How to determine the start and end of a TCP message?

Question

I want to send message from PC1 to PC2 via TCP socket. The question is, how can I tell the message received at PC2 is partial or complete? Or more specific, how to determine the start and end of a TCP message?

1) Add message length information at the start of a TCP message?

2) Add special flag bytes to the start and end of a TCP message?

Have you gone through this - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2389756/how-should-i-mark-the-end-of-a-tcp-packet — Kavindu Dodanduwa, Jan 16 '15 at 02:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 16 '15 at 03:01

Yes, or

(3) use a self-describing protocol like XML, or

(4) a type-length-value protocol, or

(5) a self-implementing protocol like XDR, or

(6) ...

Note that if you use start/end bytes like STX/ETX, you need to escape them when they occur in the middle of a message, and you also need to escape the escape.

How to determine the start and end of a TCP message?

1 Answers1