net-ipc

net-ipc

A simple message based IPC client/server providing bi-directional communication over sockets and TCP.

Features

• Promises
• Unix/Windows sockets for local communication
• TCP for remote communication
• Supports multiple clients
• Supports request-response, survey and broadcast operations
• Supports secure connections (tls/ssl)
• Supports http/https proxies
• Built-in zlib support (requires installing fast-zlib)
• Built-in messagepack support (requires installing msgpackr)
• Sexy
• Fast

Documentation

• Client - The net-ipc client
• Server - The net-ipc server

Examples

Server Examples

Local IPC server for communication between processes in the same machine.

const { Server } = require("net-ipc"); const server = new Server({ path: "/myapp" }); server.start().catch(console.error);

TCP server for remote communication over the internet.

const { Server } = require("net-ipc"); const server = new Server({ port: 4466 }); server.start().catch(console.error);

Secure TCP server with a domain name and an SSL certificate directly exposed to the web.

const { readFileSync } = require("fs"); const { Server } = require("net-ipc"); const server = new Server({ port: 443, tls: true, options: { cert: readFileSync("/path/to/certificate.pem"), key: readFileSync("/path/to/key.pem") } }); server.start().catch(console.error);

Secure TCP server using PSK (pre shared key) instead of an SSL certificate and a domain name. This setup enables secure connections between direct IP addresses.

const USER = "some username"; const KEY = Buffer.from("some password"); const { Server } = require("net-ipc"); const server = new Server({ port: 4466, tls: true, options: { pskCallback: (socket, identity) => { if(identity === USER) { // confirm username return KEY; // return password for verification } }, ciphers: "PSK", // enable PSK ciphers, they are disabled by default } }); server.start().catch(console.error);

Client Examples

Connecting to a local IPC server.

const { Client } = require("net-ipc"); const client = new Client({ path: "/myapp"; }); client.connect().catch(console.error);

Connecting to a remote TCP server.

const { Client } = require("net-ipc"); const client = new Client({ host: "192.168.1.25", port: 4466 }); client.connect().catch(console.error);

Connecting to a remote TCP server secured with an SSL certificate and a domain name.

const { Client } = require("net-ipc"); const client = new Client({ host: "somedomain.com", port: 443, tls: true }); client.connect().catch(console.error);

Connecting to a remote TCP server secured with a PSK.

const USER = "username here"; const KEY = "password here"; const { Client } = require("net-ipc"); const client = new Client({ host: "192.168.1.35", port: 4466, tls: true, options: { pskCallback: () => { // return the user and the key for verification return { identity: USER, psk: Buffer.from(KEY) } }, ciphers: "PSK", // enable PSK ciphers, they are disabled by default checkServerIdentity: () => void 0; // bypass SSL certificate verification since we are not using certificates } }); client.connect().catch(console.error);

Connecting to a TCP server behind an SSL proxy (nginx/replit/etc). The server itself does not need to be secure as the proxy does it instead.

const { Client } = require("net-ipc"); const client = new Client({ host: "somedomain.com", port: 443, tls: true, handshake: true // simulates websocket http handshake }); client.connect().catch(console.error);

Usage Examples

Request and response example:

// server side server.on("request", async (req, res, client) => { if(req.type === "fetch") { const fetched = await someDatabase.fetch(req.data); await res(fetched); } }); // client side const fetched = await client.request({ type: "fetch", data: "someID" });