Boost::Asio synchronous client with timeout

I´m trying to build a synchronous FTP client code with timeout using a thread as the timeout control. The thread will be started on every transaction and will close the socket in case of timeout - that will force the syncronous call to return with error.

So here is my code:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>

#define TIMEOUT_SECONDS 5
#define MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE 4096
using boost::asio::ip::tcp;

enum { max_length = 1024 };

bool timerOn;

void socket_timer(tcp::socket& s, int seconds)
{
    std::chrono::system_clock::time_point start = std::chrono::system_clock::now();

    while (timerOn)
    {
        std::chrono::system_clock::time_point now = std::chrono::system_clock::now();
        auto interval = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::seconds>(now - start).count();

        if (interval > seconds)
            break;

        std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(10)); //  Not to run in 100% CPU
    }


    if (timerOn)
        s.close();
}

void start_timer(int seconds, tcp::socket& s) 
{
    timerOn = true;
    std::thread t(socket_timer, s, seconds);
    t.detach();
}

void stop_timer()
{
    timerOn = false;
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  std::string address;

  while(address != "END")
  {
      try
      {
        boost::asio::io_service io_service;

        std::cout << "Enter FTP server address to connect or END to finish: " << std::endl;
        std::cin >> address;

        if (address == "END")
            break;

        tcp::socket s(io_service);
        tcp::resolver resolver(io_service);
        boost::asio::ip::tcp::endpoint endpoint(boost::asio::ip::address::from_string(address), 21);

        start_timer(TIMEOUT_SECONDS, s);
        boost::system::error_code ec;
        s.connect(endpoint, ec);
        stop_timer();

        if (ec)
        {
            throw std::runtime_error("Error connecting to server.");
        }

        std::cout << "Connected to " << s.remote_endpoint().address().to_string() << std::endl;

        char reply[max_length];

        start_timer(TIMEOUT_SECONDS, s);
        size_t bytes = s.receive(boost::asio::buffer(reply, MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE), 0, ec);
        stop_timer();

        if (ec)
        {
            throw std::runtime_error("Error receiving message.");
        }

        std::cout << "Received message is: ";
        std::cout.write(reply, bytes);
        std::cout << "\n";

        std::cout << "Enter message: ";
        char request[max_length];
        std::cin.getline(request, max_length);
        size_t request_length = std::strlen(request);

        start_timer(TIMEOUT_SECONDS, s);
        boost::asio::write(s, boost::asio::buffer(request, request_length));
        stop_timer();

        if (ec)
        {
            throw std::runtime_error("Error sending message.");
        }
      }
      catch (std::exception& e)
      {
        std::cerr << "COMMUNICATIONS ERROR." << "\n";
        std::cerr << "Exception: " << e.what() << "\n";
      }
    }

   return 0;
}

I simply cannot compile this code, as boost is showing me the following error:

1>------ Build started: Project: TestAsio, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>  main.cpp
1>c:\boost_1_60\boost\asio\basic_socket.hpp(1513): error C2248: 'boost::asio::basic_io_object<IoObjectService>::basic_io_object' : cannot access private member declared in class 'boost::asio::basic_io_object<IoObjectService>'
1>          with
1>          [
1>              IoObjectService=boost::asio::stream_socket_service<boost::asio::ip::tcp>
1>          ]
1>          c:\boost_1_60\boost\asio\basic_io_object.hpp(230) : see declaration of 'boost::asio::basic_io_object<IoObjectService>::basic_io_object'
1>          with
1>          [
1>              IoObjectService=boost::asio::stream_socket_service<boost::asio::ip::tcp>
1>          ]
1>          This diagnostic occurred in the compiler generated function 'boost::asio::basic_socket<Protocol,SocketService>::basic_socket(const boost::asio::basic_socket<Protocol,SocketService> &)'
1>          with
1>          [
1>              Protocol=boost::asio::ip::tcp,
1>              SocketService=boost::asio::stream_socket_service<boost::asio::ip::tcp>
1>          ]
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 9 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

So, I wanna know about 2 things:

a) What am I doing wrong in the code ?

b) Will this approach of closing the socket on a parallel thread work for timing out the socket ? Please fell free to comment it.

