Long timeouts and ERROR: Unable to find host: No such host is known.

[guruofquality]

@jocover I added PlutoSDR to my windows installer, but theres some issue with PlutoSDR when a device is not present, because it causes issues for people without a pluto sdr:

This is the problem code: https://github.com/jocover/SoapyPlutoSDR/blob/master/PlutoSDR_Registation.cpp

ctx=iio_create_network_context(PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_IP);
		if(ctx !=nullptr){
			options["hostname"]=PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_IP;
			
		}else{
			ctx=iio_create_network_context(PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME);
			if(ctx !=nullptr){
				options["hostname"]=PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME;}
			else{
				return results;
			}
		}

• iio_create_network_context(PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_IP); has a long timeout when nothing is located at the IP PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_IP
• iio_create_network_context(PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME); gives the error message because PLUTOSDR_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME isnt a hostname on the network

A few ideas:

• I thought pluto was a usb device, so I dont understand the network support. Can we delete the network discovery or ifdef it out? CMake build options to disable network discovery?

• Skip the network discovery if args["plutosdr"] and args["addr"] is missing?

• But lets say that we can't know if the user has a particular IP address or hostname, maybe they have several IP addresses. Support an address or hostname from the arguments. What if the default ip/host is not used, what if there are multiple plutosdr? Just like any other network device, usrp, etc. Example: support args["addr"] for ip address or hostname: iio_create_network_context(args["addr"].c_str())

• Reference issue Long timeouts and ERROR: Unable to find host: No such host is known. pothosware/PothosSDR#56

[guruofquality]

This is the patch I'm including for the next build: https://github.com/pothosware/PothosSDR/blob/master/patches/soapy_plutosdr_network.diff

In short, it requires driver=plutosdr, and hostname=<ip/host> to explicitly enable the network handle. If there is a way to enumerate network devices this would be a good place to put it. Until then, I cant have SoapyPlutoSDR with 7 second timeout for non existent devices.