NetMQ Receive/Response not working when looping

Question

I took one of the simple receive/request socket example on https://netmq.readthedocs.io/ and wanted to make it work with a parametrizedThread in an infinite loop. The code works fine for few loops, after which it throws the

A non-blocking socket operation could not be completed immediately

For what I got the above should happen immediately after the first loop and not randomly. What is the issue here? It sounds like something has to be flushed out in order to get a clean connection again (not sure).

    class Program
{
    public class Connector
    {
        public String connection { get; set; }
        public ResponseSocket server { get; set; }

        public Connector(string address, ResponseSocket server_)
        {
            this.connection = address;
            this.server = server_;
        }
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string connection = "tcp://localhost:5555";
        using (var server = new ResponseSocket())
        {
            while (true)
            {
                try
                {
                    server.Bind(connection);
                }
                catch (NetMQException e)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(e.ErrorCode);
                }

                Connector c = new Connector(connection, server);

                ParameterizedThreadStart parametrizedClientThread = new ParameterizedThreadStart(runClientSide);
                Thread t = new Thread(parametrizedClientThread);
                t.Start(c);
                //runClientSide(connection, server);
            }
        }
    }

    private static void runClientSide(object param)
    {
        Connector conn = (Connector)param;
        string connection = conn.connection;
        ResponseSocket server = conn.server;
        using (var client = new RequestSocket())
        {
            client.Connect(connection);
            client.SendFrame("Hello");

            string fromClientMessage = server.ReceiveFrameString();
            Console.WriteLine("From Client: {0}", fromClientMessage);
            server.SendFrame("Hi Back");

            string fromServerMessage = client.ReceiveFrameString();
            Console.WriteLine("From Server: {0}", fromServerMessage);

            //Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

You can only open one connection to a server using the same port number. You have to close the connection before opening a new connection or don't close the connection after each message. The while loop looks wrong. — jdweng, Jan 13 '17 at 16:47
Not sure the problem is loop or not. In fact if you remove the parametrizedThread part and use the commented out method (modifying input parameters underneath), code works fine in the loop. For what I know request/response is not thread safe. Not sure what's wrong. — yuppy10, Jan 14 '17 at 11:35
The main() method is not in the same process as the Thread which is cross threading and an "Invoke" need to be used to transfer data between the two processes. — jdweng, Jan 14 '17 at 12:32
There is no need to call `Invoke` on anything. I guess you were talking about Windows Forms applications, where this would be needed to update the UI. Indeed it is a cross thread access to server socket from within each client. — dwonisch, Jan 18 '17 at 21:51

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 18 '17 at 21:47

NetMQSockets are not thread safe and you are accessing the server from inside your client threads to send/receive data. Client shouldn't have access to server socket anyway.

First of all move the Bind outside of the while loop, it is needed once only, not for every client created. To wait for messages use NetMQPoller, it will handle everything else for you and will raise servers ReceiveReady event, once a message was received.

static void Main(string[] args) {
    string connection = "tcp://localhost:5555";
    using (var poller = new NetMQPoller()) {
        using (var server = new ResponseSocket()) {
            server.ReceiveReady += Server_ReceiveReady;
            poller.Add(server);
            poller.RunAsync();

            server.Bind(connection);

            // start 10000 clients
            for(int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {

                ParameterizedThreadStart parametrizedClientThread = new ParameterizedThreadStart(runClientSide);
                Thread t = new Thread(parametrizedClientThread);
                t.Start(connection);
            }

            Console.ReadLine(); //let server run until user pressed Enter key
        }
    }
}

//server (e.Socket) is receiving data here and can answer it
private static void Server_ReceiveReady(object sender, NetMQSocketEventArgs e) {
    string fromClientMessage = e.Socket.ReceiveFrameString();
    Console.WriteLine("From Client: {0}", fromClientMessage);
    e.Socket.SendFrame("Hi Back");
}

private static void runClientSide(object param) {
    string connection = (string) param;

    using (var client = new RequestSocket()) {
        client.Connect(connection);
        client.SendFrame("Hello");

        //Removed server side code here and put it into ReceiveReady event

        string fromServerMessage = client.ReceiveFrameString();
        Console.WriteLine("From Server: {0}", fromServerMessage);
    }
}

Thanks, I see now where I was doing it wrong. Much appreciated the help! — yuppy10, Jan 24 '17 at 12:31

NetMQ Receive/Response not working when looping

1 Answers1