Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!brtph3!brchh104!brchs1!bnr.ca!rice.edu!sun-spots-request
From: fkittred@spca.bbn.com (Fletcher Kittredge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Pipes, sockets and coms processes
Keywords: Networks
Message-ID: <1213@brchh104.bnr.ca>
Date: 12 Jan 91 15:16:13 GMT
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In article <1180@brchh104.bnr.ca> rbs@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Robert Scott) writes:
>Given two processes communicating via a socket, how does the receiver know
>the length of the senders message?  In the relevant manual on
>interprocessor communication the examples given send fixed length
>messages. I need to be able to send variable length messages where the
>receiver won't know message length at compile time.

What is your protocol?  TCP/IP is a byte stream protocol, so if you are
using it, then you will have define your own protocol to send your own
packet headers with lengths for the data portion of the messages.  This is
less difficult than it sounds.  I recommend that you pick up a copy of
Stevens, "Unix Network Programming" [Prentice-Hall]

Regards,
Fletcher Kittredge
617-873-3465  /  fkittred@bbn.com  /  fkittred@das.harvard.edu