I have a client-server application where the server transmits a 4-byte integer specifying how large the next transmission is going to be. When I read the 4-byte integer on the client side (specifying FILE_SIZE), the next time I read the stream I get FILE_SIZE + 4 bytes read.
Do I need to specify the offset to 4 when reading from this stream, or is there a way to automatically advance the NetworkStream so my offset can always be 0?
SERVER
NetworkStream theStream = theClient.getStream();
//...
//Calculate file size with FileInfo and put into byte[] size
//...
theStream.Write(size, 0, size.Length);
theStream.Flush();
CLIENT
NetworkStream theStream = theClient.getStream();
//read size
byte[] size = new byte[4];
int bytesRead = theStream.Read(size, 0, 4);
...
//read content
byte[] content = new byte[4096];
bytesRead = theStream.Read(content, 0, 4096);
Console.WriteLine(bytesRead); // <-- Prints filesize + 4
Right; found it; FileInfo.Length
is a long
; your call to:
binWrite.Write(fileInfo.Length);
writes 8 bytes, little-endian. You then read that back via:
filesize = binRead.ReadInt32();
which little-endian will give you the same value (for 32 bits, at least). You have 4 00
bytes left unused in the stream, though (from the high-bytes of the long
) - hence the 4 byte mismatch.
Use one of:
binWrite.Write((int)fileInfo.Length);
filesize = binRead.ReadInt64();
NetworkStream
certainly advances, but in both cases, your read is unreliable; a classic "read known amount of content" would be:
static void ReadAll(Stream source, byte[] buffer, int bytes) {
if(bytes > buffer.Length) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("bytes");
int bytesRead, offset = 0;
while(bytes > 0 && (bytesRead = source.Reader(buffer, offset, bytes)) > 0) {
offset += bytesRead;
bytes -= bytesRead;
}
if(bytes != 0) throw new EndOfStreamException();
}
with:
ReadAll(theStream, size, 4);
...
ReadAll(theStream, content, contentLength);
note also that you need to be careful with endianness when parsing the length-prefix.
I suspect you simply aren't reading the complete data.