TCP Client problem while trying to multiplex stdin and scoket

[arnamoy10]

Hello;
I am writing this TCPClient which will multiplex between the stdin and socket to get mesages from the server. The server is implemented to deal with multiple clients. But I have written the following code. But when I run the code, it is only going in the infinite loop and not even printing the statements which I have mentioned below. And obviously, it is not working as I want to work (send messages and receive messages at the same time)

/* tcpclient.c */

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>

int main()

{

    int sock, bytes_recieved;  
    char send_data[1024],recv_data[1024];
    struct hostent *host;
    struct sockaddr_in server_addr;  
    fd_set read_fds;
    char ch;
    int count = 0;
    int i;


    host = gethostbyname("127.0.0.1");

    //create the socket
    if ((sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) == -1) {
    perror("Socket");
    exit(1);
    }

    //set server info
    server_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;     
    server_addr.sin_port = htons(5000);   
    server_addr.sin_addr = *((struct in_addr *)host->h_addr);
    bzero(&(server_addr.sin_zero),8); 

    //connect to the server
    if (connect(sock, (struct sockaddr *)&server_addr,
        sizeof(struct sockaddr)) == -1) 
    {
        perror("Connect");
        exit(1);
    }
    printf("stage 1"); //the program is not even printing this but it is going to the infinite loop below!!!!



    while(1)
    {
        //initialize the readset and add stdin and the socket to it
        FD_ZERO(&read_fds);
        FD_SET(0, &read_fds);
        FD_SET(sock, &read_fds);

        printf("Send something: %s",send_data); //this is also is not getting printed
        if(select(sock+1, &read_fds, NULL, NULL, NULL) == -1)
        {
            perror("Server-select() error lol!");
            exit(1);
        }

        if(FD_ISSET(0, &read_fds)) //something has happened in the stdin
        {     
            printf("key pressed"); //when I press a key, it should get here, but its not printing this also!!
            ch = getc(0);
            if (ch=='\n')  //user typed enter, time to send the content of the buffer and clear it
            {
                send(sock, send_data, sizeof(send_data), 0);
                send_data[0]='\0';
                count = 0;
            }
            else //append the pressed character to the buffer
            {
                printf("here");  //it is also not printed!!!
                send_data[count]=ch;
                count++;
            }
        }
        else if(FD_ISSET(sock, &read_fds)) //server has sent something
        {
            bytes_recieved = recv(i, recv_data, sizeof(recv_data), 0);
            printf("%s",recv_data);
            recv_data[0]='\0';
        }

    }//end of infinite while
  
    return 0;
}

I see in the following thread that there has been a discussion on this. But I am still having problem
Multiplexing read socket and stdin

Thanks for your help;
Arnamoy

[Salem]

Well you don't seem to be printing any newlines, or calling fflush(stdout)

[arnamoy10]

Thank you for your answer. Sorry I didn't get you when you said I am not printing newline. When is it needed? I am just trying to receive messages from the server and also send the message to the server. And the message is only sent when the client presses "enter" (as I getc it and it appears as \n then).

When would it be necessary to print newline and also where should I use fflush?

[anduril462]

stdout is line buffered. That means that the data normally doesn't appear on the screen until you print a newline. That is, you can call printf or putchar, but the data wont show up on the screen right away unless there's a newline at the end. One way to get it there sooner without printing a newline, is to use fflush(stdout). So the answer to when you should print a new line is "whenever you want a new line in your output, or whenever you want to flush the stdout buffer and don't mind a newline in your output". The answer to when you should use fflush(stdout) is "whenever you want to flush the stdout buffer". In the program you posted, this would probably be right after any comment that says "this isn't getting printed".

[MK27]

Probably not part of your current problem, but you use if...else to check what select() did, but select potentially will set more than one fd as having pending events.