Lab 9 - File-based Chat System

When you log into a department server you have access to a large public shared space called /bigtemp. I have placed in that directory a folder called /bigtemp/cso1-f22 which we will use like a wall of mail cubbyholes for this assignment.

Outline

You will write a program that will do the following:

1. If there is a file named /bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat, where mst3k is replaced by your ID, the program will show that file’s contents to the user and then empty the file.

2. The program will ask the user the computing ID of the person they want to send a message to.

3. The program will ask the user what message to send them.

4. The program will append your ID, followed by a colon, followed by the message, to the file /bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat, where mst3k is replaced by the recipient’s ID, and change its permissions so others can read and write it.

You are welcome to assume that no string will be bigger than 4096 characters and use a global char buffer[4096] instead of trying to handle malloc, etc, in this lab.

You’ll probably find it useful to work in pairs so you can send each other messages.

Useful pieces

Getting your ID

Linux provides access to several “environment variables”. One of them (USER) has, as its value, your current login ID. You can retrieve this using the getenv function in stdlib.h:

int main() {
    char *me = getenv("USER");
    puts(me);
    return 0;
}

Building a string

There are two basic tools for building a string out of component parts. Either one will work fine for this task, and both Both of them require a pre-allocated destination buffer.

strcat

The strcat function from string.h is similar to += for strings in Java or Python.

buffer[0] = '\0';
strcat(buffer, "/bigtemp/cso1-f22/");
strcat(buffer, "mst3k");
strcat(buffer, ".chat");

sprintf

The snprintf function from stdio.h does a formatted string construction, like the string’s .format method in Java or Python. It uses the same formatting specifiers as printf, with both the power and complexity that that entails.

snprintf(buffer, 4096, "/bigtemp/%s/%s.chat",
    "cso1-f22",
    "mst3k",
);

Working with files

To work with files, you want to fopen them, access their contents, and then fclose them. The following components will help:

Opening:

• FILE *inbox = fopen(filepath, "r"); returns NULL if filepath is not the path to a real file, and a pointer to a FILE structure opened in read-only mode otherwise.

  There is a special FILE * named stdin that is always open and reads from what the user types into the terminal window.

• FILE *outbox = fopen(filepath, "a"); returns NULL if filepath exists but you are not allowed to write to it, and a pointer to a FILE structure opened in append-only mode otherwise.

  There is a special FILE * named stdout that is always open and displays to the terminal window.

Writing:

• fwrite(buffer, sizeof(char), 23, outbox); writes 23 char-sized values from buffer to FILE *outbox. Use it if you know how many bytes you want to write.

• fprintf(outbox, "%s: %d\n", "mst3k", 2501); writes mst3k: 2501 and a newline to FILE *outbox. Like snprintf, this gives a lot of power with corresponding complexity.

Reading:

• size_t got = fread(buffer, sizeof(char), 4096, inbox); reads up to 4096 char-sized values from FILE *inbox into buffer, and returns the number read (which is often less than 4096 if inbox did not have that many characters).

  This does not work well for stdin as the inbox parameter, as you don’t generally know how many characters the user will type. fgets is better for most user interactions.

• char *line = fgets(buffer, 4096, inbox); reads one line of text from FILE *inbox, or 4096 characters, whichever is less. It returns buffer on success and NULL on failure. The returned string includes the newline, as e.g. "mst3k\n"

  This works well for stdin as the inbox parameter, as users generally type one line at a time.

Permissions, etc:

• chmod("/bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat", 0666); sets the permissions for mst3k.chat based on a bit-vector of flags, specified in octal (hence the leading 0):

  • The three octal digits are (in written order) the owner, group, and others permissions.
  • If re-written in binary (e.g. change 07 to 111₂), the bits mean may-read, may-write, and may-execute, in order.
  • We want the files used in the chat to be writeable by any user, so 0666 is a reasonable permission set.

• truncate("/bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat", 0); truncates a file so its new size is 0 bytes. This is useful in re-setting a chat file after the user has read its contents.

Testing tips

You can manually check for the existance and permissions of a file by running

ls -l /bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat

Note that many bugs end up creating the wrong file name; the following will list all files in the directory with the newest file last

ls -ltr /bigtemp/cso1-f22/

You can force-add a message to a mailbox by running

echo "This is a message" >> /bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat
chmod 666 /bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat

You can read all messages by running

less /bigtemp/cso1-f22/mst3k.chat

These can be useful in testing different aspects of your program independently. But don’t mess with other student’s mailboxes in this way without their permission.

If you try to read from a non-existent file, open a file in a non-existent directory, or access a file for which you do not have permissions, the functions you use will fail (and set errno).

Example run

The following shows how a pair of students, aa1a and tj0uva might chat with one another. What the user types is shown like this.

$ ./a.out
You have no new messages
Who would you like to message?
tj0uva
What do you want to say?
Hello, is this working?

$ ./a.out
Your messages:
aa1a: Hello, is this working?
Who would you like to message?
aa1a
What do you want to say?
Yes, works well!

$ ./a.out
You have no new messages
Who would you like to message?
aa1a
What do you want to say?
How are you, by the way?

$ ./a.out
Your messages:
tj0uva: Yes, works well!
tj0uva: How are you, by the way?
Who would you like to message?

Some notes for the ideal implementation:

1. Use getenv to figure out the name of the user running the program. Don’t hard-code it or ask them.
   • optionally, if argc is 2, use argv[1] instead so users can run as e.g. ./a.out tj0uva to pretend to be TJ. If you do that, don’t go erasing other student’s mailboxes…
2. After showing the user their messages, truncate their mailbox
3. Append messages to the recipient’s mailbox. Don’t erase the file first.
4. chmod each file you touch to be 0666 so that others can work with it too.
5. Prepend the current user’s ID and a ": " to each message you put in a mailbox so the recipient can see who wrote it.
6. If the user does not type an ID when asked, don’t ask for a message afterwards.

You don’t need to do all of that to check off (showing the TA a basic implementation is enough), but we encourage you to work on all of the above features to better prepare you for future assignments.