class TCPServer

TCPServer represents a TCP/IP server socket.

A simple TCP server may look like:

require 'socket'

server = TCPServer.new 2000 # Server bind to port 2000
loop do
  client = server.accept    # Wait for a client to connect
  client.puts "Hello !"
  client.puts "Time is #{Time.now}"
  client.close
end

A more usable server (serving multiple clients):

require 'socket'

server = TCPServer.new 2000
loop do
  Thread.start(server.accept) do |client|
    client.puts "Hello !"
    client.puts "Time is #{Time.now}"
    client.close
  end
end

Public Class Methods

new([hostname,] port) → tcpserver

Creates a new server socket bound to port.

If hostname is given, the socket is bound to it.

serv = TCPServer.new("127.0.0.1", 28561)
s = serv.accept
s.puts Time.now
s.close

Internally, TCPServer.new calls getaddrinfo() function to obtain addresses. If getaddrinfo() returns multiple addresses, TCPServer.new tries to create a server socket for each address and returns first one that is successful.

static VALUE
tcp_svr_init(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sock)
{
    VALUE hostname, port;

    rb_scan_args(argc, argv, "011", &hostname, &port);
    return rsock_init_inetsock(sock, hostname, port, Qnil, Qnil, INET_SERVER, Qnil, Qnil);
}

Public Instance Methods

accept → tcpsocket

Accepts an incoming connection. It returns a new TCPSocket object.

TCPServer.open("127.0.0.1", 14641) {|serv|
  s = serv.accept
  s.puts Time.now
  s.close
}

static VALUE
tcp_accept(VALUE server)
{
    union_sockaddr buffer;
    socklen_t length = sizeof(buffer);

    return rsock_s_accept(rb_cTCPSocket, server, &buffer.addr, &length);
}
accept_nonblock([options]) → tcpsocket

Accepts an incoming connection using accept(2) after O_NONBLOCK is set for the underlying file descriptor. It returns an accepted TCPSocket for the incoming connection.

Example ↑

require 'socket'
serv = TCPServer.new(2202)
begin # emulate blocking accept
  sock = serv.accept_nonblock
rescue IO::WaitReadable, Errno::EINTR
  IO.select([serv])
  retry
end
# sock is an accepted socket.

Refer to Socket#accept for the exceptions that may be thrown if the call to TCPServer#accept_nonblock fails.

TCPServer#accept_nonblock may raise any error corresponding to accept(2) failure, including Errno::EWOULDBLOCK.

If the exception is Errno::EWOULDBLOCK, Errno::EAGAIN, Errno::ECONNABORTED, Errno::EPROTO, it is extended by IO::WaitReadable. So IO::WaitReadable can be used to rescue the exceptions for retrying accept_nonblock.

By specifying a keyword argument exception to false, you can indicate that accept_nonblock should not raise an IO::WaitReadable exception, but return the symbol :wait_readable instead.

See ↑

# File ext/socket/lib/socket.rb, line 1726
def accept_nonblock(exception: true)
  __accept_nonblock(exception)
end
listen( int ) → 0

Listens for connections, using the specified int as the backlog. A call to listen only applies if the socket is of type SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_SEQPACKET.

Parameter ↑

  • backlog - the maximum length of the queue for pending connections.

Example 1 ↑

require 'socket'
include Socket::Constants
socket = Socket.new( AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0 )
sockaddr = Socket.pack_sockaddr_in( 2200, 'localhost' )
socket.bind( sockaddr )
socket.listen( 5 )

Example 2 (listening on an arbitrary port, unix-based systems only): ↑

require 'socket'
include Socket::Constants
socket = Socket.new( AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0 )
socket.listen( 1 )

Unix-based Exceptions ↑

On unix based systems the above will work because a new sockaddr struct is created on the address ADDR_ANY, for an arbitrary port number as handed off by the kernel. It will not work on Windows, because Windows requires that the socket is bound by calling bind before it can listen.

If the backlog amount exceeds the implementation-dependent maximum queue length, the implementation’s maximum queue length will be used.

On unix-based based systems the following system exceptions may be raised if the call to listen fails:

  • Errno::EBADF - the socket argument is not a valid file descriptor

  • Errno::EDESTADDRREQ - the socket is not bound to a local address, and the protocol does not support listening on an unbound socket

  • Errno::EINVAL - the socket is already connected

  • Errno::ENOTSOCK - the socket argument does not refer to a socket

  • Errno::EOPNOTSUPP - the socket protocol does not support listen

  • Errno::EACCES - the calling process does not have appropriate privileges

  • Errno::EINVAL - the socket has been shut down

  • Errno::ENOBUFS - insufficient resources are available in the system to complete the call

Windows Exceptions ↑

On Windows systems the following system exceptions may be raised if the call to listen fails:

  • Errno::ENETDOWN - the network is down

  • Errno::EADDRINUSE - the socket’s local address is already in use. This usually occurs during the execution of bind but could be delayed if the call to bind was to a partially wildcard address (involving ADDR_ANY) and if a specific address needs to be committed at the time of the call to listen

  • Errno::EINPROGRESS - a Windows Sockets 1.1 call is in progress or the service provider is still processing a callback function

  • Errno::EINVAL - the socket has not been bound with a call to bind.

  • Errno::EISCONN - the socket is already connected

  • Errno::EMFILE - no more socket descriptors are available

  • Errno::ENOBUFS - no buffer space is available

  • Errno::ENOTSOC - socket is not a socket

  • Errno::EOPNOTSUPP - the referenced socket is not a type that supports the listen method

See ↑

  • listen manual pages on unix-based systems

  • listen function in Microsoft’s Winsock functions reference

VALUE
rsock_sock_listen(VALUE sock, VALUE log)
{
    rb_io_t *fptr;
    int backlog;

    backlog = NUM2INT(log);
    GetOpenFile(sock, fptr);
    if (listen(fptr->fd, backlog) < 0)
        rb_sys_fail("listen(2)");

    return INT2FIX(0);
}
sysaccept → file_descriptor

Returns a file descriptor of a accepted connection.

TCPServer.open("127.0.0.1", 28561) {|serv|
  fd = serv.sysaccept
  s = IO.for_fd(fd)
  s.puts Time.now
  s.close
}

static VALUE
tcp_sysaccept(VALUE server)
{
    union_sockaddr buffer;
    socklen_t length = sizeof(buffer);

    return rsock_s_accept(0, server, &buffer.addr, &length);
}