We Keep Coding

What is the difference between using ZMQ PUB with .connect() or .bind() methods?

In Python ZMQ publisher/subscriber sample template, the publisher uses .bind() method and the subscriber uses .connect() method, that connected to the bind IP address.
But we can replace .bind() and .connect() each with the other.
My question is that what is the difference between two cases that determined below?
(two scripts in these cases work fine)
The first case, as default:
pub1.py:
import zmq
import time
from datetime import datetime
def create_pub_socket():
context = zmq.Context()
socket = context.socket(zmq.PUB)
socket.bind("tcp://127.0.0.1:9002") # notice
return socket
def publish(pub_socket):
message = {
'data': 'hi my name is benyamin',
'time': datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')
}
pub_socket.send_json(message, 0)
return message
if __name__ == '__main__':
socket = create_pub_socket()
while True:
print('\n')
print('publisher: ', publish(socket))
time.sleep(1)
sub1.py:
import zmq
if __name__ == '__main__':
context = zmq.Context()
socket = context.socket(zmq.SUB)
socket.setsockopt(zmq.SUBSCRIBE, "")
socket.connect("tcp://127.0.0.1:9002") # notice
while True:
data = socket.recv_json()
print('subscriber: ', data)
print('\n')
And the second case, as the modified setup, that reversed the use of the .connect() and .bind() methods:
pub2.py:
import zmq
import time
from datetime import datetime
def create_pub_socket():
context = zmq.Context()
socket = context.socket(zmq.PUB)
socket.connect("tcp://127.0.0.1:9002") # notice
return socket
def publish(pub_socket):
message = {
'data': 'hi my name is benyamin',
'time': datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')
}
pub_socket.send_json(message, 0)
return message
if __name__ == '__main__':
socket = create_pub_socket()
while True:
print('\n')
print('publisher: ', publish(socket))
time.sleep(1)
sub2.py:
import zmq
if __name__ == '__main__':
context = zmq.Context()
socket = context.socket(zmq.SUB)
socket.setsockopt(zmq.SUBSCRIBE, "")
socket.bind("tcp://127.0.0.1:9002") # notice
while True:
data = socket.recv_json()
print('second subscriber: ', data)
print('\n')

There is no difference here (single publisher and subscriber), but in other scenarios (multi publishers or subscribers), there is a difference depending on your policy:
i.e. suppose that there are two clients (Machine1, Machine2) and a Server.
Each client must publish data using ZMQ, and the Server must subscribe that data from Machine1 and Machine2:
Machine1 --> has a publisher (with .connect(Server IP) )
Machine2 --> has a publisher (with .connect(Server IP) )
Server --> has a subscriber (with .bind(Server IP/Self IP))
As you can see in the mentioned scenario we used the second case in the question.
Whereas, if we have two subscribers and a publisher, we must place the .bind() method in the publisher and place .connect() method in the subscribers (first case in the question).
[NOTE]:
.bind() method doesn't support the localhost as an IP, while .connect() method could be connected to each IP address that defined in .bind() method: Why doesn't zeromq work on localhost?
Here is another example of changing .bind() and .connect() locate: This-Link

Operational-level difference, there is none.
Setup perspective difference - .bind() method need not know the actual addresses ( using wildcard-expansio tricks et al ), .connect() method has to know a target address to which it will start trying to .connect()-to.
Transport-class / Scalable Formal Communication Pattern Archetype - there are cases, when some order of instantiation / becoming RTO is mandatory for proper archetype service, so, yes, there are differences, when one, .bind() has to become RTO earlier, before any remote .connect() may have a chance to succeed.
Add-on specific features available for configuring the .bind() side - are the last principal set of differences, where some more recent ZeroMQ API versions 3.2+ started to add some new access-control and similar defensive options for the .bind()-side node, so as to help manage plethora of risks once going into public internet exposed modus operandi.

ZeroMQ Pub/Sub action last element in queue an other elements

I started using zeromq with python with the Publisher/Subscriber reference. However, I don't find any documentation about how to treat messages in the queue. I want to treat the last received message different as the rest of the elements of the queue.
Example
publisher.py
import zmq
import random
import time
port = "5556"
topic = "1"
context = zmq.Context()
socket = context.socket(zmq.PUB)
socket.bind("tcp://*:%s" % port)
while True:
messagedata = random.randrange(1,215)
print "%s %d" % (topic, messagedata)
socket.send("%s %d" % (topic, messagedata))
time.sleep(.2)
subscriber.py
import zmq
port = "5556"
topic = "1"
context = zmq.Context()
socket = context.socket(zmq.SUB)
print "Connecting..."
socket.connect ("tcp://localhost:%s" % port)
socket.setsockopt(zmq.SUBSCRIBE,topic)
while True:
if isLastMessage(): # probably based on socket.recv()
analysis_function() # time consuming function
else:
simple_function() # something simple like print and save in memory
I just want to know how to create the isLastMessage() function described in the subscriber.py file. If there's something directly in zeromq or a workaround.

