I'm writing a cross-platform server program in C++ using Boost.Asio. Following the HTTP Server example on this page, I'd like to handle a user termination request without using implementation-specific APIs. I've initially attempted to use the standard C signal library, but have been unable to find a design pattern suitable for Asio. The Windows example's design seems to resemble the signal library closest, but there's a race condition where the console ctrl handler could be called after the server object has been destroyed. I'm trying to avoid undefined behavior as specified by the C++ standard.
Is there a standard (and correct) way to stop the server?
To illustrate problems with using the C signal library:
#include <csignal>
#include <functional>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
using std::signal;
using boost::asio::io_service;
namespace
{
std::function<void ()> sighandler;
}
extern "C"
{
static void handle_signal(int);
}
void handle_signal(int)
{
// error - undefined behavior
sighandler();
}
int main()
{
io_service s;
sighandler = std::bind(&io_service::stop, &s);
auto old_sigint = signal(SIGINT, &handle_signal);
if (old_sigint == SIG_IGN)
// race condition? raise SIGINT before I can set ignore back
signal(SIGINT, SIG_IGN);
auto old_sigterm = signal(SIGTERM, &handle_signal);
if (old_sigterm == SIG_IGN)
// race condition? raise SIGTERM before I can set ignore back
signal(SIGTERM, SIG_IGN);
s.run();
// reset signals so I can clear reference to io_service
if (old_sigterm != SIG_IGN)
signal(SIGTERM, SIG_DFL);
if (old_sigint != SIG_IGN)
signal(SIGINT, SIG_DFL);
// clear reference to io_service, but can I be sure that handle_signal
// isn't being executed?
sighandler = nullptr;
// io_service is destroyed
}
Version 1.5.3 of Boost.Asio (to be integrated in upcoming boost 1.47 release?) has the signal_set
class:
#include <boost/asio/signal_set.hpp>
// Register signal handlers so that the daemon may be shut down. You may
// also want to register for other signals, such as SIGHUP to trigger a
// re-read of a configuration file.
boost::asio::signal_set signals(io_service, SIGINT, SIGTERM);
signals.async_wait(
boost::bind(&boost::asio::io_service::stop, &io_service));
EDIT
Now included in Boost version 1.47