UDP Chat Room System

This project implements a simple chat system using UDP sockets, allowing multiple clients to communicate in real time via a central server.

---

🔧 Features

• UDP-based messaging (JOIN, CHAT, LEAVE)
• Server tracks active clients by IP/Port
• Clients operate on two threads (receive + send)
• Clean custom packet format with headers
• Graceful client exit

---

📁 Project Structure

UDPChatRoom/
├── client/
│   ├── UDPClient.c         # UDP client source
│   └── UDPClient           # Compiled binary
├── server/
│   ├── UDPServer.c         # UDP server source
│   ├── DieWithError.c      # Error handling utility
│   └── UDPServer           # Compiled binary
├── Makefile
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

---

⚙️ Compilation

make

• Compiles client/UDPClient and server/UDPServer

To clean up:

make clean

---

🚀 How to Run

Run Server

./server/UDPServer

Run Client

./client/UDPClient

The client prompts for a nickname, sends a JOIN packet, and starts sending/receiving messages.

---

📦 Message Format (UDP)

Field	Size	Description
Type	2	1 = JOIN, 2 = CHAT, 3 = LEAVE
Length	2	Length of the message (<= 256)
Data	≤256	Nickname or chat message

All integer values are sent in network byte order.

---

💬 Example Output

Client:

Enter nickname: Alice
[Alice]: Hello everyone!

Server:

Received JOIN from 192.168.0.12:50938 - Alice
Received CHAT from Alice:
Received LEAVE from Alice

---

📄 License

This project is open source under the MIT License.

---

👨‍💻 Author

Developed by Amena2026