Welcome to the world of non-blocking messaging / signalling
this is a cardinal feature for any serious distributed-system design.
If you assume a "last" message via a not having another one in the pipe, then a Poller() instance may help your main event-loops, where you may control the amount of time to "wait"-a-bit before considering the pipe "empty", not to devastate your IO-resources with zero-wait spinning-loops.
Explicit signalling is always better ( if you can design the remote end behaviour )
There is Zero-knowledge on the receiver-side, what is the context of the "last"-message received ( and explicit signalling is advised to be rather broadcast from the message sender-side ), however there is a reversed feature to this -- that instructs ZeroMQ archetypes to "internally"-throw away all such messages, that are not the "last"-message, thus reducing the receiver-side processing to right the "last"-message available.
aQuoteStreamMESSAGE.setsockopt( zmq.CONFLATE, 1 )
If you may like to read more on ZeroMQ patterns and anti-patterns, do not miss Pieter HINTJENS' fabulous book "Code Connected, Volume 1" ( also in pdf ) and may like a broader view on distributed-computing using principally a non-blocking ZeroMQ approach

If isLastMessage() is meant to identify the last message within the stream of messages produced by publisher.py, than this is impossible since there is no last message. publisher.py produces an infinite amount of messages!
However, if publisher.py knows its last "real" message, i.e. no while True:, it could send a "I am done" message afterwards. Identifying that in subscriber.py is trivial.

Sorry, I will keep the question for reference. I just found the answer, in the documentation there is a NOBLOCK flag that you can add to the receiver. With this the recv command doesn't block. A simple workaround, extracted from a part of an answer, is the following:
while True:
try:
#check for a message, this will not block
message = socket.recv(flags=zmq.NOBLOCK)
#a message has been received
print "Message received:", message
except zmq.Again as e:
print "No message received yet"
As for the real implementation, one is not sure that it is the last call you use the flag NOBLOCK and once you have entered the exception block. Wich translates to something like the following:
msg = subscribe(in_socket)
is_last = False
while True:
if is_last:
msg = subscribe(in_socket)
is_last = False
else:
try:
old_msg = msg
msg = subscribe(in_socket,flags=zmq.NOBLOCK)
# if new message was received, then process the old message
process_not_last(old_msg)
except zmq.Again as e:
process_last(msg)
is_last = True # it is probably the last message

PyZMQ one-way communication

I took a look at the various ZMQ messaging patterns and I'm not sure which one would do for my project. All I want to do is be able to connect to a server and send a command (the client never receive anything). On the server side, I want to be able to check if there is a message, if there is one, process it, else continue to do other stuff without blocking. That way, the server could continue to work even if there is no client connected.
#client.py
while(True):
select = raw_input()
if select == "1":
socket.send(msg1)
elif select == "2":
socket.send(msg2)
...
#server.py
while(True):
msg = socket.recv() #should not block
if msg == ...
#do stuff
#do other stuff
So which pattern should I use with ZMQ to do that? Example code would be appreciated.

