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I am trying to build a chat application between the server and the client. My doubt is for sending information from the client or from the server I was able to handle the partial send with the help of the loop, but I am unable to find out the length of the send data bytes from the client to the server or from the server to the client, thereby having problem in creating the memory for the received bytes and printing.
My chat function code for the client:
int chat_function(int sockfd)
{
char ch;
char *buf;
char *newp;
int ret_send = 0;
int ret_recv = 0;
int buf_size = 0;
while(1) {
printf("From client, enter the message : ");
buf = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char));
if (buf == NULL)
return -1;
while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n') {
buf[buf_size++] = ch;
newp = (char *)realloc(buf, (buf_size + 1) * sizeof(char));
if ( newp == NULL) {
free(buf);
return -1;
}
buf = newp;
}
buf[buf_size] = '\0';
ret_send = send_all(sockfd, buf, buf_size);
if (ret_send == -1)
error(1, errno, "error in send() function call\n");
memset(buf, 0, buf_size);
ret_recv = recv_all(sockfd, buf, buf_size);
if (ret_recv == -1) {
error(1, errno, "error in recv() function call\n");
} else if (ret_recv == -2) {
printf("Oops the server has closed the connection\n");
free(buf);
break;
}
printf("From Server : %s", buf);
if ((strncmp(buf, "exit", 4)) == 0) {
printf("Client Exit...\n");
free(buf);
break;
}
free(buf);
}
}
For handling partial send:
int send_all(int sockfd, char *buf, int buf_size)
{
int bytes_left = 0;
size_t send_bytes = 0;
bytes_left = buf_size
while (1) {
send_bytes = send(fd, buf, bytes_left, 0);
if (send_bytes == -1)
return -1;
buf = buf + send_bytes;
bytes_left = bytes_left - send_bytes;
if (bytes_left == 0)
break;
}
return 0;
}
TCP is a stream protocol, meaning there are no message boundaries: it is just a full-duplex (meaning data flows in both directions at the same time, as if there were two separate lanes) more or less continuous stream of data.
UDP is a datagram protocol, and does have message boundaries. There is an ioctl (FIONREAD/SIOCINQ) that provides the length of the next datagram, but because it involves a syscall, doing that for every message you receive is going to be slow and inefficient. Instead, you normally use a buffer large enough to hold the largest acceptable message, and copy it if/when necessary. However, UDP also has no reliability guarantees, and often UDP datagrams are completely lost without any trace or discernible reason; that's just what happens.
For a chat client-server connection, you'll want to use TCP.
Since the underlying connection is just a stream of data, you need to design a protocol for the communications, so that the stream can be split into messages, with each message processed separately.
The simplest case would be to use the nul character, \0, as a message separator.
The "send" function would then look something like this:
/* Returns 0 if message successfully sent,
nonzero errno code otherwise. */
int send_message(int descriptor, const char *message)
{
/* If message is NULL, we cannot use strlen(); use zero for that. */
const size_t message_len = (message) ? strlen(message) : 0;
/* Temporary variables for the sending part. */
const char *ptr = message;
const char *const end = message + message_len + 1; /* Include '\0' at end */
ssize_t bytes;
/* Check valid descriptor and message length. */
if (descriptor == -1 || message_len < 1)
return errno = EINVAL;
/* Write loop for sending the entire message. */
while (ptr < end) {
bytes = write(descriptor, ptr, (size_t)(end - ptr));
if (bytes > 0) {
ptr += bytes;
} else
if (bytes != -1) {
/* This should never happen. */
return errno = EIO;
} else
if (errno != EINTR) {
/* We do not consider EINTR an actual error; others we do. */
return errno;
}
}
return 0;
}
The above send_message() function writes the specified string, including the string terminating nul character \0, to the specified descriptor.
On the read end, we need a buffer large enough to hold at least one full message. Instead of always waiting for incoming data, we need to check if the buffer already contains a full message, and if it does, return that. Also, you do not necessarily want to always wait for an incoming message, because that would mean you cannot send two messages in a row.
So, here's my suggestion:
static int incoming_desc = -1;
static char *incoming_data = NULL;
static size_t incoming_size = 0;
static char *incoming_next = NULL; /* First received but not handled */
static char *incoming_ends = NULL; /* Last received but not handled */
#define INCOMING_CHUNK 4096
/* Receive a new message into dynamically allocated buffer,
and return the length. Returns 0 when no message, with errno set.
