rhxd - Hotline Connect Server Suite

A modern Rust implementation of the Hotline Connect protocol suite, consisting of:

• rhxcore - Core protocol library for building clients, servers, and bots
• rhxd - Hotline server daemon
• rhxtrackd - Tracker daemon for server discovery

Features

Current (MVP)

• ✅ Full Hotline 1.9.x protocol compatibility
• ✅ Legacy client support
• ✅ Login and authentication (legacy XOR password format)
• ✅ User management and sessions
• ✅ Public chat
• ✅ Private messaging
• ✅ File listing
• ✅ SQLite database storage
• ✅ JSON configuration
• ✅ CLI administration tools
• ✅ Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)

Planned

• ⏳ File transfers (download/upload with resume)
• ⏳ Folder transfers
• ⏳ News system
• ⏳ Blake3 password hashing (with migration from legacy)
• ⏳ HOPE protocol extensions (encryption)
• ⏳ >4GB file support (via Nostalgia analysis)
• ⏳ Anti-spam and rate limiting
• ⏳ Bandwidth throttling

Quick Start

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/rhxd
cd rhxd

# Build all crates
cargo build --release

# Binaries will be in target/release/

Server Setup

# Initialize a new server
./target/release/rhxd init

# This creates:
# - rhxd.json (configuration)
# - rhxd.db (SQLite database)
# - Default admin account with random password

# Start the server
./target/release/rhxd serve

# Or with custom config
./target/release/rhxd serve --config /path/to/config.json

Tracker Setup

# Initialize a new tracker
./target/release/rhxtrackd init

# Start the tracker
./target/release/rhxtrackd serve

Configuration

Server (rhxd.json)

{
  "server": {
    "name": "My Hotline Server",
    "description": "A modern Rust Hotline server",
    "address": "0.0.0.0",
    "port": 5500,
    "max_connections": 100
  },
  "files": {
    "root_path": "./files",
    "max_download_size": 104857600,
    "enable_uploads": true,
    "enable_downloads": true
  },
  "database": {
    "path": "./rhxd.db"
  },
  "security": {
    "require_login": true,
    "allow_guest": false
  }
}

Tracker (rhxtrackd.json)

{
  "server": {
    "name": "My Hotline Tracker",
    "address": "0.0.0.0",
    "port": 5498
  },
  "http": {
    "enabled": true,
    "address": "0.0.0.0",
    "port": 8080
  },
  "registry": {
    "server_ttl_seconds": 3600,
    "cleanup_interval_seconds": 300
  }
}

CLI Usage

Server Commands

# Account management
rhxd account add <login> <password> <name> [--admin]
rhxd account list
rhxd account delete <login>
rhxd account set-password <login> <new-password>

# Database operations
rhxd db migrate
rhxd db index-files <directory>
rhxd db backup <output-file>

# Server info
rhxd info
rhxd version

Tracker Commands

# Server registry
rhxtrackd server list
rhxtrackd server remove <server-id>

# Database operations
rhxtrackd db cleanup
rhxtrackd db backup <output-file>

# Tracker info
rhxtrackd info

Development

Building rhxcore Library

cd crates/rhxcore
cargo build
cargo test

Using rhxcore in Your Project

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
rhxcore = { git = "https://github.com/yourusername/rhxd", package = "rhxcore" }

Example bot:

use rhxcore::prelude::*;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<()> {
    // Connect to server
    let mut client = HotlineClient::connect("127.0.0.1:5500").await?;
    
    // Login
    client.login("bot", "password").await?;
    
    // Send chat message
    client.send_chat("Hello from Rust!").await?;
    
    Ok(())
}

Architecture

rhxd/
├── crates/
│   ├── rhxcore/       # Protocol library (reusable)
│   ├── rhxd/          # Server daemon
│   └── rhxtrackd/     # Tracker daemon
├── docs/              # Documentation
└── examples/          # Example bots and clients

Protocol Support

• Hotline 1.9.x - Full compatibility
• HOPE (Hotline Open Protocol Extensions) - Planned
• Legacy clients - Fully supported (Hotline 1.2.3+)

Documentation

• Protocol Documentation
• API Documentation
• Migration Guide - Migrating from mhxd/GLoarbLine

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• Original Hotline protocol by Hotsprings Inc.
• mhxd and hxd developers for their extensive work on the protocol
• GLoarbLine project for the reference implementation
• Nostalgia developer (RIP) for pioneering >4GB file transfers

Project Status

This project is in active development. The MVP (login, chat, file listing) is being implemented. File transfers and advanced features will be added in subsequent phases.

Resources

• Hotline Wiki
• Protocol Specification
• GLoarbLine Source
• mhxd Source