simple-chat-server

A simple chat server built in Go.

The application allows Peer to Peer chat rooms to be setup for simple text based communication. All communication between client and host server is encrypted.

The application can be run as a host server, or a connecting client.
One user runs the application as the host and then other users can connect with the hosts IP and port.

Running as a Client is the default mode.

Server is volatile storage. Message history is lost when pushed from the history buffer, or when the server is shut down. Buffer size is configurable in the settings. When a user joins the server, the history is shared immediately.

Setup

Pull the repo using git, or download as a zip, and unzip.

Create a .env file in the local root and specify the following:

SRV_PORT (Port for the server to listen on when hosting. Must be valid integer)
SRV_MSG_HISTORY_SIZE (Max size of the history buffer. Must be a valid integer)
SRV_MAX_CONNECTIONS (Max number of connections the server will allow. Must be a valid integer)
SRV_LOG_OUTPUT (file path for the server logs)
USR_CONFIG_PATH (Where the application will store and retrieve the user preferences config (Username etc.), Default is ~/.simple_server_user_config)

Open a terminal in the directory containing the codebase. Build the application using go build .. This will create a simple-chat-server file.

Running the Client

Client mode is the default state of the application. This can be run with ./simple-chat-server.

On start up the application will look for the user config file. If it does not exist, it will start first time config and ask for the following:

Username (Max of 32 Bytes)
Username Colour (List of valid values will be displayed)

The user config can be manually triggered on startup from the CLI with the flag -user-config.

To connect to a server, type \connect { server connection string }, where { server connection string } is the address of the server you want to connect to.

Example: 

\connect 127.0.0.1:8144

User commands

To interact with the client, the user can use user commands. To enter a command, enter \ followed by the command (no space).

Example Commands:

\connect - Connect to a server
\disconnect - Disconnect from a server
\exit - Close the application
\user-config - Change the current user config. The user will need to disconnect and reconnect to the server for the changes to take.

A full list of user commands can be found here

Entering \ will trigger the autocomplete feature, which will display a list of available commands. Tab or Enter can be used to select the autocomplete option. The down arrow can be used to cycle options. Continuing to type will filter the list down further.

Running the Server

Run the server with ./simple-chat-server --host from the CLI to run the application in host mode. This will create a server that others can connect to. A port can be specified with the --port (or -p) flag. This value will override any value provide in the .env file for SRV_PORT.

Once connected and listening for connections, the application will enter client mode and auto connect to the server.

As the host user, the user commands will be expanded to allow administrative control. See user commands for a full list.

CLI Args

  --host      Launch application as a server host.
  -h          Launch application as a server host (shorthand).
  
  --port int  Define the port for the server to listen on
  -p     int  Define the port for the server to listen on (shorthand)

Dependencies

Go 1.23.0
Env file loading done by - github.com/joho/godotenv v1.5.1
Client TUI created using - github.com/rivo/tview

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute, add features, fix issues, etc. feel free to fork the repository, and open a pull request to the main branch.

# README