From: Jeremy Bopp <jeremy@...>
Date: 2010-12-08T08:36:16+09:00
Subject: Re: HTTP POST request --> Ruby server

On 12/7/2010 4:36 PM, Chananya Freiman wrote:
> Jeremy Bopp wrote in post #967039:
>> On 12/7/2010 2:48 PM, Chananya Freiman wrote:
>>>
>>> str = ""
>>> (1..560).each { |a| str += peer.readchar }
>>> print str
>>
>> peer.readchar is blocking because there is no further data available but
>> the stream is still open.
>>
>> Are you certain that your two examples both accurately reflect the code
>> you're actually using?  In both cases you are creating an inclusive
>> range over which to iterate, and both ranges go from 1 to 560.  As a
>> result, your loops will run 560 times, so if your data is only 559 bytes
>> long, you will run peer.readchar one more time than you have bytes
>> available.  In that case, both loops should block at the peer.readchar
>> call in the 560th iteration.
>>
>> -Jeremy
> 
> Yes that's what should happen, but the first one didn't block for some 
> reason.
> 
> Anyway, the problem is solved now.

As long as there is a question about why there is a difference in
behavior in your code samples, there is a good chance that you've simply
masked a bug that will bite you later.  You should probably flag this
code as needing attention at the very least unless this is a throwaway
project.

> I did try using readbytes(length) where length is the Content-Length 
> value, but it blocks wheres
> 
> (length.to_i).times do
>     data += peer.readchar
> end
> 
> doesn't.

Try using read(length) instead; although, readbytes(length) should work
the same in this case.  What you're doing is highly inefficient since
you're creating a new string for every byte of data you read from your
POST.  If you start POSTing nontrivial amounts of data to your server,
your solution will cause you problems.

-Jeremy