Server thread socket ignoring called method with readLine

Question

I have a P2P.network of nodes holding records of key:value, which can pass requests to other nodes on the.network when the asked node doesn't hold the desired key. The operation always returns an "OK" or an "ERROR". However, when a server thread recieving the request passes it down to all the other connected nodes by calling a method, the anwser ("OK" or "ERROR") isn't captured by the method, but by the main loop in run(). Here is the simplified code: the run() method of the server thread class:

public void run(){
        String line;
            try {
                while (true){
                    line=in.readLine();
                    if(line!=null){
                        else{
                            switch (line.split(" ")[0]){
                                case "set-value":
                                    out.println(setValue(line.split(" ")[1]));
                                    break;
                                    System.out.println("default:");
                                    System.out.println(line);
                                    break;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            } catch (IOException e) {
                System.out.println("connection closed with: "+socket.getInetAddress().getHostAddress()+":"+socket.getPort()+" (server socket)");
            }
    }

the setvalue() method:

private String setValue(String arg) throws IOException {
        String setKey = arg.split(":")[0];
        String setValue = arg.split(":")[1];
        if(DatabaseNode.getKey().equals(setKey)){
            DatabaseNode.setValue(setValue);
            System.out.println("set-value successful, current record: "+DatabaseNode.getKey()+":"+DatabaseNode.getValue());
            return "OK";
        } else {
            System.out.println("key not on this node, searching...");
            for (ServerConnect sc : DatabaseNode.getConnectToClient()) {
                System.out.println("sending set-value to: "+sc);
                if(sc.sendRead("set-value "+arg ).equals("OK")) {
                    return "OK";
                }
            }
            for (ServerThread st : DatabaseNode.getConnectedToServer()) {
                if(st != this) {
                    System.out.println("sending set-value to: "+st);
                    if(st.sendRead("set-value "+arg).equals("OK")) {
                        return "OK";
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return "ERROR";
    }

and the problematic one, sendRead(), which is supposed to send a string and wait for the anwser, but instead is ignored and anwser is captured by the main run() method

public String sendRead(String str) throws IOException {
        out.println(str);
        String line;
        System.out.println("sent "+str+" awaiting response...");
        line = in.readLine();
        System.out.println("got "+line);
        return line;
    }

Thank you for your help

I tried identifying the threads on incoming line, and I am absolutely sure that the same thread which is supposed to read from method just starts a new loop and does nothing with sendRead(). The socket is NOT static, autoFlush on BufferedReader is enabled.

Answer 1

I just figured out what was wrong, the readLine() call in run() steals the next line, leaving the method hanging.