First, since you want one-way communication with only one socket receiving messages, that generally means PUSH-PULL. Here is a version of the client:
import zmq
ctx = zmq.Context.instance()
s = ctx.socket(zmq.PUSH)
url = 'tcp://127.0.0.1:5555'
s.connect(url)
while True:
msg = raw_input("msg > ")
s.send(msg)
if msg == 'quit':
break
so a PUSH socket sends the messages we get from raw_input. It should be clear how to change that logic to generate the messages you want. A bit of bonus is that if you type 'quit', both the client and the server will quit.
There are a variety of ways to do the non-blocking server, depending on the complexity of your application. I'll show a few examples, from the most basic one to the most powerful / extensible.
All of these server examples assume this at the top, setting up the server's PULL socket:
import time
import zmq
ctx = zmq.Context.instance()
s = ctx.socket(zmq.PULL)
url = 'tcp://127.0.0.1:5555'
s.bind(url)
The first example is simple non-blocking recv, which raises a zmq.Again Exception if there are no messages ready to be received:
# server0.py
while True:
try:
msg = s.recv(zmq.NOBLOCK) # note NOBLOCK here
except zmq.Again:
# no message to recv, do other things
time.sleep(1)
else:
print("received %r" % msg)
if msg == 'quit':
break
But that pattern is pretty hard to extend beyond very simple cases. The second example uses a Poller, to check for events on the socket:
# server1.py
poller = zmq.Poller()
poller.register(s)
while True:
events = dict(poller.poll(0))
if s in events:
msg = s.recv()
print("received %r" % msg)
if msg == 'quit':
break
else:
# no message to recv, do other things
time.sleep(1)
In this toy example, this is very similar to the first. But, unlike the first, it is easy to extend to many sockets or events with further calls to poller.register, or passing a timeout other than zero to poller.poll.
The last example uses an eventloop, and actually registers a callback for when messages arrive. You can build very complex applications with this sort of pattern, and it is a fairly straightforward way to write code that only does work when there is work to be done.
# server2.py
from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
from zmq.eventloop.zmqstream import ZMQStream
def print_msg(msg):
print("received %r" % ' '.join(msg))
if msg[0] == 'quit':
ioloop.IOLoop.instance().stop()
# register the print_msg callback to be fired
# whenever there is a message on our socket
stream = ZMQStream(s)
stream.on_recv(print_msg)
# do other things in the meantime
tic = time.time()
def do_other_things():
print("%.3f" % (time.time() - tic))
pc = ioloop.PeriodicCallback(do_other_things, 1000)
pc.start()
# start the eventloop
ioloop.IOLoop.instance().start()
So that's a few basic ways to deal with zmq messages without blocking. You can grab these examples together as a gist.

issues with socket programming - python

I am doing a client-server project for my college project,
we have to allocate the login to the client.
Client system will request its status for every 2 seconds(to check whether the client is locked or unlocked). and server will accept the client request and reply the client status to the system.
But the problem is server thread is not responding to the client request.
CLIENT THREAD:
def checkPort():
while True:
try:
s = socket.socket()
s.connect((host, port))
s.send('pc1') # send PC name to the server
status = s.recv(1024) # receive the status from the server
if status == "unlock":
disableIntrrupts() # enable all the functions of system
else:
enableInterrupts() # enable all the functions of system
time.sleep(5)
s.close()
except Exception:
pass
SERVER THREAD:
def check_port():
while True:
try:
print "hello loop is repeating"
conn, addr = s.accept()
data = conn.recv(1024)
if exit_on_click == 1:
break
if (any(sublist[0] == data for sublist in available_sys)):
print "locked"
conn.send("lock")
elif (any(sublist[0] == data for sublist in occupied_sys)):
conn.send("unlock")
print "unlocked"
else:
print "added to gui for first time"
available_sys.append([data,addr[0],nameText,usnText,branchText])
availSysList.insert('end',data)
except Exception:
pass
But my problem is server thread is not executing more than 2 time,
So its unable to accept client request more than one time.
can't we handle multiple client sockets using single server socket?
How to handle multiple client request from server ?
Thanks for any help !!

Its because your server, will block waiting for a new connection on this line
conn, addr = s.accept()
This is because calls like .accept and .read are blocking calls that hold the process
You need to consider an alternative design, where in you either.
Have one process per connection (this idea is stupid)
One thread per connection (this idea is less stupid than the first but still mostly foolish)
Have a non blocking design that allows multiple clients and read/write without blocking execution.
To achieve the first, look at multiprocessing, the second is threading the third is slightly more complicated to get your head around but will yield the best results, the go to library for event driven code in Python is twisted but there are others like
gevent
tulip
tornado
And so so many more that I haven't listed here.

