A multi-threaded server implemented in C serving clients speaking the cubbyhole protocol.
For one of my university courses (Network Protocols and Architectures) in the last assignment of the semester we were asked to implement a server capable of serving clients speaking a protocol designed by the department. The protocol provides the functionality of a pigeon-hole messagebox, thus the name cubbyhole protocol. Multiple clients were expected to be able to connect to such a cubbyhole server and either store (PUT), retrieve (GET), see (LOOK) or delete (DROP) a message. Other than that it was required to make the server somewhat fault tolerant, so that e.g. incomplete requests or sudden disconnects would not impair the server.
This implementation is my take on a C version.
In order to compile the server, the pthread library is needed. Please make sure to have it available on your system.
Clone this repository into a location of your liking, switch into the created folder and make the project:
$ git clone https://github.com/numbleroot/cubbyhole-server.git
$ cd cubbyhole-server
$ makeAfter this, the executable cubbyhole-server should have been created. By supplying a port to listen on after the executable you can start the server:
$ ./cubbyhole-server 12345
Cubbyhole server listening on port 12345.Now start up a networking utility capable of sending and receiving TCP connections (such as netcat and telnet are capable of) and connect to the cubbyhole server on the just specified port, e.g.:
$ nc localhost 12345Experiment with the commands in Protocol.
The goal of the cubbyhole protocol is to share (PUT) one message on the server so that potentially multiple clients can retrieve (GET), see (LOOK) or delete (DROP) it. The following commands are supported for clients:
| Command | Argument | Description |
|---|---|---|
| PUT | <message> |
Store a message on the server, eventually overwriting the old message. |
| GET | - | Retrieve and delete the message from server and display it to requesting client. |
| LOOK | - | Retrieve but do not delete message and display it to requesting client. |
| DROP | - | Delete currently stored message on server. |
| HELP | - | Display the list of possible commands. |
| QUIT | - | Gracefully terminate the connection. |
This leads to a state diagram of the server cubbyhole that might look like this one:
Of course I am not the only student in that class, so here is a probably incomplete list of implementations of my fellow students:
- cubbyhole by MetalMatze - Go
- cubbyhole by KjellPirschel - C
This project is GPLv3 licensed.