TCP Servers with IO::Socket

Proto

This is which protocol to use. Like our clients, we'll still specify "tcp" here.

LocalPort

We specify a local port in the LocalPort argument, which we didn't do for the client. This is service name or port number for which you want to be the server. (Under Unix, ports under 1024 are restricted to the superuser.) In our sample, we'll use port 9000, but you can use any port that's not currently in use on your system. If you try to use one already in used, you'll get an ``Address already in use'' message. Under Unix, the netstat -a command will show which services current have servers.

Listen

The Listen parameter is set to the maximum number of pending connections we can accept until we turn away incoming clients. Think of it as a call-waiting queue for your telephone. The low-level Socket module has a special symbol for the system maximum, which is SOMAXCONN.

Reuse

The Reuse parameter is needed so that we restart our server manually without waiting a few minutes to allow system buffers to clear out.

To add to user-friendliness, our server prompts the user for commands. Most servers don't do this. Because of the prompt without a newline, you'll have to use the sysread variant of the interactive client above.

This server accepts one of five different commands, sending output back to the client. Note that unlike most network servers, this one only handles one incoming client at a time. Multithreaded servers are covered in Chapter 6 of the Camel or in the perlipc(1) manpage.

Here's the code. We'll

 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 use IO::Socket;
 use Net::hostent;              # for OO version of gethostbyaddr

 $PORT = 9000;                  # pick something not in use

 $server = IO::Socket::INET->new( Proto     => 'tcp',
                                  LocalPort => $PORT,
                                  Listen    => SOMAXCONN,
                                  Reuse     => 1);

 die "can't setup server" unless $server;
 print "[Server $0 accepting clients]\n";

 while ($client = $server->accept()) {
   $client->autoflush(1);
   print $client "Welcome to $0; type help for command list.\n";
   $hostinfo = gethostbyaddr($client->peeraddr);
   printf "[Connect from %s]\n", $hostinfo->name || $client->peerhost;
   print $client "Command? ";
   while ( <$client>) {
     next unless /\S/;       # blank line
     if    (/quit|exit/i)    { last;                                     }
     elsif (/date|time/i)    { printf $client "%s\n", scalar localtime;  }
     elsif (/who/i )         { print  $client `who 2>&1`;                }
     elsif (/cookie/i )      { print  $client `/usr/games/fortune 2>&1`; }
     elsif (/motd/i )        { print  $client `cat /etc/motd 2>&1`;      }
     else {
       print $client "Commands: quit date who cookie motd\n";
     }
   } continue {
      print $client "Command? ";
   }
   close $client;
 }