boost asio timeout

Question

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How to set a timeout on blocking sockets in boost asio?

I read some of the entries before about the timeout but I don't understand.

I want a defined timeout for the connection. the connect code looks like:

try{
  boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver              resolver(m_ioService);
  boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::query       query(link.get_host(), link.get_scheme());
  boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator    endpoint_iterator = resolver.resolve(query);
  boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::iterator    end;
  boost::system::error_code                   error   =   boost::asio::error::host_not_found;

  while (error && endpoint_iterator != end)
   {
    m_socket.close();
    m_socket.connect(*endpoint_iterator++, error);
   }
}

also I want a read timeout.

I use boost::asio::read_until(m_socket, response, "\r\n"); for read the header.

is it possible to set SIMPLE a timeout?

Read [how to set a timeout on blocking socket](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/291871/how-to-set-a-timeout-on-blocking-sockets-in-boost-asio) It seems that there is not easy way. — O.C., May 18 '11 at 07:56

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 31 '12 at 11:53

13

Fist of all I believe that you should ALWAYS use the async methods since they are better and your design will only benefit from a reactor pattern approach. In the bad case that you're in a hurry and you're kind of prototyping, the sync methods can be useful. In this case I do agree with you that without any timeout support, they cannot be used in the real world.

What I did was very simple:

void HttpClientImpl::configureSocketTimeouts(boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket& socket)
{
#if defined OS_WINDOWS
    int32_t timeout = 15000;
    setsockopt(socket.native(), SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVTIMEO, (const char*)&timeout, sizeof(timeout));
    setsockopt(socket.native(), SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDTIMEO, (const char*)&timeout, sizeof(timeout));
#else
    struct timeval tv;
    tv.tv_sec  = 15; 
    tv.tv_usec = 0;         
    setsockopt(socket.native(), SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVTIMEO, &tv, sizeof(tv));
    setsockopt(socket.native(), SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDTIMEO, &tv, sizeof(tv));
#endif
}

The code above works both on windows and on Linux and on MAC OS, according to the OS_WINDOWS macro.

answered Jan 31 '12 at 11:53

Carlo Medas

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Isn't there some library I must include to make this work? – Tomáš Zato Mar 16 '13 at 15:57
gives error: ‘HttpClientImpl’ has not been declared – Stefan Rogin Mar 13 '14 at 07:16
Can you please help me to find why your answer [does not work](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/33668717/boost-asio-blocking-mode-timeout-on-native-socket-handle-is-not-working) for me? – VP. Nov 12 '15 at 10:37
Setting the socket options may not have the desired affects on the Asio operations. See [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/30428941/1053968) for details. – Tanner Sansbury Nov 12 '15 at 17:22
Has someone actually got a timeout implemented with the code above using Linux? When using windows everything works fine. However, when I compile and run this with Ubuntu, both `setsockop` calls do not return an error code but the read-calls are still blocking? – Anonymous Dec 01 '15 at 10:10

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '11 at 17:17

5

Using boost::asio and the sychronous calls like read_until do not allow for easily setting a timeout.

I'd suggest moving to asynchronous calls (like async_read), and combining that with a deadline_timer to accomplish this goal.

answered May 18 '11 at 17:17

Chad

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+1 for recommending async calls. – Sam Miller May 19 '11 at 03:04
1

Good luck with async asio. I had mysterious crashes using them, not often, but enough to doubt the application's stability. They all went away when I switched to multiple threads each with synchronous asio. – wallyk May 19 '11 at 03:42
5

Sorry that you've had problems with boost::asio. While it's definitely a learning curve and there are a lot of things that have to be done "just right", I've found that for cross-platform development of applications under heavy network load (to the point that synchronous calls like select(), were causing major bottlenecks), boost::asio has performed extremely well and given definite benefits. – Chad May 19 '11 at 18:28
@wally async programming is hard to get correct, nobody will deny that. The inversion of the application's flow control is particularly confusing at times. – Sam Miller May 21 '11 at 00:30
@Chad What a pity is that `deadline_timer` is not avialble when I use the standalone [`asio`](https://think-async.com/Asio/) which doesn't depent on `Boost`. Any idea about how to accomplish this goal with standalone `asio`? – John Sep 16 '21 at 02:10
The documentation for non-boost have both deadline_timer and steady_timer listed? https://think-async.com/Asio/asio-1.18.2/doc/asio/reference.html – Chad Sep 16 '21 at 02:46

boost asio timeout

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