How to iterate through a fd_set

Question

I'm wondering if there's an easy way to iterate through a fd_set? The reason I want to do this is to not having to loop through all connected sockets, since select() alters these fd_sets to only include the ones I'm interested about. I also know that using an implementation of a type that is not meant to be directly accessed is generally a bad idea since it may vary across different systems. However, I need some way to do this, and I'm running out of ideas. So, my question is:

How do I iterate through an fd_set? If this is a really bad practice, are there any other ways to solve my "problem" except from looping through all connected sockets?

Thanks

Answer 1

You have to fill in an fd_set struct before calling select(), you cannot pass in your original std::set of sockets directly. select() then modifies the fd_set accordingly, removing any sockets that are not "set", and returns how many sockets are remaining. You have to loop through the resulting fd_set, not your std::set. There is no need to call FD_ISSET() because the resulting fd_set only contains "set" sockets that are ready, eg:

fd_set read_fds;
FD_ZERO(&read_fds);

int max_fd = 0;

read_fds.fd_count = connected_sockets.size();
for( int i = 0; i < read_fds.fd_count; ++i ) 
{
    read_fds.fd_array[i] = connected_sockets[i];
    if (read_fds.fd_array[i] > max_fd)
      max_fd = read_fds.fd_array[i];
}

if (select(max_fd+1, &read_fds, NULL, NULL, NULL) > 0)
{ 
    for( int i = 0; i < read_fds.fd_count; ++i ) 
        do_socket_operation( read_fds.fd_array[i] ); 
} 

Where FD_ISSET() comes into play more often is when using error checking with select(), eg:

fd_set read_fds;
FD_ZERO(&read_fds);

fd_set error_fds;
FD_ZERO(&error_fds);

int max_fd = 0;

read_fds.fd_count = connected_sockets.size();
for( int i = 0; i < read_fds.fd_count; ++i ) 
{
    read_fds.fd_array[i] = connected_sockets[i];
    if (read_fds.fd_array[i] > max_fd)
      max_fd = read_fds.fd_array[i];
}

error_fds.fd_count = read_fds.fd_count;
for( int i = 0; i < read_fds.fd_count; ++i ) 
{
    error_fds.fd_array[i] = read_fds.fd_array[i];
}

if (select(max_fd+1, &read_fds, NULL, &error_fds, NULL) > 0)
{ 
    for( int i = 0; i < read_fds.fd_count; ++i ) 
    {
        if( !FD_ISSET(read_fds.fd_array[i], &error_fds) )
            do_socket_operation( read_fds.fd_array[i] ); 
    }

    for( int i = 0; i < error_fds.fd_count; ++i ) 
    {
        do_socket_error( error_fds.fd_array[i] ); 
    }
}