Date: 27 April 2025
Oliver Bonham-Carter
Email: obonhamcarter at allegheny.edu
This README.md file provides a comprehensive explanation of the project, including how to use it, examples, and instructions for adding more characters. It also includes sections for contributing and licensing.
Chat-RS is a cool IP-to-IP chat application written in Rust that uses socket programming to allow users to send and receive text via IP addresses. The program is designed to be simple and easy to use, making it a interesting starting point for those who would like to begin learning about network programming in Rust (using the TcpListener, TcpStream, IpAddr and UdpSocket crates, in addition to others).
The application consists of a server and a client. The server listens for incoming connections, while the client connects to the server to send messages. That makes for a cool conversation starter, right?!
- Chat-RS: A simple IP-to-IP chat application built in Rust to help teach network programming
- IP-to-IP Chat Application
- Modes: Server and Client
This is a simple IP-to-IP chat application built in Rust. It allows users to send messages directly to each other over a network using TCP sockets. The application consists of a server and a client. The server listens for incoming connections, while the client connects to the server to send messages.
- Direct IP-to-IP communication
- Simple command-line interface
- Message sending and receiving
- Exit command to close the client
The application was written in Rust has two modes: server and client. Use the following commands to run it:
In networking, a server is a program that provides the services that are requested by a client that initiates the requests. Here, the server listens for incoming connections from clients. The server is also responsible for accepting connections and handling incoming messages.
The server uses the TcpListener crate to listen for incoming connections on a specified IP address and port. When a client connects, the server accepts the connection and starts a new thread to handle communication with that client. The server uses the TcpStream to send and receive its messages over the network.
While the chat-space may appear jumbled in this project due multiple clients talking at the same time, the server can actually handle several clients at the same time by spawning new threads for each connection. Each of the thread listens individually for incoming messages from the client and then prints them to the console.
First step: open the server
Start the server by specifying the mode as server and specifying the IP address with a port to use to listen for incoming connections.
cargo run -- server 127.0.0.1:8080Note: Replace 127.0.0.1:8080 with the desired IP and port.
The server will wait for incoming connections and display received messages. (Seems a little sad to me that the server just sits around waiting for whatever it finds, but I guess it is a server after all!)
Second step: open the client Start the client by specifying the mode as client and the server's IP address with the port:
cargo run -- client 127.0.0.1:8080Note: Replace 127.0.0.1:8080 with the server's IP and port.
Enter messages in the terminal to send them to the server. Type exit to close the client.
To chat across two separate machines on the same wifi network, follow the below instructions.
Imagine that there are two machines involved,
- Machine1 (
server, IP:192.168.40.69) - Machine2 (
client, IP:192.168.40.121)
Notice that the IP addresses are different! The server will be running on Machine1, and the client will be running on Machine2.
In order to have the machines communicate, the client onfMachine1 must be using the IP address of the server of Machine2 who is listening.
- On Machine1 (
Server):-
Open a terminal and run the server:
cargo run -- server 192.168.40.69:8080
-
This creates a server that listens on IP address 192.168.40.69 and port 8080. The server will wait for incoming connections and display received messages.
- On Machine2 (Client):
- Open a terminal and run the client using the IP address of the server:
cargo run client 192.168.40.69:8080
- Open a terminal and run the client using the IP address of the server:
This connects the client to the server at IP address. You can now start sending messages from the client (Machine2) to the server (Machine1). when you are finished on the client, type exit to close the connection.
In order for Machine2 to send messages back to Machine1, the client must be using the IP address of the server of Machine1 who is listening.
- On Machine2 (
Server):-
Open a terminal and run the server:
cargo run -- server 192.168.40.121:8080
-
This creates a server that listens on IP address 192.168.40.69 and port 8080. The server will wait for incoming connections and display received messages.
- On Machine1 (Client):
- Open a terminal and run the client using the IP address of the server:
cargo run client 192.168.40.121:8080
- Open a terminal and run the client using the IP address of the server:
-
Ensure the server and client are on the same network.
-
Use a valid IP address and port that are not blocked by firewalls.
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.
Contributions are welcome! If you have ideas for improvements or want to add more features, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.
Check back often to see the evolution of the project! Chat-RS is a work-in-progress. Updates will come periodically.
If you would like to contribute to this project, please do! For instance, if you see some low-hanging fruit or tasks that could add value to the project, I would love to have your insight.
Otherwise, please create an issue for bugs or errors. Since I am a teaching faculty member at Allegheny College, I may not have all the time necessary to quickly fix bugs. I welcome the Open Source Community to further the development of this project. Much thanks in advance.
If you appreciate this project, please consider clicking the project's Star button. :-)