here's an full example of implementing a threaded server. it's fully functional and comes with the benefit of using SSL as well. further, i use threaded event objects to signal another class object after storing my received data in a database.
please note, _sni and _cams_db are additional modules purely of my own. if you want to see the _sni module (provides SNI support for pyOpenSSL), let me know.
what follows this, is a snippet from camsbot.py, there's a whole lot more that far exceeds the scope of this question. what i've built is a centralized message relay system. it listens to tcp/2345 and accepts SSL connections. each connection passes messages into the system. short lived connections will connect, pass message, and disconnect. long lived connections will pass numerous messages after connecting. messages are stored in a database and a threading.Event() object (attached to the DB class) is set to tell the bot to poll the database for new messages and relay them.
the below example shows
how to set up a threaded tcp server
how to pass information from the listener to the accept handler such as config data and etc
in addition, this example also shows
how to employ an SSL socket
how to do some basic certificate validations
how to cleanly wrap and unwrap SSL from a tcp socket
how to use poll() on the socket instead of select()
db.pending is a threading.Event() object in _cams_db.py
in the main process we start another thread that waits on the pending object with db.pending.wait(). this makes that thread wait until another thread does db.pending.set(). once it is set, our waiting thread immediately wakes up and continues to work. when our waiting thread is done, it calls db.pending.clear() and goes back to the beginning of the loop and starts waiting again with db.pending.wait()
while True:
db.pending.wait()
# after waking up, do code. for example, we wait for incoming messages to
# be stored in the database. the threaded server will call db.pending.set()
# which will wake us up. we'll poll the DB for new messages, relay them, clear
# our event flag and go back to waiting.
# ...
db.pending.clear()
snippet from camsbot.py:
import sys, os, sys, time, datetime, threading, select, logging, logging.handlers
import configparser, traceback, re, socket, hashlib
# local .py
sys.path.append('/var/vse/python')
import _util, _webby, _sni, _cams_db, _cams_threaded_server, _cams_bot
# ...
def start_courier(config):
# default values
host = '::'
port = 2345
configp = config['configp']
host = configp.get('main', 'relay msp hostport')
# require ipv6 addresses be specified in [xx:xx:xx] notation, therefore
# it is safe to look for :nnnn at the end
if ':' in host and not host.endswith(']'):
port = host.split(':')[-1]
try:
port = int(port, 10)
except:
port = 2345
host = host.split(':')[:-1][0]
server = _cams_threaded_server.ThreadedTCPServer((host, port), _cams_threaded_server.ThreadedTCPRequestHandler, config)
t = threading.Thread(target=server.serve_forever, name='courier')
t.start()
_cams_threaded_server.py:
import socket, socketserver, select, datetime, time, threading
import sys, struct
from OpenSSL.SSL import SSLv23_METHOD, SSLv3_METHOD, TLSv1_METHOD, OP_NO_SSLv2
from OpenSSL.SSL import VERIFY_NONE, VERIFY_PEER, VERIFY_FAIL_IF_NO_PEER_CERT, Context, Connection
from OpenSSL.SSL import FILETYPE_PEM
from OpenSSL.SSL import WantWriteError, WantReadError, WantX509LookupError, ZeroReturnError, SysCallError
from OpenSSL.crypto import load_certificate
from OpenSSL import SSL
# see note at beginning of answer
import _sni, _cams_db
class ThreadedTCPServer(socketserver.ThreadingMixIn, socketserver.TCPServer):
def __init__(self, server_address, HandlerClass, config):
socketserver.BaseServer.__init__(self, server_address, HandlerClass)
self.address_family = socket.AF_INET6
self.connected = []
self.logger = config['logger']
self.config = config
self.socket = socket.socket(self.address_family, self.socket_type)
self.socket.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
sc = Context(TLSv1_METHOD)
sc.set_verify(VERIFY_PEER|VERIFY_FAIL_IF_NO_PEER_CERT, _sni.verify_cb)
sc.set_tlsext_servername_callback(_sni.pick_certificate)
self.sc = sc
self.server_bind()
self.server_activate()
class ThreadedTCPRequestHandler(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):
def handle(self):
config = self.server.config
logger = self.server.logger
connected = self.server.connected
sc = self.server.sc
try:
self.peer_hostname = socket.gethostbyaddr(socket.gethostbyname(self.request.getpeername()[0]))[0]
except:
self.peer_hostname = '!'+self.request.getpeername()[0]
logger.info('peer: {}'.format(self.peer_hostname))
ssl_s = Connection(sc, self.request)
ssl_s.set_accept_state()
try:
ssl_s.do_handshake()
except:
t,v,tb = sys.exc_info()
logger.warn('handshake failed {}'.format(v))
ssl_s.setblocking(True)
self.ssl_s = ssl_s
try:
peercert = ssl_s.get_peer_certificate()
except:
peercert = False
t,v,tb = sys.exc_info()
logger.warn('SSL get peer cert failed: {}'.format(v))
if not peercert:
logger.warn('No peer certificate')
else:
acl = config['configp']['main'].get('client cn acl', '').split(' ')
cert_subject = peercert.get_subject().CN
logger.info('Looking for {} in acl: {}'.format(cert_subject,acl))
if cert_subject in acl:
logger.info('{} is permitted'.format(cert_subject))
else:
logger.warn('''client CN not approved''')
# it's ok to block here, every socket has its own thread
ssl_s.setblocking(True)
self.db = config['db']
msgcount = 0
p = select.poll()
# don't want writable, just readable
p.register(self.request, select.POLLIN|select.POLLPRI|select.POLLERR|select.POLLHUP|select.POLLNVAL)
peername = ssl_s.getpeername()
x = peername[0]
if x.startswith('::ffff:'):
x = x[7:]
peer_ip = x
try:
host = socket.gethostbyaddr(x)[0]
except:
host = peer_ip
logger.info('{}/{}:{} connected'.format(host, peer_ip, peername[1]))
connected.append( [host, peername[1]] )
if peercert:
threading.current_thread().setName('{}/port={}/CN={}'.format(host, peername[1], peercert.get_subject().CN))
else:
threading.current_thread().setName('{}/port={}'.format(host, peername[1]))
sockclosed = False
while not sockclosed:
keepreading = True
#logger.debug('starting 30 second timeout for poll')
pe = p.poll(30.0)
if not pe:
# empty list means poll timeout
# for SSL sockets it means WTF. we get an EAGAIN like return even if the socket is blocking
continue
logger.debug('poll indicates: {}'.format(pe))
#define SSL_NOTHING 1
#define SSL_WRITING 2
#define SSL_READING 3
#define SSL_X509_LOOKUP 4
while keepreading and not sockclosed:
data,sockclosed,keepreading = self._read_ssl_data(2, head=True)
if sockclosed or not keepreading:
time.sleep(5)
continue
plen = struct.unpack('H', data)[0]
data,sockclosed,keepreading = self._read_ssl_data(plen)
if sockclosed or not keepreading:
time.sleep(5)
continue
# send thank you, ignore any errors since we appear to have gotten
# the message
try:
self.ssl_s.sendall(b'ty')
except:
pass
# extract the timestamp
message_ts = data[0:8]
msgtype = chr(data[8])
message = data[9:].decode()
message_ts = struct.unpack('d', message_ts)[0]
message_ts = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(message_ts).replace(tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)
self.db.enqueue(config['group'], peer_ip, msgtype, message, message_ts)
self.db.pending.set()
# we're recommended to use the return socket object for any future operations rather than the original
try:
s = ssl_s.unwrap()
s.close()
except:
pass
connected.remove( [host, peername[1]] )
t_name = threading.current_thread().getName()
logger.debug('disconnect: {}'.format(t_name))
def _read_ssl_data(self, wantsize=16384, head=False):
_w = ['WANT_NOTHING','WANT_READ','WANT_WRITE','WANT_X509_LOOKUP']
logger = self.server.logger
data = b''
sockclosed = False
keepreading = True
while len(data) < wantsize and keepreading and not sockclosed:
rlen = wantsize - len(data)
try:
w,wr = self.ssl_s.want(),self.ssl_s.want_read()
#logger.debug(' want({}) want_read({})'.format(_w[w],wr))
x = self.ssl_s.recv(rlen)
#logger.debug(' recv(): {}'.format(x))
if not ( x or len(x) ):
raise ZeroReturnError
data += x
if not (len(x) == len(data) == wantsize):
logger.info(' read={}, len(data)={}, plen={}'.format(len(x),len(data),wantsize))
except WantReadError:
# poll(), when ready, read more
keepreading = False
logger.info(' got WantReadError')
continue
except WantWriteError:
# poll(), when ready, write more
keepreading = False
logger.info(' got WantWriteError')
continue
except ZeroReturnError:
# socket got closed, a '0' bytes read also means the same thing
keepreading = False
sockclosed = True
logger.info(' ZRE, socket closed normally')
continue
except SysCallError:
keepreading = False
sockclosed = True
t,v,tb = sys.exc_info()
if v.args[0] == -1: # normal EOF
logger.info(' EOF found, keepreading=False')
else:
logger.info('{} terminated session abruptly while reading plen'.format(self.peer_hostname))
logger.info('t: {}'.format(t))
logger.info('v: {}'.format(v))
continue
except:
t,v,tb = sys.exc_info()
logger.warning(' fucked? {}'.format(v))
raise
if not head and not len(data) == wantsize:
logger.warn(' short read {} of {}'.format(len(data), wantsize))
return data,sockclosed,keepreading

