socket programming (IO::Socket)

[byleth]

Hi,

I want to make a server-client application that as 5 steps

1) the client sends a request to the server
2) the server responds
3) the client does something with that response and sends a last transmission to the server
4) the server reads this last transmission and writes it to a file
5) the client disconnects

I'm new to this , here's a piece of the code, i hope it's not too messie

#SERVER

#declarations, etc..

while (!$quit) {


next unless my $connection = $socket->accept;

#the server handles multiple connections

defined (my $child = fork()) or die "Can't fork: $!";
if ($child == 0) {

$socket->close;
do_something($connection);

}
$connection->close;

}

#here i wanted the server to read the first message from the #client, respond, and finally read the last message from the #client and print it..

sub do_something {

my $s = shift;

my $msg_in = <$s>; #reads the first message
$s->print("Hi!\n");#send the first response

#what about the second response from the client?

exit(0);
}


#CLIENT - forks, the father reads, the child writes, don't know if it is a good idea...

.
.
#declarations
.

if ($child) {

send_msg(); #sends the first request
$socket->shutdown(1);
sleep;

} else {

get_msg(); #reads the response

}


sub send_msg {

$socket->print("Hello!\n");

}

sub get_msg {
my $a;
print $a while sysread($socket, $a, 1024);
#this doesn't work
}


Should the server also fork to read and write?
how does the server know that there is an answer from the client and vice-versa?

thanks,