karadnz/chat_server

Simple chat server using sockets

Chat server

This is a simple chat server i developed to better understand sockets.

It supports:

• multiple clients
• basic commands
• custom port

to run the server:

./server port

to run the client("make client" to compile):

./client localhost port

UML Diagram

Commands

• /quit : Quit chatroom.
• /ping : Test.
• /topic <message> : Set topic.
• /nick <nick> : Change nick.
• /msg <uid> : Send PM.
• /list : Show active clients.
• /help : Show commands.

Important Functions

socket()

int socket (int family, int type, int protocol);

creates a socket and returns an fd for it

bind()

struct sockaddr_in serv; /* IPv4 socket address structure */ int bind(sockfd, (struct sockaddr*) &serv, sizeof(serv))

bind the socket with an ip and port.

listen()

int listen(int sockfd, int backlog);

tell kernel to accept incoming connection requests to the socket.

accept()

int accept(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *cliaddr, socklen_t *addrlen);

accept a request and create a new socket for it.

Why thread over process to handle clients?

• less memory usage.
• easier IPC(inter process communication).

Useful links

https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~campbell/cs50/socketprogramming.html

more will be added