December 2005 - Boost - lists.boost.org

Re: [boost] asio formal review begins
by Oliver.Kowalke＠infineon.com 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Hi Chris, >Hi Oliver, >Is sigaction safe with threads? Doesn't it set the process-wide signal >handler? If so, that won't work if a process might be doing writes from >multiple threads. In the documentation from OpenGroup for sigaction: 'At the time of generation, a determination is made whether the signal has been generated for the process or for a specific thread within the process. ... However, a signal can be blocked from delivery to a thread If the action associated with a blocked signal is anything other than to ignore the signal, and if that signal is generated for the thread the signal will remain pending until it is unblocked, it is accepted when it is selected and returned by a call to the sigwait() function, or the action associated with it is set to ignore the signal.' >I've been doing a bit of reading along the lines of what Jeremy >suggested, and it seems like best thing at this stage is: >- On linux use sendmsg with the MSG_NOSIGNAL flag. >- On Mac OS X use setsockopt with SO_NOSIGPIPE option. I think this would bet he prefered way. Oliver

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Re: [boost] asio formal review begins
by Oliver.Kowalke＠infineon.com 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

>Hi Jeremy, >Unfortunately this flag doesn't seem to be available on Solaris, which >does raise SIGPIPE too. It also doesn't work with writev. I use this code: ... sig::action sa; sa.set_handler( SIG_IGN); sig::action old_sa( sa.run( SIGPIPE) ); boost::shared_ptr< void > guard( static_cast< void * >( 0), boost::bind( & sig::action::run, old_sa, SIGPIPE) ); ::write(...) ... sig:action abstracts struct sigaction, clib function ::sigaction and so on. After sa.run( SIGPIPE) the signal is ignored and write would return EPIPE. The shared_ptr resets the original signal handler after getting out of scope. Oliver

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[asio] Formal Review
by Caleb Epstein 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

* Design I think the design of asio is quite good. It manages to present a modern C++ interface to the arcane and error-prone Berkeley Sockets API (among other things). It takes what I believe is the right approach of mainly providing the low-level interfaces required for a high performance networking library (TCP, UDP sockets with asynchronous operations and I/O multiplexing) and building higher-level functions on top of these primitives. One place where asio stops short, however, is in the area of more high-level user-friendly abstractions. There is one example application (in example/iostreams/daytime_client, unfortunately not linked to in the Review Materials HTML documentation) that illustrates how a high-level Iostreams-based interface can be built using asio and Boost.Iostreams. The "socket_stream" class implemented here is pure gold for users who want to write simple client applications and don't want to know about the demuxer, host resolver, or asynchronous operations. It might be worthwhile to include this class or something like as part of the asio library and not just as an example. * Implementation Excellent. The convention use of Boost.Bind for producing Handlers (e.g. Callbacks) is quite flexible and easy to use. The templated asio::buffer function is an excellent solution for wrapping different containers-of-bytes for sending or receiving network payloads. The code in the library itself is easy to read and follow, as are most of the examples. I've run into some const correctness problems for operations that should likely be const (e.g. basic_*_socket::get_local_endpoint, and ::get_remote_endpoint). For example it would be nice to be able to write this: std::ostream& operator<< (std::ostream& os, const asio::ipv4::tcp::endpoint& endpoint) { return os << endpoint.address().to_string() << ':' << endpoint.port(); } std::ostream& operator<< (std::ostream& os, /* problem here -> */ const asio::socket_acceptor& sock) { sock.get_local_endpoint (endpoint, asio::ignore_error()); return os << endpoint; } But the "const" qualification must be dropped on the second function due to const-correctness issues with ::get_local_endpoint. The lack of IPv6 support does not bother me, and I do not think it should stand in the way of acceptance into Boost, but it is clearly an area for future work. * Documentation The Reference documentation for the library is quite good overall, but it might make sense to elide some of the low-level detail in places. I don't think most users will care that stream_socket is simply a typedef of basic_stream_socket<> (though this could be mentioned on the basic_stream_socket<> documentation). The extra clicks required to get at the documentation you actually need (that of basic_stream_socket) can be frustrating. The Tutorial offers a good introduction to the basics of the library, but I think it could use some additional meat which could likely come from documenting some of the Example programs. As it stands, I think the Doxygen-generated documentation in the Examples section offers very little. More detailed exposition about the form and function of the Examples would be a lot more valuable than the generated reference material that exists now. Additionally, a number of the examples included in the Review Materials appear to be missing from the Examples section of the docs, specifically the chat, echo, iostreams, multicast, ssl and timeouts examples all seem to be ignored. I think the iostreams one in particular would put to rest the questions from people who want a simple, easy-to-use high-level interface. It appears that the valid values for "asio::socket_base::message_flags" are undocumented. This makes the basic_stream::async_* functions rather hard to use :) I think the addition of some benchmark programs might be meaningful and helpful. * Usefulness A networking library is arguably one of the most glaring pieces of functionality missing from C++ and one of the most oft-requested. I think it is not much of a stretch to say that asio could be one of the most popular libraries in Boost if it were to be accepted. * Use I have compiled the test and example programs on a RedHat Linux system with gcc 3.3.4 and another Debian system with gcc 4.0.3. All tests and examples compiled and executed successfully. One small oddity with the Jamfiles seems to be that the top-level directory created in "bin" for this library is boost-asio-proposal-0.3 when I'd expect -0.3.6. In attempts to exercise the multi-threaded capabilities of the library, I ran into a "deadly embrace" problem when I modified the included timer5 example program to run for a longer time with shorter (10 ms) timeouts. I've contacted Chris about this and he's looking into the issue. * Effort I have been toying with asio on and off for a couple of months now. I have probably spent on the order of 12-15 hours reading the documentation and writing small test programs that exercise its features and have had good results interacting with Christopher with comments, suggestions and small bug-fixes. * Me I consider myself quite knowledgeable in the problem domain. I have been writing network-centric applications in C and C++ for many years and have experience using other libraries (e.g. OS-native APIs, ACE, proprietary solutions) that solve some or all of these same problems. * Summary I vote that asio be accepted into Boost. I think it is a fantastic piece of work. -- Caleb Epstein caleb dot epstein at gmail dot com

