Discussion:
[asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?
Robert Bielik
2017-02-02 06:39:49 UTC
Permalink
Hi all,

I'm basing a TCP server on the async TCP echo server, i.e. I do async reads on the socket. But I expected to get a notification when a client drops its connection, i.e. async_read would call the supplied callback with an error, but it doesn't. This is a problem since the server I make will only allow one active connection, so connection state detection needs to be rock solid.

I'm using the Chrome Netcat app to connect. If I make an explicit disconnect, the session gets terminated properly. But not if I just close the Netcat app with an active connection.

Regards
/Robert
ivan kostov
2017-02-02 07:06:42 UTC
Permalink
Hi Robert,

I think in this case it is better to shutdown the connection (
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/shutdown.2.html )instead of just
closing it.
Shutting down is like saying "Good bye" on the phone and only closing is
like hanging up :)

Sample code:

boost::system::error_code ec;
tcpSocket.shutdown(boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket::shutdown_both, ec);
tcpSocket.close();

Best regards,
Ivan

2017-02-02 7:39 GMT+01:00 Robert Bielik <***@dirac.com>:

> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I’m basing a TCP server on the async TCP echo server, i.e. I do async
> reads on the socket. But I expected to get a notification when a client
> drops its connection, i.e. async_read would call the supplied callback with
> an error, but it doesn’t. This is a problem since the server I make will
> only allow one active connection, so connection state detection needs to be
> rock solid.
>
>
>
> I’m using the Chrome Netcat app to connect. If I make an explicit
> disconnect, the session gets terminated properly. But not if I just close
> the Netcat app with an active connection.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> /Robert
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------------
> Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
> engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
> _______________________________________________
> asio-users mailing list
> asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/asio-users
> _______________________________________________
> Using Asio? List your project at
> http://think-async.com/Asio/WhoIsUsingAsio
>
>
Robert Bielik
2017-02-02 07:29:54 UTC
Permalink
Thanks Ivan,

As I might not be able to change anything on the client side, it needs to be able to detect severed connections. The client might crash f.i.

As the server is “hanging” on the socket.async_read(
) call, shouldn’t be possible to detect a terminated connection ?

I’m testing this right now on Windows (10) but the server will ultimately be deployed on Linux (Raspberry Pi). Are there platform differences with regard to this ?

Regards
/Robert



Från: ivan kostov [mailto:***@gmail.com]
Skickat: den 2 februari 2017 08:07
Till: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
Ämne: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?

Hi Robert,

I think in this case it is better to shutdown the connection ( http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/shutdown.2.html )instead of just closing it.
Shutting down is like saying "Good bye" on the phone and only closing is like hanging up :)

Sample code:

boost::system::error_code ec;
tcpSocket.shutdown(boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket::shutdown_both, ec);
tcpSocket.close();

Best regards,
Ivan

2017-02-02 7:39 GMT+01:00 Robert Bielik <***@dirac.com<mailto:***@dirac.com>>:
Hi all,

I’m basing a TCP server on the async TCP echo server, i.e. I do async reads on the socket. But I expected to get a notification when a client drops its connection, i.e. async_read would call the supplied callback with an error, but it doesn’t. This is a problem since the server I make will only allow one active connection, so connection state detection needs to be rock solid.

I’m using the Chrome Netcat app to connect. If I make an explicit disconnect, the session gets terminated properly. But not if I just close the Netcat app with an active connection.

Regards
/Robert


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Yuri Timenkov
2017-02-02 07:48:57 UTC
Permalink
Hi Robert,

There are TCP keep-alive timeouts, but they are not usable in practice (could be between hours and days).

What we did in this case is together with every read operation scheduled a deadline_timer which when fired calls shutdown() on the socket, so read operation will return with corresponding error code.
Of course successful read operation should re-schedule timer.

Note that timer callback is guaranteed to be executed only once, even when cancelled, so you need to handle error code properly.

I would also recommend using strands to avoid concurrent access to shared resources (however calling shutdown() on socket invokes system call directly without changing C++ object state, compared to close(), so it’s relatively safe to call it in parallel with read).

Hope this helps,
Yuri

From: Robert Bielik<mailto:***@dirac.com>
Sent: den 2 februari 2017 08:30
To: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?

Thanks Ivan,

As I might not be able to change anything on the client side, it needs to be able to detect severed connections. The client might crash f.i.

