2

I'm with one problem using Indy in Delphi XE2 to send TCP Messages using TIdTCPServer.

For exemple: I have 2 devices and i'll go communicate with device 1. When i send messages to device 1, the messages were send fine. But without close the program, when i send messages to device 2, Delphi returns "Connection reset by peer".

Below is my code:

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewConnect(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
begin
  Sleep(1000);
  Client := TSimpleClient.Create();

  Client.DNS := AContext.Connection.Socket.Host;
  Client.Conectado := True;
  Client.Port := idTCPServerNew.DefaultPort;
  Client.Name := 'Central';
  Client.ListLink := Clients.Count;
  Client.Thread := AContext;
  Client.IP := AContext.Connection.Socket.Binding.PeerIP;

  AContext.Data := Client;

  Clients.Add(Client);
  Sleep(500);

  if (MainEstrutura.current_central.IP = Client.IP) then
  begin
    MainEstrutura.current_central.Conectado := true;
    MainEstrutura.envia_configuracao;
  end;

end;

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewDisconnect(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
begin
  { Retrieve Client Record from Data pointer }
  Client := Pointer(AContext.Data);
  { Remove Client from the Clients TList }
  Clients.Remove(Client);
  { Free the Client object }
  FreeAndNil(Client);
  AContext.Data := nil;

end;

To send the messages to devices:

procedure TMainHost.DirectTCPMessage(IP: String; TheMessage: String);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
  i: Integer;
  List: TList;
  Msg: String;
begin

  Msg := Trim(TheMessage);

  for i := 0 to Clients.Count - 1 do
  begin

    Client := TSimpleClient(Clients.Items[i]);

    if TIdContext(Client.Thread).Connection.Socket.Binding.PeerIP = IP then
    begin

      TIdContext(Client.Thread).Connection.Socket.WriteLn(Msg);

    end;

  end;
end;

And i have another problem.

When i set active := False on tidtcpserver Component, the application crashes. Thanks!

3
  • What kind of crash exactly? You need to be more specific. Commented Apr 14, 2014 at 22:04
  • Freeze and i can't send messages again. Commented Apr 14, 2014 at 22:13
  • A freeze is not a crash. When deactivating TIdTCPServer it waits for the client threads to terminate. If you do something to block one or more of those threads from terminating then the server will not be able to shut down. That happens if you synchronize with the main thread while the main thread is deactivating the server (the main thread cannot process the sync), or if you catch and discard Indy's internal exceptions instead of letting TIdTCPServer process them (runaway threads), or if your event handlers are not thread-safe and cause deadlocks (like unsafe access to the UI). Commented Apr 14, 2014 at 22:58

1 Answer 1

4

Your Clients list is not protected from multithreaded access. TIdTCPServer is a multi-threaded component, each client runs in its own worker thread. You need to take that into account. I suggest you get rid of your Clients list altogether and use the TIdTCPServer.Contexts property instead. Otherwise, you need to protect your Clients list, such as by changing it to a TThreadList, or at least wrapping it with a TCriticalSection (which is what TThreadList does internally).

Another problem I see is that you are setting your Client.DNS field to the wrong value, which may affect your communications depending on what you are using Client.DNS for exactly.

Try this instead:

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewConnect(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
begin
  Client := TSimpleClient.Create();

  Client.IP := AContext.Binding.PeerIP;
  Client.DNS := GStack.HostByAddress(Client.IP, AContext.Binding.IPVersion);
  Client.Conectado := True;
  Client.Port := AContext.Binding.Port;
  Client.Name := 'Central';
  Client.Thread := AContext;

  AContext.Data := Client;

  // this may or may not need to be Synchronized, depending on what it actually does...
  if (MainEstrutura.current_central.IP = Client.IP) then
  begin
    MainEstrutura.current_central.Conectado := true;
    MainEstrutura.envia_configuracao;
  end;
end;

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewDisconnect(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
begin
  { Retrieve Client Record from Data pointer }
  Client := TSimpleClient(AContext.Data);
  { Free the Client object }
  FreeAndNil(Client);
  AContext.Data := nil;    
end;

procedure TMainHost.DirectTCPMessage(IP: String; TheMessage: String);
var
  List: TIdContextList; // or TList in an earlier version that did not have TIdContextList yet
  Context: TIdContext;
  i: Integer;
  Msg: String;
begin
  Msg := Trim(TheMessage);

