minitalk
📡 Description
minitalk is a 42 project that introduces inter-process communication in Unix using POSIX signals. The objective is to implement a basic client-server communication system, where messages are transmitted bit by bit using SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2.
This project offers a hands-on approach to signal handling, bit manipulation, and asynchronous communication.
🎯 Objective
Build two programs :
- Server : Waits for messages sent by clients.
- Client : Sends a message (string) to the server, one bit at a time, using Unix signals.
Once the server receives the full message, it prints it to the terminal.
🚀 Features
✅ Communication System
- Sends messages from client to server using :
SIGUSR1→ bit0.SIGUSR2→ bit1.
- Signals are sent for each bit of each character in the message.
- End of message is marked by a null terminator (
'\0').
📥 Server
- Starts by displaying its PID.
- Listens for incoming bits and rebuilds characters.
- Prints the received message to the terminal.
📤 Client
- Takes the server PID and the message as arguments.
- Converts each character of the string into binary.
- Sends each bit with a corresponding signal.
- Waits briefly between signals to ensure the server processes them.
🧠 Technical Highlights
- Uses
sigaction()for signal handling. - Implements signal acknowledgment (optional bonus).
- Handles message termination and edge cases.
- Ensures reliable bitwise transmission via proper timing.
🛠️ Compilation
make
./serverIn another terminal.
./client <PID> <Message>