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asio formal review
by val salamakha 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Hi everybody, I agree with my colleague - asio is ACE without hurt and really the best C++ network libraries. It has been written in modern C++ and has clear interface to BSD sockets. Documentation is foggy a little because of doxygen, but it is not a problem. I have each release of asio almost from the start of development and see significant improvement. Well done Chris, thanks to the contributors as well. I vote yes, asio must be a part of the boost. Valery Salamakha --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping

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Re: [boost] asio formal review begins
by Oliver.Kowalke＠infineon.com 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Hello Christopher, >Hi Oliver, >Multicast support is there - see the example in libs/asio/multicast and >the boost::asio::ipv4::multicast namespace. Sorry - I was searching in the 0.20 version (as I could see 0.3.6 contains multicast). >> SIGPIPE is blocked by the ctor of basic_demuxer - I think it >> would be better to block SIGPIPE only in the functions reading >> from the socket and after that reset to the original signal >> handler. >But that would mean that the SIGPIPE is still delivered to the >application, wouldn't it? That's not very nice since the default >behaviour for SIGPIPE is to terminate the application. I chose to >ignore SIGPIPE globally since most people writing portable applications >would never want to know about it. If you do feel the need to handle >SIGPIPE yourself, just specialise boost::asio::detail::signal_init so >that it isn't ignored. I don't agree. Only if write/sendto is called on a closed socket SIGPIPE should be blocked by your library. In all other cases the user defined signal handler for SIGPIPE should be called. In your solution the user can only ignore SIGPIPE globally (even if the signal is generated from other sources than sockets) or install its own signal handler - and so be forced to distinguish between SIGPIPE from socket and other sources (problem - multiple sockets; which socket has generated the signal?). >> EINTR is not handled in the reading/writing functions? >The blocking functions will return error::interrupted in this case. Wouldn't it be better to call read/write again if EINTR is returned? >> Is it correct, that asio doesn't use AIO System Interfaces from >> the OS (like aiocb, aio_read, aio_write, aio_suspend, ...)? >However these function don't support sockets on Linux yet (AFAIK, it >may just be that they don't support sockets efficiently) Support for kernel AIO has been included in the 2.6 Linux kernel. AIO read and write on sockets doesn't return an explicit error, but quietly defaults to synchronous or rather non-AIO behavior. See http://lse.sourceforge.net/io/aio.html >and for solaris I'm planning to support /dev/poll first. /dev/poll is also supported by Linux. So long, Oliver

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Re: [boost] Problem with building boost_1_33_1 using VC-7_1 - solved.
by Andrew Maclean 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

