Problem rendering certain bytes when reading binary file

Question

I have a two part problem. I am trying to read files of any type from a client and transfer them over a pipe to a UNIX host running a C API. I have this process working for text data just fine however when I try and submit binary data there appears to be some data loss. Most of the file appears to end up on the host but it just isn't as long as the source, nor will it render correctly.
In investigating this problem I tried to simply output a temporary copy of the transferred file on the client as I was reading the file just to see if my "thinking/process" was correct. The copy of the file ends up the same length but some bytes seem to have been misread. Upon doing a windiff on the source and copy it appears that several characters that are rendered as blocks in the original show up as '?' in the destination file.
I believe this is an entirely different problem than why I am losing data on the host side but I want to first figure out why this problem is occuring. The below code is how I am reading and writing the binary file. I realize it has some problems with it, it is more of a POC at this point.
           final int BUF_SIZE = 1000;  // 1K
           char[] cBuffer = new char[BUF_SIZE];
           byte[] bBuffer = new byte[BUF_SIZE];
           int read = BUF_SIZE;
           long length = fLocalFile.length();
           FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(fLocalFile);
           DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
           FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("C:\\temp.file", false);
           DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(fos);
           for (int start = 0; start < length && reply.getSuccess(); start += read)
               System.out.println("length: " + length + " start: " + start);
               read = dis.read(bBuffer, 0, BUF_SIZE);
               // Send the file data
               String sTemp = sDestName + ":" + new String(bBuffer,0,read);
               dos.write(bBuffer,0,read);
               reply = axBridge.execute (Commands.CMD_FILE_TRANSFER_SEND, sTemp);
            dos.close();
        }It seems as if when reading or writing on the data streams some of the characters aren't getting converted correctly. Can anyone help? I've been testing with a PDF if that sheds any light.

Answer 1

Yes but you ARE converting to a String first which you then send to the axBridge (sTemp!). Try just sending the bytes. You can easily pre-pend the "<filename>:" by sending those first.
I know that some conversions occur when converting to a String, what they are exactly and what the exact effects are escapes me. Past experience though has taught me to ALWAYS send bytes, with no conversions, what you read is what you send.
You may need to modify the send/receive protocol so that you send the command first with the filename then the bytes are sent after...
As for why the file is not being written correctly to: c:\\temp.file, don't know... try the following code, it tends to be one of the "standard" ways of "streaming" data...
     byte buf[] = new byte[bufSize];
     int bRead = -1;
     while ((bRead = in.read (buf)) != -1)
         out.write (buf,
                 0,
                 bRead);
     }     And try just using a FileOutputStream or wrapping in a BufferedOutputStream.