Waits at most ms milliseconds for a new message to arrive.
errno == EAGAIN: no message, timeout elapsed.
errno == ECONNABORTED: other end closed the connection.
*/
size_t get_message(char **message, size_t *size, long ms)
{
struct timeval timeout;
/* Make sure the parameters are sane. */
if (!message || !size || ms < 0) {
errno = EINVAL;
return 0;
}
/* For this function to work like getline() and getdelim() do,
we need to treat *message as NULL if *size == 0. */
if (!*size)
*message = NULL;
timeout.tv_sec = ms / 1000;
timeout.tv_usec = (ms % 1000) * 1000;
/* Timeout loop. */
while (1) {
fd_set readfds;
ssize_t bytes;
size_t used;
int result;
/* Is there a pending complete message in the buffer? */
if (incoming_ends > incoming_next) {
char *endmark = memchr(incoming_next, '\0', (size_t)(incoming_ends - incoming_next));
if (endmark) {
const size_t len = (size_t)(endmark - incoming_next) + 1;
/* Reallocate the message buffer, if necessary. */
if (len > *size) {
char *temp = realloc(*message, len);
if (!temp) {
errno = ENOMEM;
return 0;
}
*message = temp;
*size = len;
}
/* Copy message, */
memcpy(*message, incoming_next, len);
/* and remove it from the buffer. */
incoming_next += len;
/* In case the other end sent just the separator, clear errno. */
errno = 0;
/* We return the length sans the separator. */
return len - 1;
}
}
/* Do we have time left to check for input? */
if (timeout.tv_sec <= 0 && timeout.tv_usec <= 0)
break; /* Nope. */
/* Is incoming_desc one we can select() for? */
if (incoming_desc < 0 || incoming_desc >= FD_SETSIZE)
break; /* Nope. */
FD_ZERO(&readfds);
FD_SET(incoming_desc, &readfds);
result = select(incoming_desc + 1, &readfds, NULL, NULL, &timeout);
if (result < 1)
break; /* Nothing interesting happened (we ignore error here). */
if (!FD_ISSET(incoming_fd, &readfds))
break;
/* Number of bytes used in the buffer right now. */
used = (size_t)(incoming_ends - incoming_data);
/* Do we have at least INCOMING_CHUNK bytes available? */
if (used + INCOMING_CHUNK >= incoming_size) {
/* Nope. Repack the incoming buffer first. */
if (incoming_next > incoming_data) {
const size_t len = (size_t)(incoming_ends - incoming_next);
if (len > 0)
memmove(incoming_data, incoming_next, len);
incoming_next = incoming_data;
incoming_ends = incoming_data + len;
}
/* Recalculate the number of bytes we have free now. Enough? */
used = (size_t)(incoming_ends - incoming_data);
if (used + INCOMING_CHUNK > incoming_size) {
/* Grow incoming buffer. */
const size_t newsize = used + INCOMING_CHUNK;
char *temp = realloc(incoming_data, newsize);
if (!temp) {
errno = ENOMEM;
return 0;
}
incoming_next = temp + (size_t)(incoming_next - incoming_data);
incoming_ends = temp + used;
incoming_data = temp;
incoming_size = newsize;
}
}
/* Read more data into the buffer; up to a full buffer. */
bytes = read(incoming_fd, incoming_ends, incoming_size - used);
if (bytes > 0) {
incoming_ends += bytes;
} else
if (bytes == 0) {
/* Other end closed the connection. We may have a partial message
in the buffer, and should handle that too, but for now, we
just error out. */
errno = ECONNABORTED;
return 0;
} else
if (bytes != -1) {
/* Should never happen. */
errno = EIO;
return 0;
} else
if (errno == EINTR || errno == EAGAIN || errno == EWOULDBLOCK) {
/* No data yet, interrupted by signal delivery, etc. */
continue;
} else {
/* errno is set to indicate which error happened. */
return 0;
}
}
/* Timeout. */
errno = EAGAIN;
return 0;
}
Note that get_message() works like getline(): you do e.g.
char *msg = NULL;
size_t size = 0;
size_t len;
len = get_message(&msg, &size, 100); /* 100 ms = 0.1 seconds */
if (len) {
/* msg contains a full message of len characters */
} else
if (errno == ECONNABORTED) {
/* Other end closed the connection */
} else
if (errno != EAGAIN) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error receiving data: %s.\n", strerror(errno));
}
Then, you can reuse the same dynamically allocated buffer by just calling e.g.
len = get_message(&msg, &size, 100); /* 100 ms = 0.1 seconds */
again.
