TCPMaid

An easy, powerful and lightweight TCP client/server in C#.

TCPMaid makes it easy to setup a robust client & server, send messages and requests, and provide your own SSL certificate.

Features

• Easy client & server setup
• Supports SSL (TLS) encryption and certificates
• Automatically serialises messages to bytes
• Automatically fragments large messages to avoid congestion
• Supports requests and responses
• Supports IPv4 and IPv6

Dependencies

• MemoryPack

Example

Client

public static async void Client() {
    // Connect to server
    using ClientMaid Client = new();
    await Client.ConnectAsync("localhost", 5000);

    // Say hello to server
    await Client.Channel!.SendAsync(new ExampleMessage("hello server!"));

    // Disconnect from server
    await Client.Channel!.DisconnectAsync();
}

Server

public static void Server() {
    // Start server on port 5000
    ServerMaid Server = new();
    Server.Start(5000);

    // Listen to events
    Server.OnConnect += OnConnect;
    Server.OnReceive += OnReceive;

    // Events
    void OnConnect(Channel Client) {
        Console.WriteLine("Hi, client!");
    }
    void OnReceive(Channel Client, Message Message) {
        if (Message is ExampleMessage ExampleMessage) {
            Console.WriteLine($"Received '{ExampleMessage.ExampleText}' from client!");
        }
    }
}

Shared

[MemoryPackable]
public partial record ExampleMessage(string ExampleText) : Message;

Output

Hi, client!
Received 'hello server!' from client!

Requests

The client may want to ask the server for data. To send a message and wait for a response, you can use RequestAsync.

Client

// Send an ExampleRequest and wait for an ExampleResponse with the same message ID
ExampleResponse? Response = await Client.Channel!.RequestAsync<ExampleResponse>(new ExampleRequest());
Console.WriteLine(Response!.ExampleText);

Server

Server.OnReceive += (Channel, Message) => {
    if (Message is ExampleRequest ExampleRequest) {
        _ = Channel.SendAsync(new ExampleResponse(ExampleRequest.Id, "Here's my response: -.-"));
    }
};

Shared

[MemoryPackable]
public partial record ExampleRequest : Message;
[MemoryPackable]
public partial record ExampleResponse(long Id, string ExampleText) : Message(Id);

Output

Here's my response: -.-

Encryption

To encrypt the connection, simply pass an X509Certificate2 to ServerMaidOptions and enable Ssl in ClientMaidOptions. An SslStream (TLS) is automatically created and authenticated.

Client

ClientMaid ClientMaid = new(new ClientMaidOptions() {
    Ssl = true,
    ServerName = "example.com" // Optional
});

Server

ServerMaid ServerMaid = new(new ServerMaidOptions() {
    Certificate = X509Certificate2.CreateFromPemFile(
        certPemFilePath: "/etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem",
        keyPemFilePath: "/etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem"
    )
});

Streams

You may want to send a large file without keeping it all in memory. To send data from a stream, you can use SendStreamAsync and ReceiveStreamAsync.

Sender

using FileStream Reader = File.OpenRead("Cat.png");
await Channel.SendStreamAsync("Cat Picture", Reader);

Receiver

using FileStream Writer = File.OpenWrite("Cat.png");
await Channel.ReceiveStreamAsync("Cat Picture", Writer);