As the server is “hanging” on the socket.async_read(…) call, shouldn’t be possible to detect a terminated connection ?

I’m testing this right now on Windows (10) but the server will ultimately be deployed on Linux (Raspberry Pi). Are there platform differences with regard to this ?

Regards
/Robert



Från: ivan kostov [mailto:***@gmail.com]
Skickat: den 2 februari 2017 08:07
Till: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
Ämne: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?

Hi Robert,

I think in this case it is better to shutdown the connection ( http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/shutdown.2.html )instead of just closing it.
Shutting down is like saying "Good bye" on the phone and only closing is like hanging up :)

Sample code:

boost::system::error_code ec;
tcpSocket.shutdown(boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket::shutdown_both, ec);
tcpSocket.close();

Best regards,
Ivan

2017-02-02 7:39 GMT+01:00 Robert Bielik <***@dirac.com<mailto:***@dirac.com>>:
Hi all,

I’m basing a TCP server on the async TCP echo server, i.e. I do async reads on the socket. But I expected to get a notification when a client drops its connection, i.e. async_read would call the supplied callback with an error, but it doesn’t. This is a problem since the server I make will only allow one active connection, so connection state detection needs to be rock solid.

I’m using the Chrome Netcat app to connect. If I make an explicit disconnect, the session gets terminated properly. But not if I just close the Netcat app with an active connection.

Regards
/Robert


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
asio-users mailing list
asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/asio-users
_______________________________________________
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Allen
2017-02-02 10:00:56 UTC
Permalink
The are many circumstances with TCP connections that a server will not
get a notification that a client has disappeared, for example, if the
client crashes, has its power turned off or its network cable
disconnected. The only way the server has of knowing something is
wrong is to timeout and close the connection. As a consequence, if
you want a connection to stay open for an extended period of time
without any activity, at least one of the two parties has to send
keepalive packets. The keepalive & timeout mechanism can be
implemented in your application protocol (your server sets a timeout
before every read operation, and the client must explicitly send
keepalive data), or it can be implemented at the TCP level (your
server turns on the TCP keepalive option for each connection). See
https://www.google.com/#q=tcp+keepalive


On Thu, Feb 2, 2017 at 2:48 AM, Yuri Timenkov <***@timenkov.ru> wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
>
>
> There are TCP keep-alive timeouts, but they are not usable in practice
> (could be between hours and days).
>
>
>
> What we did in this case is together with every read operation scheduled a
> deadline_timer which when fired calls shutdown() on the socket, so read
> operation will return with corresponding error code.
>
> Of course successful read operation should re-schedule timer.
>
>
>
> Note that timer callback is guaranteed to be executed only once, even when
> cancelled, so you need to handle error code properly.
>
>
>
> I would also recommend using strands to avoid concurrent access to shared
> resources (however calling shutdown() on socket invokes system call
> directly without changing C++ object state, compared to close(), so it’s
> relatively safe to call it in parallel with read).
>
>
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Yuri
>
>
>
> From: Robert Bielik
> Sent: den 2 februari 2017 08:30
> To: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?
>
>
>
> Thanks Ivan,
>
>
>
> As I might not be able to change anything on the client side, it needs to be
> able to detect severed connections. The client might crash f.i.
>
>
>
> As the server is “hanging” on the socket.async_read(…) call, shouldn’t be
> possible to detect a terminated connection ?
>
>
>
> I’m testing this right now on Windows (10) but the server will ultimately be
> deployed on Linux (Raspberry Pi). Are there platform differences with regard
> to this ?
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> /Robert
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Från: ivan kostov [mailto:***@gmail.com]
> Skickat: den 2 februari 2017 08:07
> Till: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> Ämne: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?
>
>
>
> Hi Robert,
>
>
>
> I think in this case it is better to shutdown the connection (
> http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/shutdown.2.html )instead of just
> closing it.
>
> Shutting down is like saying "Good bye" on the phone and only closing is
> like hanging up :)
>
>
>
> Sample code:
>
>
>
> boost::system::error_code ec;
>
> tcpSocket.shutdown(boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket::shutdown_both, ec);
>
> tcpSocket.close();
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ivan
>
>
>
> 2017-02-02 7:39 GMT+01:00 Robert Bielik <***@dirac.com>:
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I’m basing a TCP server on the async TCP echo server, i.e. I do async reads
> on the socket. But I expected to get a notification when a client drops its
> connection, i.e. async_read would call the supplied callback with an error,
> but it doesn’t. This is a problem since the server I make will only allow
> one active connection, so connection state detection needs to be rock solid.
>
>
>
> I’m using the Chrome Netcat app to connect. If I make an explicit
> disconnect, the session gets terminated properly. But not if I just close
> the Netcat app with an active connection.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> /Robert
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
> engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
> _______________________________________________
> asio-users mailing list
> asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/asio-users
> _______________________________________________
> Using Asio? List your project at
> http://think-async.com/Asio/WhoIsUsingAsio
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
> engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
> _______________________________________________
> asio-users mailing list
> asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/asio-users
> _______________________________________________
> Using Asio? List your project at
> http://think-async.com/Asio/WhoIsUsingAsio
>