let's start with a bare bones threaded tcp server.
class ThreadedTCPServer(socketserver.ThreadingMixIn, socketserver.TCPServer):
def __init__(self, server_address, HandlerClass):
socketserver.BaseServer.__init__(self, server_address, HandlerClass)
self.address_family = socket.AF_INET
self.socket = socket.socket(self.address_family, self.socket_type)
self.socket.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
self.server_bind()
self.server_activate()
class ThreadedTCPRequestHandler(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):
def handle(self):
# self.request is your accepted socket, do all your .read() and .wirte() on it
s = self.request
request = s.read(1024)
# decide locked or unlocked. this example arbitrarily writes back 'locked'
s.write('locked')
# we're done, close the socket and exit with a default return of None
s.close()
ok, start your threaded server with this in your main() function:
server = threading.ThreadedTCPServer(('127.0.0.1', 1234), ThreadedTCPRequestHandler)
t = threading.Thread(target=server.serve_forever, name='optional_name')
t.start()
now you can let the threading module handle the semantics of concurrency and not worry about it.

You might want to take a look at 0MQ and concurrent.futures. 0MQ has a Tornado event loop in the library and it reduces the complexity of socket programming. concurrent.futures is a high level interface over threading or multiprocessing.

You can see different concurrent server approaches at
https://bitbucket.org/arco_group/upper/src
These will help you to choose the better way for you.
Cheers

