Question

How does one set a timeout on a BufferedReader and a PrintWriter created using a socket connection? Here is the code I have for the server right now, which works until either the server or the client crashes:

while(isReceiving){
    str = null;
    BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
    PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);

    while ((str = br.readLine()) != null){
        System.out.println("Processing command " + str);
        pw.println(client.message(str));
    }
}

Outside the scope of this code I have imposed a socket timeout of 1000ms, which works as intended when waiting for the initial connection. But the program blocks at (str = br.readLine()). If the client hangs or crashes, it never stops blocking unless I terminate the process (which even then doesn’t always work).

The client code in question is very similar to this, and is blocking in a similar fashion.

Answer 1

Since calling socket.close() did not seem to interrupt the block at br.readLine(), I did a little workaround. When disconnecting the client from the server, I merely send through a string “bye”, and told the server to close the socket connection when it receives this command.

while ((str = br.readLine()) != null){
    // If we receive a command of "bye" the RemoteControl is instructing
    // the RemoteReceiver to close the connection.
    if (str.equalsIgnoreCase("bye")){
        socket.close();
            break;
    }
    System.out.println("Processing command " + str);
    pw.println(client.message(str));
}