Python - is finally block necessary in socket operation? - python

I am a newbie to Python and currently doing some socket development. I am not very sure about the best practices of Python socket programming.
For example, in the following code, are the conn=None line and the finally block necessary? What is the best convention for this kind of operation?
#post('/relay/')
def relay():
conn = None # Do I need this line to ensure conn not to be undefined?
try:
conn = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
conn.connect(host_port)
conn.sendall(content)
except socket.error, se:
if se.errno == 61:
logger.error(...)
else:
logger.error(...)
abort(400, 'Error...')
finally: # Should this socket.close() task be in finally block? like Java?
if conn:
conn.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
conn.close()
return ''

finally is typically used when you are working with some kind of connection (socket, database, etc) that is open, being operated on in the try and no matter what happens, should be closed after.
So yes, conn.close() should go in the finally block.
As for the conn=None, that could be required, but in your case it's not. Because if
conn = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
fails, conn is never defined and it jumps to the finally block (because of the failure). However you check for if conn=None so it won't complain about trying to close a connection that is not defined because the if is skipped.

Related

How to continue trying to attempt a connection if connection fails

(python)
So I have a basic connection that works fine as long as whatever I want to connect to is online. The code is turned into a standalone using pyinstaller. If whatever I want to connect to is offline, when the standalone program is run it gives me a "Failed to excecute script test" (test being name of the program). How can I make it so it continues trying to establish a connection until it succeeds? Here is what I attempted below.
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
while True:
result = s.connect_ex((host,port))
if result == 0:
break
else:
sleep_for = random.randrange(1,10)
time.sleep( sleep_for )
pass
Func1()
Func2()
s.close()
The documentation for connect_ex says:
Like connect(address), return an error indicator instead of raising an exception for errors returned by the C-level connect() call (other problems, such as “host not found,” can still raise exceptions)
That means that you still need to catch exceptions in order to infinitely retry to connect. In order to not make double work: processing connect_ex return value and catching exceptions, you can switch from using connect_ex to connect method and rewrite your code like this:
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
while True:
try:
s.connect((host,port))
break
except socket.error:
sleep_for = random.randrange(1,10)
time.sleep( sleep_for )
pass
Func1()
Func2()
s.close()

Python Bluetooth socket(s) for sending and receiving simultaneously

Using pyBluez, I use the following code to advertise and listen for a bluetooth connection:
def connect_socket():
global client_sock
try:
server_sock = BluetoothSocket(RFCOMM)
server_sock.bind(("", PORT_ANY))
server_sock.listen(1)
port = server_sock.getsockname()[1]
uuid = "00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB"
advertise_service(server_sock, "GSA",
service_id=uuid,
service_classes=[uuid, SERIAL_PORT_CLASS],
profiles=[SERIAL_PORT_PROFILE])
print("Waiting for connection on RFCOMM channel %d" % port)
client_sock, client_info = server_sock.accept()
print("Accepted connection from ", client_info)
except Exception as e: (yes, I know I'm catching all exceptions)
print(e)
I use the following to call the above and send data out from the socket. (I wind up waiting for a connection on every possible channel, which is not desirable, but that's not my only problem or the one that's prompting this question, though I'd like to fix it, too.)
def write_bt(message):
global client_sock
if client_sock is None:
threading.Thread(target=connect_socket).start()
if client_sock is not None:
try:
client_sock.send(message)
except Exception as e:
gsa_msg.message(e)
client_sock = None
I also need to receive data from the socket and write it to a usb connection. For this, I use the following:
def forward_bt_to_usb():
global client_sock
global serUSB
if (client_sock is not None) and (serUSB is not None):
try:
data = client_sock.recv(1024)
serUSB.write(data)
except Exception as e:
gsa_msg.error(e)
client_sock = None
Both write_bt() and forward_bt_to_usb() get called continuously from a loop and are communicating with the same client, but there isn't always data being received over the socket, and forward_bt_to_usb() seems to block everything in that case.
I believe that I probably have all of this structured improperly for what I'm trying to do, or perhaps I just need to have separate threads for sending and receiving data, but it's not obvious to me how to do that (Initially I just put some of the code from forward_bt_to_usb() in a separate thread, without realizing that that would just keep creating new threads as forward_bt_to_usb() kept getting called.)
It seems that what I'm trying to do should be pretty straightforward and certainly not novel, but I haven't been able to find examples or an explanation that I've been able to implement.

