Nsryjdtyk

I'm relatively new to .Net/UWP networking and have been trying to make sense of the APIs. I'd like to implement a TCP client that is capable of reading and sending messages independently (there is no protocol and all messages are independent).

Typically (e.g. in a POSIX C++ server), this would be done by spinning up a thread and reading continuously (sleeping periodically if no data) or using asynchronous I/O (epoll, select-poll, etc.)

I've implemented a UWP-compatible client that attempts to use ReadAsync as well as cancellation tokens to shut the client down.

This is a pretty rough cut and I'd like to flesh it out more, especially wrt error handling. Some questions:

1. Is looping continuously as I've done in ReadMessages() the recommended/idiomatic way of using these functions?




2. Am I using the cancellation tokens appropriately? My intent is to be able to kill a ReadAsync() request when the client object is destructed (or, eventually, when a Disconnect() method is added).




3. Where should I be detecting disconnects? try-catch blocks around the ReadAsync methods?

Lastly, messages (their byte buffers, rather), would be output using a fast queue. I've commented that portion out. The intent is to use this as a component in a larger application (e.g., Unity).

Thank you. Code below.

namespace Messages

{

  [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 1)]

  public struct Header

  {

    public UInt32 size;

    public UInt32 id;

    public UInt64 received_timestamp;

  }



  [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 1)]

  public struct PingMessage

  {

    public Header header;

    public UInt64 timestamp;



    public void Init()

    {

      header.size = (UInt32)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(PingMessage));

      header.id = 0xdeaddead;

      timestamp = (UInt64)System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.GetTimestamp();

    }

  }



  [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 1)]

  public struct PongMessage

  {

    public Header header;

    public UInt64 ping_timestamp;



    public void Init()

    {

      header.size = (UInt32)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(PongMessage));

      header.id = 0xdeadbeef;

    }

  }

}

  public class Client

  {

    private Windows.Networking.Sockets.StreamSocket m_socket;

    private System.Threading.Tasks.Task m_connectionTask;

    private Windows.Storage.Streams.DataWriter m_writer;

    private System.IO.Stream m_inputStream;



    private Windows.Networking.HostName m_hostname;

    private string m_port;



    private bool m_connected = false;

    private System.Threading.CancellationTokenSource m_cancellationSource = new System.Threading.CancellationTokenSource();



    private byte m_header = new byte[Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(Messages.Header))];

    private byte m_messageBuffer = null;



    //private BlockingRingBuffer<byte> m_receiveQueue = new BlockingRingBuffer<byte>(1024 * 1024, true);



    public static byte Serialize<T>(ref T str)

    {

      int size = Marshal.SizeOf(str);

      byte arr = new byte[size];

      GCHandle h = default(GCHandle);

      try

      {

        h = GCHandle.Alloc(arr, GCHandleType.Pinned);

        Marshal.StructureToPtr<T>(str, h.AddrOfPinnedObject(), false);

      }

      finally

      {

        if (h.IsAllocated)

        {

          h.Free();

        }

      }

      return arr;

    }



    public static T Deserialize<T>(byte arr) where T : struct

    {

      T str = default(T);

      GCHandle h = default(GCHandle);

      try

      {

        h = GCHandle.Alloc(arr, GCHandleType.Pinned);

        str = (T)Marshal.PtrToStructure(h.AddrOfPinnedObject(), typeof(T));

      }

      finally

      {

        if (h.IsAllocated)

        {

          h.Free();

        }

      }

      return str;

    }



    public async void Send(byte bytes)

    {

      await m_connectionTask;



      if (!m_connected)

      {

        Console.WriteLine("NOT CONNECTED: dropping message");

        return;

      }



      try

      {

        m_writer.WriteBytes(bytes);

        await m_writer.StoreAsync();

        Console.WriteLine("Sent " + bytes.Length + " bytes");

      }

      catch (Exception exception)

      {

        // If this is an unknown status it means that the error if fatal and retry will likely fail.

        if (Windows.Networking.Sockets.SocketError.GetStatus(exception.HResult) == Windows.Networking.Sockets.SocketErrorStatus.Unknown)

        {

          throw;

        }

        Console.WriteLine("Error: Failed to send: " + exception.Message);

      }

    }



    /*

    public byte GetNextMessage()

    {

      byte buffer;

      m_receiveQueue.TryDequeue(out buffer);

      return buffer;

    }

    */



    private async void ReadMessages()

    {

      //TODO: handle disconnections and exceptions?

      while (true)

      {

        // Read header

        await m_inputStream.ReadAsync(m_header, 0, m_header.Length, m_cancellationSource.Token);

        if (m_cancellationSource.IsCancellationRequested)

        {

          return;

        }



        // Read remainder of message

        Messages.Header header = Deserialize<Messages.Header>(m_header);

        m_messageBuffer = new byte[header.size];

        Buffer.BlockCopy(m_header, 0, m_messageBuffer, 0, m_header.Length);

        await m_inputStream.ReadAsync(m_messageBuffer, m_header.Length, (int)header.size - m_header.Length, m_cancellationSource.Token);

        if (m_cancellationSource.IsCancellationRequested)

        {

          return;

        }



        // Enqueue

        //TODO: put on ring buffer

        Console.WriteLine("Read message: {0:x}, {1} bytes, thread={2}", header.id, header.size, System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);

        m_messageBuffer = null;

      }

    }



    public async void Connect(bool blockUntilConnected, Action<bool, Exception> OnConnected = null)

    {

      m_connectionTask = System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Run(

        async () =>

        {

          Exception e = null;



          try

          {

            await m_socket.ConnectAsync(m_hostname, m_port);

            m_writer = new Windows.Storage.Streams.DataWriter(m_socket.OutputStream);

            m_inputStream = m_socket.InputStream.AsStreamForRead();

            m_connected = true;

            Console.WriteLine("Remote Address: " + m_socket.Information.RemoteAddress);

          }

          catch (Exception exception)

          {

            Console.WriteLine("Error: Failed to connect: " + exception.Message);

            m_connected = false;

            e = exception;

          }



          if (OnConnected != null)

          {

            OnConnected(m_connected, e);

          }

        }

      );



      if (blockUntilConnected)

      {

        m_connectionTask.Wait();

      }



      await m_connectionTask;



      if (m_connected)

      {

        ReadMessages();

      }

    }



    public Client(string hostname, int port)

    {

      m_socket = new Windows.Networking.Sockets.StreamSocket();

      m_hostname = new Windows.Networking.HostName(hostname);

      m_port = port.ToString();

    }



    ~Client()

    {

      m_cancellationSource.Cancel();

      //m_receiveQueue.StopWaiting(); // queue cannot be reused after this

      m_writer.Dispose();

      m_socket.Dispose();

    }

  }