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Multi-Threaded Chat System 💬

A real-time chat application built using Java Sockets. This project features a client-server architecture capable of handling multiple simultaneous users with private messaging, blocking capabilities, and colored terminal UI.

Features

Multi-Client Support: Handle many users at once using a thread-per-client model.
Private Messaging: Send direct messages to specific users.
User Blocking: Feature to ignore messages from specific participants.
File Transfer Basic functionality of sending files to server.

Concepts Used

Networking: TCP/IP Sockets, Input/Output Streams, and Port Binding.
Concurrency: Multi-threading (Runnable), volatile variables.
Synchronization: Thread-safe collections (SynchronizedSet) and synchronized blocks for race-condition prevention.
Protocol Design: Custom command parsing and state management.

⌨️ List of Commands

Command	Action
`/list`	Show all online users
`/msg <user> <text>`	Send a private message
`/msgall <text>`	Broadcast message to everyone
`/block <user>`	Ignore a specific user
`/unblock <user>`	Resume seeing messages from a user
`/help`	Show command menu
`/exit`	Safely disconnect from server
`@ <filename>`	Sends and store files in server directory

How to Run

Compile the files:
```
javac *.java
```
Run the server:
```
java ChatServer <port_no>
```
Run the clients in seperate terminals:
```
java ChatClient localhost <port_no>
```