write). When the server, hosted on windows, responds to the client with the number of records received the client doesn't read the integer correctly, and instead reads it as an empty packet. When the same server code, hosted on my Mac, responds to the client with the number of records received the client reads the packet and responds correctly. Through my research I haven't found an explanation that seems to solve the issue. I have tried reversing the bytes (Integer.reverseBytes) before calling the writeInt method and that didn't seem to resolve the issue. Any ideas are appreciated.
Brian
After comparing the pcap files there are no obvious differences in how they are sent. The first byte is sent followed by the last 3. Both systems send the correct number of records.
Yes I'm referring to the DataOutputStream.writeInt() method. //Code added
public void run() {
try {
InputStream in = socket.getInputStream();
DataOutputStream datOut = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
datOut.writeByte(1); //sends correctly and read correctly by client
datOut.flush();
//below is used to read bytes to determine length of message
int bytesRead=0;
int bytesToRead=25;
byte[] input = new byte[bytesToRead];
while (bytesRead < bytesToRead) {
int result = in.read(input, bytesRead, bytesToRead - bytesRead);
if (result == -1) break;
bytesRead += result;
}
try {
inputLine = getHexString(input);
String hexLength = inputLine.substring(46, 50);
System.out.println("hexLength: " + hexLength);
System.out.println(inputLine);
//used to read entire sent message
bytesRead = 0;
bytesToRead = Integer.parseInt(hexLength, 16);
System.out.println("bytes to read " + bytesToRead);
byte[] dataInput = new byte[bytesToRead];
while (bytesRead < bytesToRead) {
int result = in.read(dataInput, bytesRead, bytesToRead - bytesRead);
if (result == -1) break;
bytesRead += result;
}
String data = getHexString(dataInput);
System.out.println(data);
//Sends received data to class to process
ProcessTel dataValues= new ProcessTel(data);
String[] dataArray = new String[10];
dataArray = dataValues.dataArray();
//assigns returned number of records to be written to client
int towrite = Integer.parseInt(dataArray[0].trim());
//Same write method on Windows & Mac...works on Mac but not Windows
datOut.writeInt(towrite);
System.out.println("Returned number of records: " + Integer.parseInt(dataArray[0].trim()) );
datOut.flush();
} catch (Exception ex) {
Logger.getLogger(ServerThread.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
datOut.close();
in.close();
socket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
As described in its Javadoc, DataOutputStream.writeInt() uses network byte order as per the TCP/IP RFCs. Is that the method you are referring to?
No, x86 processors only support little-endian byte order, it doesn't vary with the OS. Something else is wrong.
I suggest using wireshark to capture the stream from a working Mac server and a non-working Windows server and compare.
Some general comments on your code:
int bytesRead=0;
int bytesToRead=25;
byte[] input = new byte[bytesToRead];
while (bytesRead < bytesToRead) {
int result = in.read(input, bytesRead, bytesToRead - bytesRead);
if (result == -1) break;
bytesRead += result;
}
This EOF handling is hokey. It means that you don't know whether or not you've actually read the full 25 bytes. And if you don't, you'll assume that the bytes-to-send is 0.
Worse, you copy-and-paste this code lower down, relying on proper initialization of the same variables. If there's a typo, you'll never know it. You could refactor it into its own method (with tests), or you could call DataInputStream.readFully().
inputLine = getHexString(input);
String hexLength = inputLine.substring(46, 50);
You're converting to hex in order to extract an integer? Why? And more important, if you have any endianness issues this is probably the reason
I was originally going to recommend using a ByteBuffer to extract values, but on a second look I think you should wrap your input stream with a DataInputStream. That would allow you to read complete byte[] buffers without the need for a loop, and it would let you get rid of the byte-to-hex-to-integer conversions: you'd simply call readInt().
But, continuing on:
String[] dataArray = new String[10];
dataArray = dataValues.dataArray();
Do you realize that the new String[10] is being thrown away by the very next line? Is that what you want?
int towrite = Integer.parseInt(dataArray[0].trim());
datOut.writeInt(towrite);
System.out.println("Returned number of records: " + Integer.parseInt(dataArray[0].trim()) );
If you're using logging statements, print what you're actually using (towrite). Don't recalculate it. There's too much of a chance to make a mistake.
} catch (Exception ex) {
Logger.getLogger(ServerThread.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
// ...
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
Do either or both of these catch blocks get invoked? And why do they send their output to different places? For that matter, if you have a logger, why are you inserting System.out.println() statements?

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