pgin - a Chat App (C) – WIP

A work-in-progress terminal-based chat application in C. The server skeleton is complete, and the plan is to build a terminal-based UI (TUI) client in Go using Bubble Tea.

Features (Planned)

• Multi-client chat over TCP
• Terminal-based UI (TUI) in Go (Bubble Tea)
• Graceful shutdown on Ctrl+C for server
• Message broadcasting between clients
• Optional username support

Current Status

• TCP server skeleton in C
• Graceful shutdown with Ctrl+C
• Multi-client support
• Client application (Bubble Tea TUI)
• Chat protocol and message broadcasting
• TUI client interface

Prerequisites

• GCC or Clang
• Meson and Ninja installed
• Linux/macOS (POSIX-compliant systems recommended)
• Go (for TUI client with Bubble Tea)

Build & Run

After cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/shandilyaaryan/pgin.git
cd pgin

Build

make

This will:

1. Set up the Meson build in the backend folder.
2. Compile the project using Ninja.

Run

make run

This will:

1. Clean previous builds.
2. Build the project again.
3. Run the executable (pgin) located in backend/build:

Clean

make clean

Removes the build directory and Meson cache for a fresh build.

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Future Roadmap

1. Implement multi-client handling using select() or threads
2. Add message broadcasting
3. Create a TUI client in Go using Bubble Tea
4. Implement usernames and chat protocol

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Notes

• This project is currently a work-in-progress.
• Contributions are welcome!