Thanks for helping.

I've made a helper facility to do any Asio async operation "synchronously" with a timeout here, look for await_operation:

boost::asio + std::future - Access violation after closing socket

You should be able to adapt the pattern for your sample.

Demo

It took a while since I wanted to test this with an ftp server.

Notes:

you didn't resolve the address (effectively requiring the user to type in IP address)
you didn't make sure commands were closed with newline
you didn't handle any kind of input error

Fixing these things and using my await_operation you'd get this:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
#include <boost/asio/high_resolution_timer.hpp>

#define TIMEOUT std::chrono::seconds(5)
#define MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE 4096
using boost::asio::ip::tcp;

enum { max_length = 2048 };

struct Service {
    using error_code = boost::system::error_code;

    template<typename AllowTime, typename Cancel> void await_operation_ex(AllowTime const& deadline_or_duration, Cancel&& cancel) {
        using namespace boost::asio;

        ioservice.reset();
        {
            high_resolution_timer tm(ioservice, deadline_or_duration);
            tm.async_wait([&cancel](error_code ec) { if (ec != error::operation_aborted) std::forward<Cancel>(cancel)(); });
            ioservice.run_one();
        }
        ioservice.run();
    }

    template<typename AllowTime, typename ServiceObject> void await_operation(AllowTime const& deadline_or_duration, ServiceObject& so) {
        return await_operation_ex(deadline_or_duration, [&so]{ so.cancel(); });
    }

    boost::asio::io_service ioservice;
};

int main()
{
  while(true)
  {
    try
    {
      Service service;

      std::cout << "Enter FTP server address to connect or END to finish: " << std::endl;

      std::string address;
      if (std::cin >> address) {
        if (address == "END") break;
      } else {
        if (std::cin.eof())
          break;
        std::cerr << "Invalid input ignored\n";
        std::cin.clear();
        std::cin.ignore(1024, '\n');

        continue;
      }

      tcp::socket s(service.ioservice);
      tcp::resolver resolver(service.ioservice);

      boost::asio::async_connect(s, resolver.resolve({address, "21"}), [](boost::system::error_code ec, tcp::resolver::iterator it) {
            if (ec) throw std::runtime_error("Error connecting to server: " + ec.message());
            std::cout << "Connected to " << it->endpoint() << std::endl;
          });
      service.await_operation_ex(TIMEOUT, [&]{
            throw std::runtime_error("Error connecting to server: timeout\n");
          });

      auto receive = [&] {
        boost::asio::streambuf sb;
        size_t bytes;

        boost::asio::async_read_until(s, sb, '\n', [&](boost::system::error_code ec, size_t bytes_transferred) {
              if (ec) throw std::runtime_error("Error receiving message: " + ec.message());
              bytes = bytes_transferred;

              std::cout << "Received message is: " << &sb;
            });

        service.await_operation(TIMEOUT, s);
        return bytes;
      };

      receive(); // banner

      auto send = [&](std::string cmd) {
        boost::asio::async_write(s, boost::asio::buffer(cmd), [](boost::system::error_code ec, size_t /*bytes_transferred*/) {
              if (ec) throw std::runtime_error("Error sending message: " + ec.message());
            });
        service.await_operation(TIMEOUT, s);
      };

      auto ftp_command = [&](std::string cmd) {
        send(cmd + "\r\n");
        receive(); // response
      };

      //ftp_command("USER bob");
      //ftp_command("PASS hello");

      while (true) {
        std::cout << "Enter command: ";

        std::string request;
        if (!std::getline(std::cin, request))
          break;

        ftp_command(request);
      }

    }
    catch (std::exception const& e)
    {
      std::cerr << "COMMUNICATIONS ERROR " << e.what() << "\n";
    }
  }

  return 0;
}

Which, in my test run, prints e.g.: