Does anyone have any suggestions how I might handle data of unknown length

A simple novice in handlng data posted through a socket, my experience of
receiving data either involves knowing upfront how many bytes of data to
expect or interrogating some part of the first part of the buffer for a
number to tell me how much to expect.

I am expecting a third party to post data through to my listener but as yet
cannot get a reasonable answer regarding length or termination character.

I will be using NetIPC/Cobol (ought to use Berkley/C for portability but I
may not have the time to work out)

PS Rubbish cheap keyboard so forgive any typos.

TIA

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