Hello,
I'm using the current asdf-installable version of S-XML-RPC with SBCL 1.0.15 (hand-compiled from source on an i686) and have been trying to connect with its client API to various XML-RPC servers. It has been mostly working, with only an exception of one server.
The server in question is an enterprise Java EE 5 application, written using Apache WS-XMLRPC library (version 3.1 to be more precise) and deployed on a cluster consisting of two Glassfish enterprise server instances, both running on Ubuntu 6.06.1.
The problem manifests itself in XML-RPC-CALL -- it bails out with an error "no response from server". I tried another XML-RPC stack (the one that comes with Python) and I had no problems with making the same request to the same server.
I did some preliminary investigation and found a workaround to the problem. It seems that building up the whole XML-RPC request beforehand, then sending it all at once (rather than FORMATting the HTTP headers to the TCP stream one-by-one) fixes the problem. This is what the attached patch does. I enclose it just in case someone else runs into the same problem; it works for me, on the downside, it probably causes the library to do more consing, although I did not check that empirically.
Strangely enough, the problem does not seem to occur with an installation of the very same Java application on a single (non-clustered) Glassfish running on newer versions of Ubuntu. Clearly, more detailed investigation is required. As soon as I have time for that, I will attempt to reproduce the behaviour on various setups and using various Lisps (I have access to Allegro 8.1), to see where the problem really lies. I hope for attaining a true fix instead of a workaround. I will send a followup as soon as I have more detailed information.
Best,