Thread synchronization in Python

I am currently working on a school project where the assignment, among other things, is to set up a threaded server/client system. Each client in the system is supposed to be assigned its own thread on the server when connecting to it. In addition i would like the server to run other threads, one concerning input from the command line and another concerning broadcasting messages to all clients. However, I can't get this to run as i want to. It seems like the threads are blocking each other. I would like my program to take inputs from the command line, at the "same time" as the server listens to connected clients, and so on.
I am new to python programming and multithreading, and allthough I think my idea is good, I'm not suprised my code doesn't work. Thing is I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to implement the message passing between the different threads. Nor am I sure exactly how to implement the resource lock commands properly. I'm going to post the code for my server file and my client file here, and I hope someone could help me with this. I think this actually should be two relative simple scripts. I have tried to comment on my code as good as possible to some extend.
import select
import socket
import sys
import threading
import client
class Server:
#initializing server socket
def __init__(self, event):
self.host = 'localhost'
self.port = 50000
self.backlog = 5
self.size = 1024
self.server = None
self.server_running = False
self.listen_threads = []
self.local_threads = []
self.clients = []
self.serverSocketLock = None
self.cmdLock = None
#here i have also declared some events for the command line input
#and the receive function respectively, not sure if correct
self.cmd_event = event
self.socket_event = event
def openSocket(self):
#binding server to port
try:
self.server = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
self.server.bind((self.host, self.port))
self.server.listen(5)
print "Listening to port " + str(self.port) + "..."
except socket.error, (value,message):
if self.server:
self.server.close()
print "Could not open socket: " + message
sys.exit(1)
def run(self):
self.openSocket()
#making Rlocks for the socket and for the command line input
self.serverSocketLock = threading.RLock()
self.cmdLock = threading.RLock()
#set blocking to non-blocking
self.server.setblocking(0)
#making two threads always running on the server,
#one for the command line input, and one for broadcasting (sending)
cmd_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.server_cmd)
broadcast_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.broadcast,args=[self.clients])
cmd_thread.daemon = True
broadcast_thread.daemon = True
#append the threads to thread list
self.local_threads.append(cmd_thread)
self.local_threads.append(broadcast_thread)
cmd_thread.start()
broadcast_thread.start()
self.server_running = True
while self.server_running:
#connecting to "knocking" clients
try:
c = client.Client(self.server.accept())
self.clients.append(c)
print "Client " + str(c.address) + " connected"
#making a thread for each clientn and appending it to client list
listen_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.listenToClient,args=[c])
self.listen_threads.append(listen_thread)
listen_thread.daemon = True
listen_thread.start()
#setting event "client has connected"
self.socket_event.set()
except socket.error, (value, message):
continue
#close threads
self.server.close()
print "Closing client threads"
for c in self.listen_threads:
c.join()
def listenToClient(self, c):
while self.server_running:
#the idea here is to wait until the thread gets the message "client
#has connected"
self.socket_event.wait()
#then clear the event immidiately...
self.socket_event.clear()
#and aquire the socket resource
self.serverSocketLock.acquire()
#the below is the receive thingy
try:
recvd_data = c.client.recv(self.size)
if recvd_data == "" or recvd_data == "close\n":
print "Client " + str(c.address) + (" disconnected...")
self.socket_event.clear()
self.serverSocketLock.release()
return
print recvd_data
#I put these here to avoid locking the resource if no message
#has been received
self.socket_event.clear()
self.serverSocketLock.release()
except socket.error, (value, message):
continue
def server_cmd(self):
#this is a simple command line utility
while self.server_running:
#got to have a smart way to make this work
self.cmd_event.wait()
self.cmd_event.clear()
self.cmdLock.acquire()
cmd = sys.stdin.readline()
if cmd == "":
continue
if cmd == "close\n":
print "Server shutting down..."
self.server_running = False
self.cmdLock.release()
def broadcast(self, clients):
while self.server_running:
#this function will broadcast a message received from one
#client, to all other clients, but i guess any thread
#aspects applied to the above, will work here also
try:
send_data = sys.stdin.readline()
if send_data == "":
continue
else:
for c in clients:
c.client.send(send_data)
self.serverSocketLock.release()
self.cmdLock.release()
except socket.error, (value, message):
continue
if __name__ == "__main__":
e = threading.Event()
s = Server(e)
s.run()
And then the client file
import select
import socket
import sys
import server
import threading
class Client(threading.Thread):
#initializing client socket
def __init__(self,(client,address)):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.client = client
self.address = address
self.size = 1024
self.client_running = False
self.running_threads = []
self.ClientSocketLock = None
def run(self):
#connect to server
self.client.connect(('localhost',50000))
#making a lock for the socket resource
self.clientSocketLock = threading.Lock()
self.client.setblocking(0)
self.client_running = True
#making two threads, one for receiving messages from server...
listen = threading.Thread(target=self.listenToServer)
#...and one for sending messages to server
speak = threading.Thread(target=self.speakToServer)
