Qt - How to save downloaded data for a multipart downloader

Question

I'm writing a multipart downloader in Qt. Multiple QNetWorkRequest with http header "Range" are used to download a file. Now I write data received in each part(QNetworkReply) to file.part1, file.part2, etc.

Is it possible to write data to the same file simultaneously? Do I have to implement a lock for it and which is the best way to save data in my application?

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Why not just merge the file parts when you are finished? You can write the parts to a QFile easily. Perhaps something about the approach or the data keeps you from doing this, but if you can, it's probably the approach I would take before dealing with treating a QFile as a shared resource.

If you want multiple concurrent replies to be able to write to and access the QFile, then yes, the QFile becomes a shared resource. As far as I know, you're going to need to lock it. At that point, you have several options. You can have the slot(s) handling the replies attempt to acquire a QSemaphore, you can use QMutex and QMutexLocker if you'd prefer to lock on a mutex. You could treat it as a multiple producer (the various QNetworkReplys) single consumer (whatever is writing to the file) problem (here's a Stack Overflow post that provides some useful links) if you want to go that route. In short, there are numerous approaches here, all of which I think are more of a hassle than simply merging the file.part's at the end if you're able to go that route.

In terms of merging to a single QFile concurrently, there may be an easier Qt way of doing it, but I've never found it. Perhaps someone else can chime in if such a method exists.

I'm not sure what you mean by "which is the best way to save data in my application?" Are you referring to saving application specific settings in a persistent manner? If so, look into QSettings. If you're referring to saving the data you're downloading, I'd probably write it to a QFile, just like you appear to be doing. Although it's hard to know for sure without knowing more about what you're downloading.