There is no such mechanism built into TCP or UDP. You need to implement your own protocol on top of it. One of the possible solutions is:
If the content delivered is static.
If the sending end knows the size of the data that is being delivered prior, your client and server can agree on specific terms. For example, the first four bytes sent by the server is the size of the remaining message represented in network byte order.
Server code
uint32_t n_size = htonl(size); // Convert the data size into network byte order.
write(sockfd, &n_size, sizeof(n_size)); // Send to the client.
Client code
uint32_t n_size;
int n_read = 0;
for ( ; ; ) {
int rd_status = read(sockfd, (void*) &n_size + n_read, sizeof(n_size) - n_read);
if (rd_status <= 0)
goto handle_this_case;
n_read = n_read + rd_status;
if (n_read == sizeof(n_size))
break;
}
uint32_t size = ntohl(n_size);
If the content delivered is generated on the fly.
In this case, even the server is not aware of the size of the message. You need to build your functions for handling this case. Below I have shown a bare minimal implementation:
Client-Side:
struct data_unit
{
void* data;
int size;
};
struct data_storage
{
struct data_unit unit;
struct data_storage* next;
};
void append_data(struct data_storage* storage, struct data_unit* unit);
struct data_unit* dump_data(struct data_storage* storage);
int main()
{
struct data_storage storage;
struct data_unit unit;
unit.data = malloc(MAX_SIZE);
for ( ; ; ) {
int rd_status = read(sockfd, unit.data, MAX_SIZE);
if (rd_status < 0)
goto handle_this_case;
else if (rd_status == 0)
break;
unit.size = rd_status;
append_data(&storage, &unit);
}
struct data_unit* t_data = dump_data(&storage);
}
I'm trying to get the source code of my website using c, I'm able to connect and everything but when I implement the recv() code, it only receives the last few bytes of the source code. I'd like to dynamically allocate space for the buffer to receive more using the C functions malloc and realloc.
This is the code I have so far:
char *buffer = NULL;
unsigned int i = 0;
unsigned long LEN = 200;
unsigned long cur_size = 0;
buffer = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*LEN);
do
{
if( status >= LEN )
{
cur_size += status;
buffer = (char*)realloc(buffer, cur_size);
}
status = recv(cSocket, buffer, LEN, 0);
if( status == 0 )
{
printf("Bye\n");
}
else if( status > 0 )
{
printf("%d\n", status);
}
else
{
printf("socket error=%d\n", WSAGetLastError());
break;
}
}while( status > 0 );
printf("%s\n", buffer);
It still doesn't print the whole source code. How should I go about this?
Pseudocode:
buffer = 'len chars';
loop:
if( status >= buffer ) buffer = 'resize to status chars';
status = recv(sock, buffer, len, 0);
end loop
As you resize the buffer in advance this needs to be reflected by its size. Which currently is not the case.
To fix this you could, for example, initialise cur_size with LEN by changing
unsigned long cur_size = 0;
to
unsigned long cur_size = LEN;
Assuming the fix above, you want to append to the buffer and not overwrite it with every call to recv().
To do so change this line
status = recv(cSocket, buffer, LEN, 0);
to be
status = recv(cSocket, buffer + cur_size - LEN, LEN, 0);
A more straight forward approach would be to not track the size of the buffer, but the number of bytes received and just always increase the buffer by a constant size.
Also the two calls to allocate memory can be replaced by one:
char *buffer = NULL;
unsigned long LEN = 200;
unsigned long bytes_received = 0;
unsigned long cur_size = 0;
int status = 0;
do
{
if (bytes_received >= cur_size)
{
char * tmp;
cur_size += LEN;
tmp = realloc(buffer, cur_size);
if (NULL == tmp)
{
fprintf(stderr, "realloc error=%d\n", WSAGetLastError());
break;
}
buffer = tmp;
}
status = recv(cSocket, buffer + bytes_received, LEN, 0);
if (status == 0)
{
printf("Bye\n");
}
else if (status > 0)
{
bytes_received += status;
printf("%d\n", status);
}
else /* < 0 */
{
fprintf(stderr, "socket error=%d\n", WSAGetLastError());
}
} while (status > 0);
printf("%s\n", buffer);
Well, after a bit of research, I came across this website and finally found what I was looking for.
Binary tides
Although it uses linux's fcntl, the windows equivalent is ioctlsocket which is used to set the socket's non-blocking mode.