#not actually sure wat daemon means
listen.daemon = True
speak.daemon = True
#appending the threads to the thread-list
self.running_threads.append(listen)
self.running_threads.append(speak)
listen.start()
speak.start()
#this while-loop is just for avoiding the script terminating
while self.client_running:
dummy = 1
#closing the threads if the client goes down
print "Client operating on its own"
self.client.close()
#close threads
for t in self.running_threads:
t.join()
return
#defining "listen"-function
def listenToServer(self):
while self.client_running:
#here i acquire the socket to this function, but i realize I also
#should have a message passing wait()-function or something
#somewhere
self.clientSocketLock.acquire()
try:
data_recvd = self.client.recv(self.size)
print data_recvd
except socket.error, (value,message):
continue
#releasing the socket resource
self.clientSocketLock.release()
#defining "speak"-function, doing much the same as for the above function
def speakToServer(self):
while self.client_running:
self.clientSocketLock.acquire()
try:
send_data = sys.stdin.readline()
if send_data == "close\n":
print "Disconnecting..."
self.client_running = False
else:
self.client.send(send_data)
except socket.error, (value,message):
continue
self.clientSocketLock.release()
if __name__ == "__main__":
c = Client((socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM),'localhost'))
c.run()
I realize this is quite a few code lines for you to read through, but as I said, I think the concept and the script in it self should be quite simple to understand. It would be very much appriciated if someone could help me synchronize my threads in a proper way =)
Thanks in advance
---Edit---
OK. So I now have simplified my code to just containing send and receive functions in both the server and the client modules. The clients connecting to the server gets their own threads, and the send and receive functions in both modules operetes in their own separate threads. This works like a charm, with the broadcast function in the server module echoing strings it gets from one client to all clients. So far so good!
The next thing i want my script to do, is taking specific commands, i.e. "close", in the client module to shut down the client, and join all running threads in the thread list. Im using an event flag to notify the listenToServer and the main thread that the speakToServer thread has read the input "close". It seems like the main thread jumps out of its while loop and starts the for loop that is supposed to join the other threads. But here it hangs. It seems like the while loop in the listenToServer thread never stops even though server_running should be set to False when the event flag is set.
I'm posting only the client module here, because I guess an answer to get these two threads to synchronize will relate to synchronizing more threads in both the client and the server module also.
import select
import socket
import sys
import server_bygg0203
import threading
from time import sleep
class Client(threading.Thread):
#initializing client socket
def __init__(self,(client,address)):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.client = client
self.address = address
self.size = 1024
self.client_running = False
self.running_threads = []
self.ClientSocketLock = None
self.disconnected = threading.Event()
def run(self):
#connect to server
self.client.connect(('localhost',50000))
#self.client.setblocking(0)
self.client_running = True
#making two threads, one for receiving messages from server...
listen = threading.Thread(target=self.listenToServer)
#...and one for sending messages to server
speak = threading.Thread(target=self.speakToServer)
#not actually sure what daemon means
listen.daemon = True
speak.daemon = True
#appending the threads to the thread-list
self.running_threads.append((listen,"listen"))
self.running_threads.append((speak, "speak"))
listen.start()
speak.start()
while self.client_running:
#check if event is set, and if it is
#set while statement to false
if self.disconnected.isSet():
self.client_running = False
#closing the threads if the client goes down
print "Client operating on its own"
self.client.shutdown(1)
self.client.close()
#close threads
#the script hangs at the for-loop below, and
#refuses to close the listen-thread (and possibly
#also the speak thread, but it never gets that far)
for t in self.running_threads:
print "Waiting for " + t[1] + " to close..."
t[0].join()
self.disconnected.clear()
return
#defining "speak"-function
def speakToServer(self):
#sends strings to server
while self.client_running:
try:
send_data = sys.stdin.readline()
self.client.send(send_data)
#I want the "close" command
#to set an event flag, which is being read by all other threads,
#and, at the same time set the while statement to false
if send_data == "close\n":
print "Disconnecting..."
self.disconnected.set()
self.client_running = False
except socket.error, (value,message):
continue
return
#defining "listen"-function
def listenToServer(self):
#receives strings from server
while self.client_running:
#check if event is set, and if it is
#set while statement to false
if self.disconnected.isSet():
self.client_running = False
try:
data_recvd = self.client.recv(self.size)
print data_recvd
except socket.error, (value,message):
continue
return
if __name__ == "__main__":
c = Client((socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM),'localhost'))
c.run()
Later on, when I get this server/client system up and running, I will use this system on some elevator models we have here on the lab, with each client receiving floor orders or "up" and "down" calls. The server will be running an distribution algorithm and updating the elevator queues on the clients that are most appropriate for the requested order. I realize it's a long way to go, but I guess one should just take one step at the time =)
Hope someone has the time to look into this. Thanks in advance.

