khat

Simple chat server with group subscriptions and registration of the clients.

Developer guide

Compile

make compile

Run unit tests

make test

Run application

make run

Configuration

Configuration file is placed in sys.config file. There are following configuration options enabled:

• port - TCP port used by khat server (default is 6667)
• acceptors - number of acceptor processes waiting for a TCP connection establishment
• inactivity_timeout - timeout (in seconds) after which the TCP connection is closed if client hasn't sent any messages or alive packets

Usage

Connect to the server

When server is running you can connect to it via telnet:

telnet 127.0.0.1 6667

Commands

Messages starting with a \ character are special commands described in the commands section below. All other data sent from the client is broadcasted to all clients connected to the server.

Register client with a new name

When user is unregistered then messages can only be received but not sent.

\register\Client Name

Subscribe to a given group

Any messages sent to group Group Name in the example below by any of the clients will be sent to the subscribed client.

\subscribe\Group Name

Unsubscribe from a given group

No more messages destined for this group will be sent to the client.

\unsubscribe\Group Name

Send message to the given group

Only clients subscribed to this group will receive this message.

\group=Group Name\Some message

Send a keepalive packet

If client isn't sending any messages then keepalive packets needs to be sent in order to remain connected to the server. If there's no data sent by the client within inactivity_timeout seconds then the client will be disconnected from the server.

\alive\