To see the exact function, visit the website. I modified the version and set my socket to blocking mode.
int total_recv(SOCKET s)
{
int size_recv = 0, total_size = 0, block = 00;
char chunk[BUFLEN];
ioctlsocket(s, FIONBIO, (unsigned long*)&block); // set mode to block
// not necessary but clarification of function, mode is block by
// default
while( 1 )
{
memset(chunk, 0, BUFLEN);
if( ( size_recv = recv(s, chunk, BUFLEN, 0) ) == SOCKET_ERROR )
{
printf("Error receiving\n");
}
else if( size_recv == 0 )
{
break;
}
else
{
total_size += size_recv;
// i used file since console wouldn't show full source code
FILE *fp = NULL;
fp = fopen("source.txt", "a");
fprintf(fp, chunk);
fclose(fp);
}
}
return total_size;
}
I'm trying to implement a working HTTP Client-Server application just to make practice with network programming.
The 2 programs have to follow this basic algorithm:
CLIENT - send a GET request
SERVER - send "+OK\r\n"
SERVER - send file size in bytes
SERVER - send file
CLIENT - send ACK
I'm having a lot of troubles in the reading part, probably because i perform some dirty read on the stream.
These are the 2 reading function that i'm using:
/* Reads a line from stream socket s to buffer ptr
The line is stored in ptr including the final '\n'
At most maxlen chasracters are read*/
int readline (SOCKET s, char *ptr, size_t maxlen)
{
size_t n;
ssize_t nread;
char c;
for (n=1; n<maxlen; n++)
{
nread=recv(s, &c, 1, 0);
if (nread == 1)
{
*ptr++ = c;
if (c == '\n')
break;
}
else if (nread == 0) /* connection closed by party */
{
*ptr = 0;
return (n-1);
}
else /* error */
return (-1);
}
*ptr = 0;
return (n);
}
and:
int readNumber(SOCKET s, long *num, int maxRead)
{
size_t n;
ssize_t nread;
int totRead;
long number=0;
for (n=1; n<maxRead+1; n++)
{
nread=recv(s, &number, sizeof(number), 0);
if (nread == sizeof(number))
{
totRead+=nread;
*num = number;
}
else if (nread == 0) /* connection closed by party */
{
*num = 0;
return (n-1);
}
else /* error */
{
printf("nread = %d\n", nread);
return (-1);
}
}
return (totRead);
}
this is the snippet of the main where i receive the +OK message and then the file size:
memset(rbuf,0,sizeof(rbuf)); //rbuf is the buffer where is store the read
printf("waiting for response...\n");
result = readline(s, rbuf, sizeof(rbuf)); //reading function is above
printf("Byte read(okMsg) = %d\n", result);
if (result <= 0)
//ERROR MANAGEMENT
{
printf("Read error/Connection closed\n");
closesocket(s);
SockCleanup();
exit(1);
}
else
{
long fileLength=0;
unsigned char *fBuf;
//RECEIVE OK
if(!strcmp(rbuf,"+OK\r\n"))
{
puts("+OK\n");
//RECEIVE FILE LEN
int nw = readNumber(s, &fileLength, 1); //reading function is above
printf("Byte read(fDim) = %d\n", nw);
printf("File is %ld bytes long\n", fileLength);
if(nw >0)
{
// RECEIVE FILE
}
}
}
When i send the "+OK\r\n" string the server tells me that it sends 8 bytes, but when i read i find the '\0' char only after 6 bytes.
By the way it reads correctly the message, but when i try to read the file size (that is a long) it gives me back a wrong number.
My opinion is that the stream buffer is dirty, and that i'm reading 2 bytes that are not part of the file size, but i'm not understanding why this happens.
Please ask me more info if i'm not clear enough.
SOLVED:
Thank you all for your answers!!!
You put me in the right mindset to understand what was wrong.
Look like the problem was this declaration in the server:
char *okMsg = "+OK\r\n";
instead of
char okMsg[] = "+OK\r\n";
that lead me to an undefined behavior.
long number=0;
for (n=1; n<maxRead+1; n++)
{
nread=recv(s, &number, sizeof(number), 0);
You forgot to design and implement a protocol to carry the data between your server and your client. Because TCP provides a stream of bytes, your protocol should be defined as a stream of bytes.
How many bytes convey this number? Is "however many bytes a 'long' happens to occupy on my platform" a good answer? What's the semantic meaning of the first byte? Is "whatever the first byte of a 'long' happens to mean on my platform" a good answer?
A good answer would be, "The size shall be conveyed as a 4-byte unsigned integer in little-endian byte order". Then make absolutely sure your code sends and receives in that format.
