ACE Tutorial 005
On the road to a multithreaded server


Now we're finally at client_handler.cpp where we have to write some code.  This file has more code than the rest of the application all together.


// $Id$

/* In client_handler.h I alluded to the fact that we'll mess around
   with a Client_Acceptor pointer.  To do so, we need the
   Client_Acceptor object declaration.

   We know that including client_handler.h is redundant because
   client_acceptor.h includes it.  Still, the sentry prevents
   double-inclusion from causing problems and it's sometimes good to
   be explicit about what we're using.

   On the other hand, we don't directly include any ACE header files
   here.  */
#include "client_acceptor.h"
#include "client_handler.h"

/* Our constructor doesn't do anything.  That's generally a good idea.
   Unless you want to start throwing exceptions, there isn't a really
   good way to indicate that a constructor has failed.  If I had my
   way, I'd have a boolean return code from it that would cause new to
   return 0 if I failed.  Oh well...  */
Client_Handler::Client_Handler (void)
{
}

/* Our destructor doesn't do anything either.  That is also by design.
   Remember, we really want folks to use destroy() to get rid of us.
   If that's so, then there's nothing left to do when the destructor
   gets invoked.  */
Client_Handler::~Client_Handler (void)
{
  // Make sure that our peer closes when we're deleted.  This
  // will probably happened when the peer is deleted but it
  // doesn't hurt to be explicit.
  this->peer ().close ();
}

/* The much talked about destroy() method!  The reason I keep going on
   about this is because it's just a Bad Idea (TM) to do real work
   inside of a destructor.  Although this method is void, it really
   should return int so that it can tell the caller there was a
   problem.  Even as void you could at least throw an exception which
   you would never want to do in a destructor.  */
void
Client_Handler::destroy (void)
{
  /* Tell the reactor to forget all about us.  Notice that we use the
    same args here that we use in the open() method to register
    ourselves.  In addition, we use the DONT_CALL flag to prevent
    handle_close() being called.  Since we likely got here due to
    handle_close(), that could cause a bit of nasty recursion!  */
  this->reactor ()->remove_handler (this,
                                    ACE_Event_Handler:: READ_MASK | ACE_Event_Handler::DONT_CALL);

  /* This is how we're able to tell folks not to use delete.  By
    deleting our own instance, we take care of memory leaks after
    ensuring that the object is shut down correctly.  */
  delete this;
}

/* As mentioned before, the open() method is called by the
   Client_Acceptor when a new client connection has been accepted.
   The Client_Acceptor instance pointer is cast to a void* and given
   to us here.  We'll use that to avoid some global data...  */
int
Client_Handler::open (void *_acceptor)
{
  /* Convert the void* to a Client_Acceptor*.  You should probably use
     those fancy ACE_*_cast macros but I can never remember how/when
     to do so.  Since you can cast just about anything around a void*
     without compiler warnings be very sure of what you're doing when
     you do this kind of thing.  That's where the new-style cast
     operators can save you.  */
  Client_Acceptor *acceptor = (Client_Acceptor *) _acceptor;

  /* Our reactor reference will be set when we register ourselves but
     I decided to go ahead and set it here.  No good reason really...  */
  this->reactor (acceptor->reactor ());

  /* We need this to store the address of the client that we are now
     connected to.  We'll use it later to display a debug message.  */
  ACE_INET_Addr addr;

  /* Our ACE_Svc_Handler baseclass gives us the peer() method as a way
     to access our underlying ACE_SOCK_Stream.  On that object, we can
     invoke the get_remote_addr() method to get an ACE_INET_Addr
     having our client's address information. As with most ACE
     methods, we'll get back (and return) a -1 if there was any kind
     of error.  Once we have the ACE_INET_Addr, we can query it to
     find out the clien's host name, TCP/IP address, TCP/IP port value
     and so forth.  One word of warning: the get_host_name() method of
     ACE_INET_Addr may return you an empty string if your name server
     can't resolve it.  On the other hand, get_host_addr() will always
     give you the dotted-decimal string representing the TCP/IP
     address.  */
  if (this->peer ().get_remote_addr (addr) == -1)
    return -1;

  /* If we managed to get the client's address then we're connected to
     a real and valid client.  I suppose that in some cases, the
     client may connect and disconnect so quickly that it is invalid
     by the time we get here. In any case, the test above should
     always be done to ensure that the connection is worth keeping.

