gochat is a light, TCP-based, client-server, E2E (end-to-end) chat protocol. Said protocol is detailed in the Specification.
This repository includes:
- The protocol documentation
- A client application with:
- A TUI (terminal user interface)
- A shell interface
- A server implementation with:
- The source code
- The implementation details.
You can download the executables for both the Client and Server for both Windows x86_64 and Linux x86_64 in the Releases page
The client's local database is a SQLite database handled by GORM. The client TUI is made possible thanks to tview.
The server database runs under MariaDB, also handled by with GORM.
gochat is made up of the following packets:
- internal:
- log: Implements a global logging system.
- models: Implements concurrently-safe data types.
- spec: Implements the common code between client and server that makes the gochat protocol and implementation work.
- client:
- commands: Implements all the functionality required for every client command specified in the gochat protocol.
- db: Implements the database connection management.
- ui: Implements the TUI for the application.
- cli: Implements the shell for the application.
- server:
- db: Implements the database connection management.
- hubs: Implements the functionalities required to fulfill client requests.
The gochat protocol is made to run underneath a TCP connection. The protocol also supports TLS, RSA-encrypted communication between clients, administrative commands and subscription-based hooks (also called events).
For more information on the protocol, be sure to read the Specification and Implementation.
In order to compile the client or server you may use the Makefile. To build the any of them, in the root of the repository, run:
$ make <server/client/all>Note: You can delete the compiled applications by running
make clean
Executing any of these commands will generate a build/ directory if it wasn't created already. In it, the compiled binary executables will be generated.
Both client and server provide a --help argument to see the available parameters for the program. The configuration file will be loaded automatically if it exists in the current directory and is named config.json.
The client application can be ran by just using the executable. Necessary files will be created automatically by the application. We recommend reading the Quickstart Guides for the TUI and Shell.
We have chosen to create our own server instance that you can connect to, hosted at gochat.sprintervps.party on port 8037 (TLS) and port 9037 (No TLS).
This repository provides a full Compose stack to run the server. The Docker image will be automatically pulled from ghcr.io/sprinter05/gochat:latest (v1 also works as a version). But you can also manually compile it through the provided Dockerfile by using the following command (ran in the root directory):
docker build -t Sprinter05/gochat:latest .After that you will need to run the compose stack using the file found in docker/compose.yml and running the following command:
docker compose up -dNote: If you compiled the image manually make sure to change the image name in the gochat service inside the
compose.ymlfile.
Once the stack has been initialised you will find 3 new folders created in the same directory used to run the stack. The config folder contains the server.json configuration file which can be used to modify the behaviour of the server (restart is required after changes to the configuration file), the logs folder contains all the relevant server logs, and the certs folder is an empty folder that must be used if you want the TLS functionality (you must provide both the private key and certificate in said folder, making sure the names are correct in the configuration file).
To run manually you must use a MariaDB database and modify the server's configuration file accordingly to be able to connect to it.
You may run the server with a TLS port by creating the required TLS certificates. It is recommended to use certbot for creating your certificates, following the instructions of your domain provider. The required files generated using certbot will be fullchain.pem (cert_file) and privkey.pem (key_file). Other methods should also work, but are not documented here. Please note that self-signed certificates are also supported, but not recommended.
Note: When connecting to the server through the TLS port you must use the domain and port combination instead of using ip and port or the TLS certificate will fail to load.