  List := idTCPServerNew.Contexts.LockList;
  try
    for i := 0 to List.Count - 1 do
    begin
      Context := Context(List[i]);
      if TSimpleClient(Context.Data).IP = IP then
      begin
        try
          Context.Connection.IOHandler.WriteLn(Msg);
        except
        end;
        Break;
      end;
    end;
  finally
    idTCPServerNew.Contexts.UnlockList;
  end;
end;

With that said, if your server sends any data from inside of the OnExecute event or CommandsHandlers collection then this approach of sending a message to a client from outside of its thread is not safe, as you risk overlapping data that corrupts the communication with that client. A safer approach is to queue the outgoing data and have the OnExecute event send the data when it is safe to do so, eg:

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewConnect(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
begin
  Client := TSimpleClient.Create();
  ...
  Client.Queue := TIdThreadSafeStringList.Create; // <-- add this
  ...
end;

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewExecute(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  List: TStringList;
  I: Integer;
begin
  Client := TSimpleClient(AContext.Data);
  ...
  List := Client.Queue.Lock;
  try
    while List.Count > 0 do
    begin
      AContext.Connection.IOHandler.WriteLn(List[0]);
      List.Delete(0);
    end;
  finally
    Client.Queue.Unlock;
  end;
  ...
end;

procedure TMainHost.DirectTCPMessage(IP: String; TheMessage: String);
var
  List: TIdContextList; // or TList in an earlier version that did not have TIdContextList yet
  Context: TIdContext;
  i: Integer;
  Msg: String;
begin
  Msg := Trim(TheMessage);

  List := idTCPServerNew.Contexts.LockList;
  try
    for i := 0 to List.Count - 1 do
    begin
      Context := Context(List[i]);
      if TSimpleClient(Context.Data).IP = IP then
      begin
        TSimpleClient(Context.Data).Queue.Add(Msg);
        Break;
      end;
    end;
  finally
    idTCPServerNew.Contexts.UnlockList;
  end;
end;

Update: that being said, I would suggest deriving TSimpleClient from TIdServerContext and assign that to the server's ContextsClass property, then you don't need to use the TIdContext.Data property anymore:

type
  TSimpleClient = class(TIdServerContext)
  public
    Queue: TIdThreadSafeStringList;
    ...
    // or TThreadList in an earlier version that did not have TIdContextThreadList yet
    constructor Create(AConnection: TIdTCPConnection; AYarn: TIdYarn; AList: TIdContextThreadList = nil); override;
    destructor Destroy; override;
  end;

constructor TSimpleClient.Create(AConnection: TIdTCPConnection; AYarn: TIdYarn; AList: TIdContextThreadList = nil);
begin
  inherited;
  Queue := TIdThreadSafeStringList.Create;
  ...
end;

destructor TSimpleClient.Destroy;
begin
  ...
  Queue.Free;
  inherited;
end;

procedure TMainHost.FormCreate(Sener: TObject);
begin
  // this must be assigned before the server is activated
  idTCPServerNew.ContextClass := TSimpleClient;
end;

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewConnect(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
  ...
 begin
  Client := AContext as TSimpleClient;
  // use Client as needed...
end;

procedure TMainHost.idTCPServerNewExecute(AContext: TIdContext);
var
  Client: TSimpleClient;
  ...
begin
  Client := AContext as TSimpleClient;
  // use Client as needed...
end;

procedure TMainHost.DirectTCPMessage(IP: String; TheMessage: String);
var
  List: TIdContextList; // or TList in an earlier version that did not have TIdContextList yet
  Client: TSimpleClient;
  i: Integer;
  Msg: String;
begin
  Msg := Trim(TheMessage);

  List := idTCPServerNew.Contexts.LockList;
  try
    for i := 0 to List.Count - 1 do
    begin
      Client := TIdContext(Context(List[i])) as TSimpleClient;
      if Client.IP = IP then
      begin
        Client.Queue.Add(Msg);
        Break;
      end;
    end;
  finally
    idTCPServerNew.Contexts.UnlockList;
  end;
end;

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