My server code is as follows:
while(bytes_written < filesize){
//Send from send_ptr
bw = send(child_socket, send_ptr, newLength, 0);
printf("%d bytes written\n", (int)bw);
//Increment bytes written
bytes_written += bw;
//Move send pointer
send_ptr = send_ptr + bw;
}
And my client code is as follows:
while((num_bytes_recv = read(sd, jpgBufferPointer, BUFFER_LENGTH))>0){
total_bytes_recv += num_bytes_recv;
printf("Read %d bytes\n",num_bytes_recv);
//Check for error
if(jpgError == NULL)
jpgError = strstr(jpgBufferPointer, "404 Not Found");
if(jpgError != NULL){
//Forwarding error response
if(send(sd, jpgBuffer, num_bytes_recv, 0) == -1){
error("Failed to send response message to client");
}
}
else{
//Find content size
contentSizeBuffer = strstr(jpgBufferPointer,"Content-Length");
if(contentSizeBuffer != NULL){
contentSizeBuffer=contentSizeBuffer+16;
contentSize=atoi(contentSizeBuffer);
jpgBuffer=(char*)realloc(jpgBuffer,(contentSize+FILE_NAME_LENGTH*2)*sizeof(char));
jpgBufferPointer=jpgBuffer;
}
jpgBufferPointer+=num_bytes_recv;
}
}
The server is saying it has sent all 43000 bytes, but client says it has received only 32768 bytes.
Appreciate any help! Thanks
You have a bug in the sending part, you should update newLength, because if you have 1 byte left to send from the file, it will send more, going out of the memory area where the content you want to send is stored. You should fix in this way:
bw = send(child_socket, send_ptr, newLength<(filesize-bytes_written)?newLength:(filesize-bytes_written), 0);
In this way the last send will have the correct size.
Also, use write instead of send if you are not using any flags.
You need to have the similar loop as you have on the writing side (bytes_written < filesize) on the reading side (i.e., while you can read more bytes, you should read them and append them).
The network doesn't guarantee that one read() call will return all available data.
The best way of writing client-server socket programming is to have a header before your data. The header should state the amount of data that it is going to transfer.
For example, To send data "Hello World", then send it as "0011+HELLO WORLD"
Here 11 stands for the size of the data the sender is planning to send now. The receiver on reading the first 4 bytes can understand that he should be ready to read next 11 bytes of data from the sender.
So reader will do two read:
hRead = 5 /* With 5 you are saying it can read upto max of 9999 bytes from data".
read(sd, buff, hRead);
dRead = atoi(buff);
readn(sd, buff, dRead);
For Example : Server
size_t sendn(int fd, const void *vptr, size_t n) {
size_t nleft;
size_t nwritten;
const char *ptr;
ptr = vptr;
nleft = n;
while (nleft > 0) {
if ((nwritten = send(fd, vptr, nleft, 0)) <= 0) {
if (errno == EINTR)
nwritten = 0;
else {
fprintf(stderr, "send failed %d - %s\n", fd, strerror(errno));
return (-1);
}
}
nleft -= nwritten;
ptr += nwritten;
}
return (n);
}
To send message:
sprintf(buff, "%d + %d + %s\r\n", MSG_LOGIN, strlen("Hello World"), Hello World);
sendn(sd, buff, strlen(buff));
Client:
size_t readn(int fd, void *vptr, size_t n) {
size_t nleft;
size_t nread;
char *ptr;
ptr = vptr;
nleft = n;
while (nleft > 0) {
if ((nread = recv(fd, ptr, nleft, 0)) < 0) {
if (errno == EINTR)
nread = 0;
else {
fprintf(stderr, "read failed %d - %s\n", fd, strerror(errno));
return (-1);
}
} else if (nread == 0)
break;
nleft -= nread;
ptr += nread;
}
return (n - nleft);
}
What is the appropriate way to transfer an int over a socket in C?
What I am doing so far is:
int n = 4;
int tmp = htonl(n);
write(socket, &tmp, sizeof(tmp));
and
int tmp,n;
read(socket, &tmp, sizeof(tmp));
n = ntohl(tmp);
However, the integer received is sometimes 0. Not always, but let's say 2 out of 5 times. It is never some other value, always 0. Why?
UPDATE: Return value from read is -1 and an error is:
Resource temporarily unavailable
First of all, sizeof(int) may differ on your sender and receiver machine. So I would recommend you to use something like int32_t from stdint.h.
