Question

I have a client application, and a server one.

I want to send a file from one machine to the other, so it seems the socket.FileSend method is exactly what I’m looking for.

But since there isn’t a FileReceive method what should I do on the server side in order to receive a file? (My problem is because the file will have a variable size, and will be bigger than any buffer I can create GB order…)

Answer 1

On the server side you could use a TcpListener and once a client is connected read the stream in chunks and save it to a file:

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var listener = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Loopback, 11000);
        listener.Start();
        while (true)
        {
            using (var client = listener.AcceptTcpClient())
            using (var stream = client.GetStream())
            using (var output = File.Create("result.dat"))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Client connected. Starting to receive the file");

                // read the file in chunks of 1KB
                var buffer = new byte[1024];
                int bytesRead;
                while ((bytesRead = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
                {
                    output.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
                }
            }
        }

    }
}

As far as the sending is concerned you may take a look at the example provided in the documentation of the SendFile method.

This being said you might also take a look at a more robust solution which is to use WCF. There are protocols such as MTOM which are specifically optimized for sending binary data over HTTP. It is a much more robust solution compared to relying on sockets which are very low level. You will have to handle things like filenames, presumably metadata, … things that are already taken into account in existing protocols.