Gabby is a peer-to-peer chat application written in Go. It allows users to discover and communicate with each other on a local network using UDP broadcasts and TCP connections.
- Automatic peer discovery using UDP broadcasts
- Direct messaging between peers
- Command-line interface for interaction
- Configurable logging levels
- Build the application:
go build -o gabby - Run the application:
./gabby -name YourName -port 8080 -log 0Options:
-name: Your display name (default: system hostname)-port: Port to listen on for incoming messages (default: 8080)-log: Logging level (0=DEBUG, 1=INFO, 2=ERROR, default: 0)
- Commands:
- Send a message:
PeerName:Your message here - List known peers:
!l
- The application uses UDP broadcasts on port 8888 for peer discovery.
- Direct messages are sent using TCP connections.
- Peers are automatically discovered and added to a list of known hosts.
- Ensure your firewall allows UDP broadcasts and incoming TCP connections on the specified port.
- The application is designed for use on local networks.
This project was primarily developed as a learning exercise to gain familiarity with Go programming. As such, there are several areas that could be optimized or improved:
- Peer availability checks
- Handling of username uniqueness
- More robust error handling and recovery
- Improved network efficiency
However, as the main purpose of this project was educational, no further optimizations are planned at this time. The current implementation serves as a functional demonstration of peer-to-peer networking concepts in Go.