Also, it is not guaranteed that read(..,..,sizeof(int)) will read exactly sizeof(int) bytes - it can read nothing, or it can read less bytes. So, the correct variant will be something more like this:
int send_int(int num, int fd)
{
int32_t conv = htonl(num);
char *data = (char*)&conv;
int left = sizeof(conv);
int rc;
do {
rc = write(fd, data, left);
if (rc < 0) {
if ((errno == EAGAIN) || (errno == EWOULDBLOCK)) {
// use select() or epoll() to wait for the socket to be writable again
}
else if (errno != EINTR) {
return -1;
}
}
else {
data += rc;
left -= rc;
}
}
while (left > 0);
return 0;
}
int receive_int(int *num, int fd)
{
int32_t ret;
char *data = (char*)&ret;
int left = sizeof(ret);
int rc;
do {
rc = read(fd, data, left);
if (rc <= 0) { /* instead of ret */
if ((errno == EAGAIN) || (errno == EWOULDBLOCK)) {
// use select() or epoll() to wait for the socket to be readable again
}
else if (errno != EINTR) {
return -1;
}
}
else {
data += rc;
left -= rc;
}
}
while (left > 0);
*num = ntohl(ret);
return 0;
}
This should work without any problem, try this :
On the sender (Server) side :
int number_to_send = 10000; // Put your value
int converted_number = htonl(number_to_send);
// Write the number to the opened socket
write(client_socket, &converted_number, sizeof(converted_number));
On the receiver(client) side :
int received_int = 0;
return_status = read(client_socket, &received_int, sizeof(received_int));
if (return_status > 0) {
fprintf(stdout, "Received int = %d\n", ntohl(received_int));
}
else {
// Handling erros here
}
Hope this will help.
I also had the same problem and wasted 30 minutes trying to find out what I did wrong. But, finally, I found the solution. From the documentation we can see that htonl() and ntohl() functions work with 32 bit unsigned integers. So, to fix the issue, you have to use unsigned __int32 or uint32_t from <stdint.h>.
So the code will look like this:
#include <stdint.h>
uint32_t n = 4;
uint32_t tmp = htonl(n);
write(socket, &tmp, sizeof(tmp));
and:
#include <stdint.h>
uint32_t tmp,n;
read(socket, &tmp, sizeof(tmp));
n = ntohl(tmp);
Since no one mentioned sprintf
you can just convert any variable to char* using it and send
if(strcmp(buf,"movUP") == 0)
{
char* msg = calloc(1, 20);
pos.y += 0.0001f;
sprintf(msg,"NEW::POS::Y=%.4f", pos.y);
sendto(master, msg, 20, 0, (struct sockaddr*)&client, addrlen);
}
Test
movUP
NEW::POS::Y=0.0001
movUP
NEW::POS::Y=0.0002
movUP
NEW::POS::Y=0.0003
movUP
NEW::POS::Y=0.0004
Use %d for integers, %f for floats
to convert back to an integer, use atoi(char*)
to convert back to an float, use atof(char*)
before converting, be sure to use strstr() to get the float value only, starting from "0"
float myPos; // floating variable that stores Object's Position in the World
...
....
memset(buf, 0, MAXBUFFER); // clears the previous buffer
recvfrom(master, buf, MAXBUFFER, 0, (struct sockaddr*)&server, &addrlen);
char* newY = strstr(buf, "0");// NEW::POS::Y=0.0001 --->> 0.000100
myPos = atof(newY); // new object's position by the server
printf("My New Position is %.4f\n", myPos); // Out: My New Position is 0.0011 -> 0.0012 -> 0.0013 -> 0.0014.
For integers (not positions), you can use the same technique and just multiply it like
float f = 0.000002f; // that is supposed to be 2 integer value
int i = (int)(f*1000000); // now, i = 2
the above methods are totally secure
If you want a more solid converting, you can use strncpy or memcpy and cut the string starting from a given index with some length assuming that you already know the incoming buffer, but in my personal view, I don't really recommend it, specifically in connectionless sockets like this one, lots of calculations and calls for buffer length, Not easy to debug sometimes if you're not totally aware of what you're doing.
Note 1: Be careful to not include zeros in your buffer when you're waiting for a server move/position command or any
quantity variable if you're planning to use the 1st method.
Note 2: You can just send your integer or float, convert it and vice versa without needing to cut or multiply it.
May new game networking developers find this answer useful too since we can't send or receive except char* with UDP sendto(), recvfrom().