'mbuffer' broken for network support / pipes under 7.2-R / 8.1-R?

[Karl Pielorz]

Hi,

I've got the port of mbuffer (/usr/ports/misc/mbuffer) installed on a 
number of machines (amd64/FreeBSD 6.4-S, 7.2-S and 8.1-R) - but it seems to 
have issues...

Firstly - any attempt to use the 'network' options of it, fail miserably 
(this is where mbuffer sends the data via tcp, instead of stdout) - e.g.

"
tester# mbuffer -I 10000
Assertion failed: ((err == 0) && (bsize == sizeof(rcvsize))), function 
openNetworkInput, file mbuffer.c, line 1358.
Abort (core dumped)
"

None of the network options (for sending, or receiving) seem to work - they 
all fail with the above assert under 7.2/8.1

Under 6.4 - they 'seem' to work, but you get a warning "mbuffer: warning: 
unable to set socket receive buffer size: No buffer space available" spat 
out.


Also, I've noticed - if using mbuffer as part of a chain, it fails to 
finish under 7.2/8.1 - e.g.

  "
  tester# cat /usr/src/COPYRIGHT | ssh root at othermachine "cat >test"
  "

Works fine.

  "
  tester# cat /usr/src/COPYRIGHT | mbuffer | ssh root at othermachine "cat 
>test"
  "

Completes the transfer fine, but then 'hangs forever' - hitting CTRL-C nets:

  "mbuffer: warning: error during output to <stdout>: canceled"


The same on an older 6.4 based host, completes fine.


Anyone know about this, or can think of any workarounds? - 'mbuffer' is 
very handy (not only for speeding I/O but also rate limiting on transfers 
etc.)

Thanks,

-Karl