Check internet availability before sending the data to database

I am new to Python 2.7. I am writing a program where I need to check the availability of internet for my Wifi (sometimes the internet disconnects) before I proceed to send the data to the database using the Internet. The send data to database will be skipped if there is no internet connection. How can I do that. Is this the correct way that I doing this?
import urllib
#Perhaps check internet availability first
try:
import httplib
except:
import http.client as httplib
def have_internet():
conn = httplib.HTTPConnection("www.google.com", timeout=5)
try:
conn.request("HEAD", "/")
conn.close()
return True
except:
conn.close()
return False
#send data to database
data = {'date':date_mmddyyyy,'time':time_hhmmss,'airtemperature':temperature_c,'humidity':humidity_c, 'watertemperature':watertemp_c, 'phsolution':pHvalue_c, 'waterlevel':distance_c, 'CO2 concentration':CO2_c, 'TDS value':tds_c}
result = firebase.put('Region 1', 'Parameter Reading', {'date':date_mmddyyyy,'time':time_hhmmss,'airtemperature':temperature_c,'humidity':humidity_c, 'watertemperature':watertemp_c, 'phsolution':pHvalue_c, 'waterlevel':distance_c, 'CO2 concentration':CO2_c, 'TDS value':tds_c})
result2 = requests.post(firebase_url + '/' + reading_location + '/History/Parameter Reading.json', data=json.dumps(data))
print 'All parameter records are inserted.\nResult Code = ' + str(result2.status_code) + ',' + result2.text
I've used the requests module for this.
In the event of a network problem (e.g. DNS failure, refused connection, etc), Requests will raise a ConnectionError exception.
So you could do the following:
import requests
def is_connected():
try:
r = requests.get("http://google.com", timeout=5)
return True
except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError:
return False
Note that it may raise other exceptions, but this should be enough to start.
As suggested by #FranciscoCouzo, you can just try the connect and see what happens. But suppose you want a smaller sanity check before even delving into the database portion of your code. If you know the port number of your database server (1433 for instance) you can try a connect and then reset that connection. You still have to deal with loosing your wifi connection as you work, but this is a light weight way to know its okay to start.
import socket
import struct
def is_alive(host, port):
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
try:
s.settimeout(5)
s.connect((host, port))
s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_LINGER,
struct.pack("ii", 1, 0))
s.close()
except OSError:
return False
finally:
s.close()
return True
print(is_alive("example.com", 1344))

Treat try and except the same

I'm writing something that checks if a port is open, but modifying it to my use.
I set timeout for the check and if timeout reaches it raises socket.timeout exception, but I want a code block inside the try to also be invoked on socket.timeout:
try:
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.settimeout(5)
result = sock.connect_ex((check_server_ip, check_port))
if result == 0:
# act on open port
else:
# act on closed port
sock.close()
except socket.timeout:
# act on closed port
The code block I have on # act on closed port is long. I can create a function that has the code and call it on the else statement and socket.timeout exception, but I bet python has something more clever.
What can achieve this?
I don't think you need something clever or magical here. I looked at your code, then entered python -c "import this" in my terminal and saw this among the lines:
Flat is better than nested.
So, you don't need to create, set timeout and close a socket in the try ... except timeout - nothing throws timeout there:
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.settimeout(5)
try:
result = sock.connect_ex((check_server_ip, check_port))
socket_connected = result == 0
except socket.timeout:
socket_connected = False
if socket_connected:
do_connected_stuff()
else:
do_disconnected_stuff()
sock.close()
However, the correctness of this code really depends on if do_connected_stuff() can throw socket.timeout and if do_disconnected_stuff() is a meaningful action in this case. If yes to all questions, then you've already got a pretty much optimal structure - at least without the full view of your system.

Python socket programming - exception handling

I'm working on a basic socket client program in python and I'm not totally sure how to handle exceptions. This is what I did up to now:
TCP_IP = '..............'
TCP_PORT = 4950
MESSAGE = "o3"
BUFFER_SIZE = 2048
data = ""
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.settimeout(5.0)
try:
s.connect((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT))
except socket.error:
#write error code to file
s.close()
try:
s.sendall(MESSAGE)
except socket.error:
#write to file or whatever
s.close()
try:
data = s.recv(BUFFER_SIZE)
except socket.error:
#write to file or whatever
s.close()
finally:
s.close()
The code is working as I want, but I'm not sure if I should nest try/catch blocks or not? Should I put socket.socket into try/catch block too?
Second question, what will s.settimeout() do in my case? As far as I understood the documentation, it will throw an exception after 5 seconds, but for what? Just connect or will it do the same for sendall and recv?
Since you're doing exactly the same actions in all the exception blocks and catching the same socket.error exception, you could put s.connect, s.sendall and s.recv in the same try: block. Like so:
try:
s.connect((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT))
s.sendall(MESSAGE)
data = s.recv(BUFFER_SIZE)
except socket.error:
#write error code to file
finally:
s.close()
Note that since s.close is also in the finally section in your example, it will always get called, even after an exception has occurred. So you'd end up with another exception occurring when you try to close an already closed socket. By not putting it in the except block and only in finally, you can avoid that situation.
If you do intend to handle each error in a different way, then you can leave them separate as you already have. But make sure to break/return at the end of the exception block so that you don't try the next. It's done that way in the socket examples, by using a continue in the loop.
Nesting them would help if you wanted to do something different in the exception block. But if not you'd be repeating the except block every time. And if you wanted to do something different, when you exit the nested-trys, you wouldn't be certain of which level it has completed or raised an exception - would need to use flag values etc. to merely track that. So for your example of the same error handling code, at the very least, do something like this in your except block:
except socket.error as e:
socket_error_handler(e, s)
def socket_error_handler(exception, socket):
#write error code to file
etc.
Should I put socket.socket into try/catch block too?
They do that in the examples, linked above.
Apart from logging, you shouldn't really be doing the same exception handling at each stage. Probably need to handle those separately.
Part 2:
s.settimeout(5.0) sets the timeout for each socket operation, not just the first connect. Also implies that it's in blocking mode.

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