I found the problem. What I had done was to declare BOOST environment variables and these conflicted with the bjam processing of the files. Maybe a note should be added to the user instructions for building Boost in Windows along the line: "If you have any environment variables such as BOOST_INCLUDE, BOOST_LIB, BOOST_ROOT, BOOST_VERSION. Delete or rename them before running bjam." Thanks Andrew -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Maclean [mailto:a.maclean@cas.edu.au] Sent: Tuesday, 6 December 2005 14:47 To: boost-users(a)lists.boost.org Subject: Problem with building boost_1_33_1 using VC-7_1 The command I am running is: ..\bjam "-sTOOLS=vc-7_1" There is a vast amount of output but the key bit looks to be this: Jamfile:278: in load-jamfiles *** argument error * rule stage ( name : sources + : requirements * : local-build * ) * called with: ( : C:\boost\boost_1_33_1\boost\compatibility\cpp_c_headers\cassert ... <Lots and lots of files are listed> ... C:\boost\boost_1_33_1\boost\wave\util\unput_queue_iterator.hpp : <locate>C:\Boost <tree-subdirs>C:\boost\boost_1_33_1 <target>all : <suppress>true ) * missing argument name C:\boost\boost_1_33_1\tools/build/v1\boost-base.jam:2330:see definition of rule 'stage' being called C:\boost\boost_1_33_1\tools\build\v1\bootstrap.jam:21: in boost-build C:\boost\boost_1_33_1\boost-build.jam:16: in module scope The command works fine in boost_1_33_0. I suspect (but may be wrong) that "/" instrad of "\" may be causing the problem. Andrew ___________________________________________ Andrew J. P. Maclean Centre for Autonomous Systems The Rose Street Building J04 The University of Sydney 2006 NSW AUSTRALIA Ph: +61 2 9351 3283 Fax: +61 2 9351 7474 URL: http://www.cas.edu.au/ ___________________________________________

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[asio] asio formal review
by Dave Moore 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

I vote to accept asio into Boost. I have previously experimented with earlier releases in the asio 1.3.x series. Using asio, I have built proof-of-concept applications that compile on Linux and Win32 handling udp multicast traffic at peak rates in excess of 100Mbit/s with low CPU utilization and no packet loss, even when compared with an existing hand-coded production implementation. Asio represents a serious effort at cross-platform networking by someone who clearly understands the problem domain. I have been representing it to my colleagues as "ACE without the cruft." I think that asio is a terrific framework that can (and will) be extended by many contributors. The SSL support and iostreams examples are strong evidence asio's extensibility. As a follower of the Boost mailing list for the past 5 years, I think I can say with confidence that asio surpasses any of the earlier false starts at a Boost networking library effort. What follows are nits, none of which are showstoppers for my support of accepting asio into Boost: For the deadline_time, I am unsure as to whether functions like "expires_from_now" benefit from their default coupling to boost::datetime. Most timer operations in high performance I/O tend to be relative, which is easily expressed without a clock binding… It does help that asio only depends upon the headers of datetime. Documentation: The annotated examples and the tutorial are the strength of the documentation, and are enough for people familiar with the problem domain to get their footing. The Doxygen docs are a bit hard to navigate. I would prefer hand-written documentation of the common public classes and concepts like buffer, deadline_timer, datagram_socket, etc. Doxygen docs are useful for completeness, but is seems to me like many of the classes in Boost::asio are of interest only to those looking to extend the framework. The documentation could be split into sections for users looking for basic async sockets, and users wanting to write their own services or demuxers. Installation of the Boost preview package: There weren't obvious instructions on how to overlay the asio boost evaluation package into an existing boost source tree. It seems like the installation/compilation docs apply to the standalone asio distribution, not the Boost evaluation package. I chose to unpack the asio Boost proposal package into my Boost 1.33.1source tree. The build instructions in the documentation didn't work for that case. Rather, I had to go around to the individual examples in libs\asio\example and run bjam from there. David Moore

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asio formal review
by dirk 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

I vote YES! It's the best C++ network library available today (ACE without the 'hurt' - I must agree there :-) ) Not only it just works, but it is also very extensible: - multicast was added in march/april (thanks Chris!) - ssl was added (and donated back) in august/september (thanks Indrek!) Both additions went very wel. I've used ASIO in 2 production running projects this year: multicast & finance and a voip app where ASIO handles (secure) Jabber and a high volume proxy-server. The examples are good: copy them and you're off. Documenation is a little cryptic - but maybe that's doxygen for you :) I don't know if this is the formal review expected, no network lib comes close - I feel it fits very well into Boost. Dirk

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ptr_container issue/question regarding polymorphic types
by Michael Goldshteyn 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

It is my understanding that ptr_containers allow and support pointers to polymorphic types. But, the following does not appear to be possible: class Animal { }; class Cow: public Animal { }; ptr_vector<Cow> cows; ptr_vector<Animal> animals; ... // Add in some cows to the cows container ... // Transfer all cows to the animal container // Error: transfer() is not a class member function template // it expects the "from" container to be of the same types of pointers animals.transfer(animals.end(),cows.begin(),cows.end(),cows); Thanks, Mike

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boost md5 implementation?
by Nigel Stewart 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

Greetings boost-land, We've been looking around for an implementation of the MD5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5) hash algorithm and came across a boost-oriented implementation by Stanislav Baranov: http://www.garret.ru/~baranov/boost_md5/lib/md5/md5.html Does anyone know if this was ever formally reviewed for inclusion in boost, or if there are other proposals or plans for message digest algorithms as part of boost? Thanks in advance, Nigel Stewart

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