Hi all,

I am currently developing a client-server application which goal is to measure the maximum number of open connections.
I wrote a client script that opens the desired number of sockets (using forks).
The problem is, however, with the amount of memory that the server script needs = that the big number of threads need.

Here is the code of a server script:

my $REQUESTED_SESSIONS : shared = 0;
my $ACT_SESSION_CNT : shared = 0;

# **************     START         **************  #

print "[SERVER] START\n";
my $socket = create_socket($protocol, $port, $listen, $reuse);

while ( ($client, my $client_addr) = $socket->accept()) {    
    
    if($REQUESTED_SESSIONS == 0) {
        print "[SERVER] ------- Sessions requested..? -------\n";
        # get the desired number of sessions from client
        $REQUESTED_SESSIONS = receive_command($client);
        if(!defined $REQUESTED_SESSIONS) {
            $REQUESTED_SESSIONS = 10;
        }
        $ACT_SESSION_CNT = 0;
        next;
    }
    # get CLIENT data
    my ($client_port, $client_ip) = sockaddr_in($client_addr);
    my $client_ip_num = inet_ntoa($client_ip);
    
    print "[SERVER] received ([$client_ip_num] on $client_port)\n";
    print "[threading]\n";

    send_command($client, "connection_established");
    my $thread = threads->new(\&process_session, $client)->detach;
}

# **************     END         **************  #


#####################################################################
## 
##  function for processing client
##  
#####################################################################

sub process_session {
    my $client = shift;
    
    my $thread_id = threads->self()->tid();
    print "[SERVER] [Thread $thread_id]\n";
    
    increment_act_sessions();

    # every thread waits for all connections
    while($ACT_SESSION_CNT < $REQUESTED_SESSIONS) {
        sleep 1;
    }

    # send a message to every client that the test is over
    send_command($client, "close_session");
    print "[closing the client - THREAD $thread_id]\n";
    close $client;
    
    lock($REQUESTED_SESSIONS);
    $REQUESTED_SESSIONS--;
    
    if($REQUESTED_SESSIONS == 0) {
        print "[SERVER] Finished.\n";
        print "[SERVER] Ready for more!\n";
        print "[SERVER] ------- Sessions requested..? -------\n";
    }
}
[download]

I know that the idea of continuously checking in every thread if all the requested clients are connected isnt perfect but to my mind it should work.. and it works..
However, the amount of memory that f.ex. 500 threads need is huge and that is why I would like to ask you a simple question:
Is it because the idea of the program is so bad or the reason is maybe that I did something wrong with threads?

Big thanks in advance for any help.
Pawel