C program to receive TCP data stream

Question

I have to write a program in the C language to receive TCP data streams. I would like to know

1. What is effort required considering I am new to networking and C programming?

2. Also, I came across the Boost C++ libraries. I want to understand, do those libraries provide a ready made TCP client and Server creation programs or do they provide the basics on which we can further work on?

Answer 1

Here is TCP client C++ code with boost library as you asked in comment

#include <iostream>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>

using namespace boost::asio;
using ip::tcp;
using std::string;
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

int main() {
     boost::asio::io_service io_service;
//socket creation
     tcp::socket socket(io_service);
//connection
     socket.connect( tcp::endpoint( boost::asio::ip::address::from_string("127.0.0.1"), 1234 ));
// request/message from client
     const string msg = "Hello from Client!\n";
     boost::system::error_code error;
     boost::asio::write( socket, boost::asio::buffer(msg), error );
     if( !error ) {
        cout << "Client sent hello message!" << endl;
     }
     else {
        cout << "send failed: " << error.message() << endl;
     }
 // getting response from server
    boost::asio::streambuf receive_buffer;
    boost::asio::read(socket, receive_buffer, boost::asio::transfer_all(), error);
    if( error && error != boost::asio::error::eof ) {
        cout << "receive failed: " << error.message() << endl;
    }
    else {
        const char* data = boost::asio::buffer_cast<const char*>(receive_buffer.data());
        cout << data << endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

Compile and run.

$ g++ client.cpp -o client –lboost_system
$ ./client  

TCP server:

#include <iostream>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>

using namespace boost::asio;
using ip::tcp;
using std::string;
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

string read_(tcp::socket & socket) {
       boost::asio::streambuf buf;
       boost::asio::read_until( socket, buf, "\n" );
       string data = boost::asio::buffer_cast<const char*>(buf.data());
       return data;
}
void send_(tcp::socket & socket, const string& message) {
       const string msg = message + "\n";
       boost::asio::write( socket, boost::asio::buffer(message) );
}

int main() {
      boost::asio::io_service io_service;
//listen for new connection
      tcp::acceptor acceptor_(io_service, tcp::endpoint(tcp::v4(), 1234 ));
//socket creation 
      tcp::socket socket_(io_service);
//waiting for connection
      acceptor_.accept(socket_);
//read operation
      string message = read_(socket_);
      cout << message << endl;
//write operation
      send_(socket_, "Hello From Server!");
      cout << "Servent sent Hello message to Client!" << endl;
   return 0;
}

compile and run in another window

$ g++ server.cpp -o server –lboost_system
$ ./server