     Now, register ourselves with a reactor and tell that reactor that
     we want to be notified when there is something to read.
     Remember, we took our reactor value from the acceptor which
     created us in the first place.  Since we're exploring a
     single-threaded implementation, this is the correct thing to do.  */
  if (this->reactor ()->register_handler (this,
                                          ACE_Event_Handler::READ_MASK) == -1)
    ACE_ERROR_RETURN ((LM_ERROR,
                       "(%P|%t) can't register with reactor\n"),
                      -1);

  /* Here, we use the ACE_INET_Addr object to print a message with the
     name of the client we're connected to.  Again, it is possible
     that you'll get an empty string for the host name if your DNS
     isn't configured correctly or if there is some other reason that
     a TCP/IP addreess cannot be converted into a host name.  */
  ACE_DEBUG ((LM_DEBUG,
              "(%P|%t) connected with %s\n",
              addr.get_host_name ()));

  /* Always return zero on success.  */
  return 0;
}

/* In the open() method, we registered with the reactor and requested
   to be notified when there is data to be read.  When the reactor
   sees that activity it will invoke this handle_input() method on us.
   As I mentioned, the _handle parameter isn't useful to us but it
   narrows the list of methods the reactor has to worry about and the
   list of possible virtual functions we would have to override.  */
int
Client_Handler::handle_input (ACE_HANDLE handle)
{
  /* Some compilers don't like it when you fail to use a parameter.
     This macro will keep 'em quiet for you.  */
  ACE_UNUSED_ARG (handle);

  /* Now, we create and initialize a buffer for receiving the data.
     Since this is just a simple test app, we'll use a small buffer
     size.  */
  char buf[BUFSIZ];

  /* Invoke the process() method with a pointer to our data area.
     We'll let that method worry about interfacing with the data.  You
     might choose to go ahead and read the data and then pass the
     result to process().  However, application logic may require that
     you read a few bytes to determine what else to read...  It's best
     if we push that all into the application-logic level.  */
  return this->process (buf, sizeof (buf));
}

/* If we return -1 out of handle_input() or if the reactor sees other
   problems with us then handle_close() will be called.  The reactor
   framework will take care of removing us (due to the -1), so we
   don't need to use the destroy() method.  Instead, we just delete
   ourselves directly.  */
int
Client_Handler::handle_close (ACE_HANDLE handle,
                              ACE_Reactor_Mask mask)
{
  ACE_UNUSED_ARG (handle);
  ACE_UNUSED_ARG (mask);

  delete this;
  return 0;
}

/* And, at last, we get to the application-logic level.  Out of
   everything we've done so far, this is the only thing that really
   has anything to do with what your application will do.  In this
   method we will read and process the client's data.  In a real
   appliation, you will probably have a bit more in main() to deal
   with command line options but after that point, all of the action
   takes place here.  */
int
Client_Handler::process (char *rdbuf,
                         int rdbuf_len)
{
    ssize_t bytes_read = -1;

  /* Using the buffer provided for us, we read the data from the
     client. If there is a read error (eg -- recv() returns -1) then
     it's a pretty good bet that the connection is gone.  Likewise, if
     we read zero bytes then something wrong has happened.  The
     reactor wouldn't have called us if there wasn't some kind of read
     activity but there wouldn't be activity if there were no bytes to
     read...

     On the other hand, if we got some data then we can display it in
     a debug message for everyone to see.  */
    switch ( (bytes_read = this->peer ().recv (rdbuf, rdbuf_len)) )
    {
    case -1: // Complain and leave
      ACE_ERROR_RETURN ((LM_ERROR,
                         "(%P|%t) %p bad read\n",
                         "client"),
                        -1);
    case 0: // Complain and leave
      ACE_ERROR_RETURN ((LM_ERROR,
                         "(%P|%t) closing daemon (fd = %d)\n",
                         this->get_handle ()),
                        -1);
    default: // Show the data
        // NULL-terminate the string before printing it.
      rdbuf[bytes_read] = 0;
      ACE_DEBUG ((LM_DEBUG,
                  "(%P|%t) from client: %s",
                  rdbuf));
    }

   /* It's also worth mentioning that recv() has a cousin: recv_n().
     recv_n() will receive exactly the number of bytes you provide it.
     This is very good when you know exactly how much you expect to
     receive.  For the application here, unfortunately, we don't have
     any idea how much the client will be sending.  recv() will read
     up-to-but-not-more-than the number of bytes we specify (e.g. --
     _rdbuf_len).  That works well when we don't know how much the
     client will provide.  */

  return 0;
}


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