cchat

cchat is a terminal-based network application for instant messaging written in C/C++.

Dependencies

The project employs C++ standard library, BSD sockets and ncurses.h library for client GUI implying the source code is intentionally platform dependent. The application has been tested on a machine with:

• xubuntu-22.04,
• linux kernel 5.15.0-27-generic,
• g++ 11.2.0,
• ncurses 6.3-2,
• doxygen 1.9.1.

Build and run

Enter make, to build both client and server. Executables with prefix cchat-* appear in the build/ folder. Installation is not necessary for running client or server.

./build/cchat-server --port=12321

./build/cchat-client --name=user --host=127.0.0.1 --port=12321

If a client starts before a server instance, the program fails upon unsuccessful connect and terminates. All argument parameters are verified, malformed parameters are reported via exception causing program to stop.

Run make install to copy cchat-* executables into /usr/bin/ folder. This makes programs available in the $PATH. Note that copying may require root permissions.

Documentation

Users' Guide with typical use cases and Programmers' Manual with technical details can be found in docs/ folder.

Run make docs to generate doxymentation into docs/doxygen/ folder, then consult docs/doxygen/html/index.html.