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
asio-users mailing list
asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
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_______________________________________________
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http://think-
Robert Bielik
2017-02-02 15:46:47 UTC
Permalink
Thank you Yuri,

I opted for the timer based approach, so basically requiring a heartbeat message sent every 10secs or so, without that, the session gets terminated (via socket.shutdown())

Regards
/R

Från: Yuri Timenkov [mailto:***@outlook.com] För Yuri Timenkov
Skickat: den 2 februari 2017 08:49
Till: Robert Bielik <***@dirac.com>; asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net
Ämne: RE: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?

Hi Robert,

There are TCP keep-alive timeouts, but they are not usable in practice (could be between hours and days).

What we did in this case is together with every read operation scheduled a deadline_timer which when fired calls shutdown() on the socket, so read operation will return with corresponding error code.
Of course successful read operation should re-schedule timer.

Note that timer callback is guaranteed to be executed only once, even when cancelled, so you need to handle error code properly.

I would also recommend using strands to avoid concurrent access to shared resources (however calling shutdown() on socket invokes system call directly without changing C++ object state, compared to close(), so it's relatively safe to call it in parallel with read).

Hope this helps,
Yuri

From: Robert Bielik<mailto:***@dirac.com>
Sent: den 2 februari 2017 08:30
To: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?

Thanks Ivan,

As I might not be able to change anything on the client side, it needs to be able to detect severed connections. The client might crash f.i.

As the server is "hanging" on the socket.async_read(...) call, shouldn't be possible to detect a terminated connection ?

I'm testing this right now on Windows (10) but the server will ultimately be deployed on Linux (Raspberry Pi). Are there platform differences with regard to this ?

Regards
/Robert



Från: ivan kostov [mailto:***@gmail.com]
Skickat: den 2 februari 2017 08:07
Till: asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
Ämne: Re: [asio-users] No notification on terminated TCP connection?

Hi Robert,

I think in this case it is better to shutdown the connection ( http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/shutdown.2.html )instead of just closing it.
Shutting down is like saying "Good bye" on the phone and only closing is like hanging up :)

Sample code:

boost::system::error_code ec;
tcpSocket.shutdown(boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket::shutdown_both, ec);
tcpSocket.close();

Best regards,
Ivan

2017-02-02 7:39 GMT+01:00 Robert Bielik <***@dirac.com<mailto:***@dirac.com>>:
Hi all,

I'm basing a TCP server on the async TCP echo server, i.e. I do async reads on the socket. But I expected to get a notification when a client drops its connection, i.e. async_read would call the supplied callback with an error, but it doesn't. This is a problem since the server I make will only allow one active connection, so connection state detection needs to be rock solid.

I'm using the Chrome Netcat app to connect. If I make an explicit disconnect, the session gets terminated properly. But not if I just close the Netcat app with an active connection.

Regards
/Robert


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________
asio-users mailing list
asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:asio-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/asio-users
_______________________________________________
Using Asio? List your project at
http://think-async.com/Asio/WhoIsUsingAsio
Marat Abrarov
2017-02-02 09:41:16 UTC
Permalink
Hi Robert,



Issue you described has nothing with Asio but is one of the base "features"
of TCP/IP:
https://www.amazon.com/Effective-TCP-IP-Programming-Programs/dp/0201615894



Refer to "Tip10: Remember that TCP/IP is Not Polled":

No notification when connectivity is lost



Network activities are always implemented with timeouts (deadline_timer) and
heartbeats in real life applications because this is the only 100% working
approach :)



Regards,

Marat Abrarov.
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