Delphi: Indy TIdTCPClient Reading Data - multithreading

Question

I am using Delphi 2007 & Indy 10; I am a bit of a Delphi noob so apologies if I have missed something obvious...
Background: I have a simple server app which simply sends the word "PING" when you connect to its port. It will also respond if it receives the word "PONG". This is working fine, I have manually tested this using netcat/wireshark.
I am trying to code my client to connect to the port and automatically respond to the word PING whenever it receives it. I have created a simple form with a button to manually connect.
The client connects, but it does not respond to the word PING.
I think the problem lies with:
TLog.AddMsg(FConn.IOHandler.ReadLn);
My debug log reports only as far as "DEBUG: TReadingThread.Execute - FConn.Connected".
My client code:
unit Unit1;
interface
uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
Dialogs, StdCtrls, IdCustomTransparentProxy, IdSocks, IdBaseComponent,
IdComponent, IdIOHandler, IdIOHandlerSocket, IdIOHandlerStack,
IdTCPConnection, IdTCPClient, IdSync;
type
TReadingThread = class(TThread)
protected
FConn: TIdTCPConnection;
procedure Execute; override;
public
constructor Create(AConn: TIdTCPConnection); reintroduce;
end;
TLog = class(TIdSync)
protected
FMsg: String;
procedure DoSynchronize; override;
public
constructor Create(const AMsg: String);
class procedure AddMsg(const AMsg: String);
end;
TForm1 = class(TForm)
Memo1: TMemo;
Button1: TButton;
IdIOHandlerStack1: TIdIOHandlerStack;
client: TIdTCPClient;
IdSocksInfo1: TIdSocksInfo;
procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
procedure clientConnected(Sender: TObject);
procedure clientDisconnected(Sender: TObject);
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
public
{ Public declarations }
end;
var
Form1: TForm1;
rt: TReadingThread = nil;
implementation
{$R *.dfm}
constructor TReadingThread.Create(AConn: TIdTCPConnection);
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TReadingThread.Create'); // Debug
FConn := AConn;
inherited Create(False);
end;
procedure TReadingThread.Execute;
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TReadingThread.Execute'); // Debug
while not Terminated and FConn.Connected do
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TReadingThread.Execute - FConn.Connected'); // Debug
TLog.AddMsg(FConn.IOHandler.ReadLn);
end;
end;
constructor TLog.Create(const AMsg: String);
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TLog.Create'); // Debug
FMsg := AMsg;
inherited Create;
end;
procedure TLog.DoSynchronize;
var
cmd : string;
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TLog.DoSynchronize'); // Debug
cmd := copy(FMsg, 1, 1);
if cmd='PING' then begin
Form1.client.Socket.WriteLn('PONG');
end
end;
class procedure TLog.AddMsg(const AMsg: String);
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TLog.AddMsg'); // Debug
with Create(AMsg) do try
Synchronize;
finally
Free;
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
Memo1.Clear;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
Host : String;
Port : Integer;
begin
Host := '127.0.0.1';
Port := StrToInt('1234');
client.Host := Host;
client.Port := Port;
with client do
begin
try
Connect;
except
on E: Exception do
Memo1.Lines.Add('Error: ' + E.Message);
end;
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.clientConnected(Sender: TObject);
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TForm1.clientConnected'); // Debug
rt := TReadingThread.Create(client);
end;
procedure TForm1.clientDisconnected(Sender: TObject);
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add('DEBUG: TForm1.clientDisconnected'); // Debug
if rt <> nil then
begin
rt.Terminate;
rt.WaitFor;
FreeAndNil(rt);
end;
end;
end.
Any help/advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

The reading thread is directly accessing Form1.Memo1, which is not thread safe and can cause deadlocks, crashes, corrupted memory, etc. So it is possible that the reading thread is not even reaching the ReadLn() call at all. You MUST synchronize ALL access to UI controls to the main thread, no matter how trivial the access actually is. Just don't risk it.
Also, you are doing your thread's ping/pong logic inside of TLog itself, where it does not belong. Not to mention that you are truncating the cmd to only its first character before checking its value, so it will NEVER detect a PING command. You need to move the logic back into the thread, where it really belongs, and remove the truncation.
Try this:
unit Unit1;
interface
uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
Dialogs, StdCtrls, IdCustomTransparentProxy, IdSocks, IdBaseComponent,
IdComponent, IdIOHandler, IdIOHandlerSocket, IdIOHandlerStack,
IdTCPConnection, IdTCPClient, IdSync;
type
TReadingThread = class(TThread)
protected
FConn: TIdTCPConnection;
procedure Execute; override;
procedure DoTerminate; override;
public
constructor Create(AConn: TIdTCPConnection); reintroduce;
end;
TLog = class(TIdSync)
protected
FMsg: String;
procedure DoSynchronize; override;
public
constructor Create(const AMsg: String);
class procedure AddMsg(const AMsg: String);
end;
TForm1 = class(TForm)
Memo1: TMemo;
Button1: TButton;
IdIOHandlerStack1: TIdIOHandlerStack;
client: TIdTCPClient;
IdSocksInfo1: TIdSocksInfo;
procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
procedure clientConnected(Sender: TObject);
procedure clientDisconnected(Sender: TObject);
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
public
{ Public declarations }
end;
var
Form1: TForm1;
rt: TReadingThread = nil;
implementation
{$R *.dfm}
constructor TReadingThread.Create(AConn: TIdTCPConnection);
begin
TLog.AddMsg('DEBUG: TReadingThread.Create');
FConn := AConn;
inherited Create(False);
end;
procedure TReadingThread.Execute;
var
cmd: string;
begin
TLog.AddMsg('DEBUG: TReadingThread.Execute');
while not Terminated do
begin
cmd := FConn.IOHandler.ReadLn;
TLog.AddMsg('DEBUG: TReadingThread.Execute. Cmd: ' + cmd);
if cmd = 'PING' then begin
FConn.IOHandler.WriteLn('PONG');
end
end;
end;
procedure TReadingThread.DoTerminate;
begin
TLog.AddMsg('DEBUG: TReadingThread.DoTerminate');
inherited;
end;
constructor TLog.Create(const AMsg: String);
begin
inherited Create;
FMsg := AMsg;
end;
procedure TLog.DoSynchronize;
begin
Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add(FMsg);
end;
class procedure TLog.AddMsg(const AMsg: String);
begin
with Create(AMsg) do
try
Synchronize;
finally
Free;
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
Memo1.Clear;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
Host : String;
Port : Integer;
begin
Host := '127.0.0.1';
Port := StrToInt('1234');
client.Host := Host;
client.Port := Port;
try
client.Connect;
except
on E: Exception do
TLog.AddMsg('Error: ' + E.Message);
end;
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.clientConnected(Sender: TObject);
begin
TLog.AddMsg('DEBUG: TForm1.clientConnected');
rt := TReadingThread.Create(client);
end;
procedure TForm1.clientDisconnected(Sender: TObject);
begin
TLog.AddMsg('DEBUG: TForm1.clientDisconnected');
if rt <> nil then
begin
rt.Terminate;
rt.WaitFor;
FreeAndNil(rt);
end;
end;
end.
If that still does not work, then make sure the server is actually delimiting the PING string with a CRLF sequence, or at least a LF character (which is the minimum that ReadLn() looks for by default).