Question

Okay, so I have a really simple GServer server and an even simpler TCPSocket client (I looked into writing my own async TCPServer, but that turned out to be bigger shoes than I can fill at the moment, so I stumbled across the wonderul GServer).

Now I have this code in my server.rb:

require 'gserver'
class PServer < GServer
  def initialize
    super(9998)
  end

  def serve client_msg
    for byte in client_msg.bytes
      print byte.chr #Just playing, heh
    end
    print "\n"
    client_msg.print 'Lala'
  end
end

s = PServer.new
s.audit = true
s.debug = true
s.start
s.join

So, when I run it, I get no problems (I think) and get this output:

[Date and stuff, too long to type] PServer 127.0.0.1:9998 start

The client.rb code:

require 'socket'
client = TCPSocket.new('localhost', 9998)
client.print "Hi!"
p client.gets
client.close

Now, when I run the client, the server reports that it connected, the “Hi!” message. The client ‘floats’ open (sorry for the lack of a better expression) the whole time, leaving the connection open (however “Lala” is not printed out).

When I run the client again, omitting the line p client.gets; the server reports a connection, the “Hi!” and the disconnection of the client. The client just executes and I am returned to the good old prompt. Now, I’m wondering why this is happening. Is it the GServer, the Client, am I doing something dreadfully wrong? Please tell meee. I’m in a metaphorical agony right now.

Thanks for even reading this gigantic text (which is probably full of typos).
xo

Answer 1

I think you have the wrong idea about what the parameter to serve is. It’s not a message, it is an IO object. Calling bytes on the IO object will try to read it until there is nothing left to read (that is, until the connection is closed). You should use gets for line-based communication, or read for binary protocols.

Try replacing your serve method with this one:

def serve(socket)
  puts socket.gets.chomp
  socket.puts 'Lala'
end