The biggest problem I see with this code is that you have far too much going on right away to easily debug your problem. Threading can get extremely complicated because of how non-linear the logic becomes. Especially when you have to worry about synchronizing with locks.
The reason you are seeing clients blocking on each other is because of the way you are using your serverSocketLock in your listenToClient() loop in the server. To be honest this isn't exactly your problem right now with your code, but it became the problem when I started to debug it and turned the sockets into blocking sockets. If you are putting each connection into its own thread and reading from them, then there is no reason to use a global server lock here. They can all read from their own sockets at the same time, which is the purpose of the thread.
Here is my recommendation to you:
Get rid of all the locks and extra threads that you don't need, and start from the beginning
Have the clients connect as you do, and put them in their thread as you do. And simply have them send data every second. Verify that you can get more than one client connecting and sending, and that your server is looping and receiving. Once you have this part working, you can move on to the next part.
Right now you have your sockets set to non-blocking. This is causing them all to spin really fast over their loops when data is not ready. Since you are threading, you should set them to block. Then the reader threads will simply sit and wait for data and respond immediately.
Locks are used when threads will be accessing shared resources. You obviously need to for any time a thread will try and modify a server attribute like a list or a value. But not when they are working on their own private sockets.
The event you are using to trigger your readers doesn't seem necessary here. You have received the client, and you start the thread afterwards. So it is ready to go.
In a nutshell...simplify and test one bit at a time. When its working, add more. There are too many threads and locks right now.
Here is a simplified example of your listenToClient method:
def listenToClient(self, c):
while self.server_running:
try:
recvd_data = c.client.recv(self.size)
print "received:", c, recvd_data
if recvd_data == "" or recvd_data == "close\n":
print "Client " + str(c.address) + (" disconnected...")
return
print recvd_data
except socket.error, (value, message):
if value == 35:
continue
else:
print "Error:", value, message

Backup your work, then toss it - partially.
You need to implement your program in pieces, and test each piece as you go. First, tackle the input part of your program. Don't worry about how to broadcast the input you received. Instead worry that you are able to successfully and repeatedly receive input over your socket. So far - so good.
Now, I assume you would like to react to this input by broadcasting to the other attached clients. Well too bad, you can't do that yet! Because, I left one minor detail out of the paragraph above. You have to design a PROTOCOL.
What is a protocol? It's a set of rules for communication. How does your server know when the client had finished sending it's data? Is it terminated by some special character? Or perhaps you encode the size of the message to be sent as the first byte or two of the message.
This is turning out to be a lot of work, isn't it? :-)
What's a simple protocol. A line-oriented protocol is simple. Read 1 character at a time until you get to the end of record terminator - '\n'. So, clients would send records like this to your server --
HELO\n
MSG DAVE Where Are Your Kids?\n
So, assuming you have this simple protocol designed, implement it. For now, DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE MULTITHREADING STUFF! Just worry about making it work.
Your current protocol is to read 1024 bytes. Which may not be bad, just make sure you send 1024 byte messages from the client.
Once you have the protocol stuff setup, move on to reacting to the input. But for now you need something that will read input. Once that is done, we can worry about doing something with it.
jdi is right, you have too much program to work with. Pieces are easier to fix.