Introduction

In this project, you will implement a simple Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server called chirc. IRC is one of the earliest network protocols for text messaging and multi-participant chatting. It is still in use in certain communities, especially the open source software community.

Your implementation must be compliant enough with the official IRC specification for other IRC clients (not programmed by you) to work with your server. Although we will provide some scaffolding, most tasks will require you to consult the official IRC specification, or to experiment with existing IRC servers. Thus, this project will allow you to develop not just your network programming skills, but also your ability to read and interpret a real network protocol.

This project is divided into four parts. The first part (Assignment 1) is meant as a relatively short warmup exercise; the second part (Assignment 2) mostly revolves around supporting multiple clients and messaging between individual users; the third part (Assignment 3) mostly revolves around implementing IRC “channels” (the IRC’s equivalent of a “chat group” or a “chat room”) and modes; the fourth part (Assignment 5) revolves around supporting IRC networks composed of multiple servers. Assignment 4 is an abridged version of Assignments 2 and 3, which can be done instead of those two assignments.

The chirc documentation is divided into the following sections:

• Internet Relay Chat and Example IRC Communications provide an overview of the IRC protocol and provide several examples of valid IRC communications.

• Installing, Building, and Running chirc describes how to get the chirc code and how to build and run it.

• Assignment 1: Basic Message Processing, Assignment 2: Supporting Multiple Clients, Assignment 3: Channels and Modes, Assignment 4: Abridged version of Assignments 2 and 3, and Assignment 5: IRC Networks describe the four parts of this project.

• Testing your Implementation provides suggestions and strategies for testing your implementation.