SSHChat

Languages: English (this file) · 中文说明

SSHChat is a multi-user chat server over SSH/TCP with room chat, private messages, offline leave-messages, secure HTTP file transfer, RSS news, a small library reader, dictionary lookup, and room mini-games (chess, gomoku, go, xiangqi, poker variants, werewolf, and more). An optional Electron GUI is included.

UI language defaults to English. Switch with /lang zh (preference is saved per nickname). The Electron client defaults to English and syncs /lang on connect. Sanguosha (sanguo) move/skill text is still mostly Chinese in this release; other games localize at send time.

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Quick start (users)

Ask your admin for host, SSH port, and username, then:

ssh -p <port> <user>@<host>

On first connect you will see an active-room tip line. Useful commands:

Command	Purpose
/help	Full command help
/lang en / /lang zh	UI language (saved per nick)
/names	Users in the active room
/rooms	Rooms you joined (* = active)
/join <room>	Join and switch
/msg <nick> <text>	PM (or leave-message if offline)
/sendfile	File to current room
/sendfile <nick>	File to a user
/game help	Mini-game help
/news	RSS headlines
/library	Browse books
/dict <word>	Dictionary
/dnd on	Terminal do-not-disturb for game spam

Beginner phone client (iSH): docs/en/ish-beginner.md · Chinese: 小白使用说明书-iSH.md

File sharing guide: docs/en/file-sharing.md · Chinese: USER_GUIDE_FILE_SHARING.md

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Deploy (admins)

# Typical Linux VPS
./deploy.sh

# iSH (Alpine on iPhone/iPad) as a *server*
# See docs/en/deploy-ish.md and DEPLOY-iSH.md

Common env vars:

Variable	Meaning
SSHCHAT_PORT	Chat TCP port (default 12345)
SSHCHAT_DEFAULT_LOCALE	en (default) or zh
SSHCHAT_LOCALE_STORE	Path for per-nick language prefs (default user_locales.json)
SSHCHAT_RATING_STORE	Game ratings JSON
SSHCHAT_SESSION_STORE	In-progress game sessions
SSHCHAT_OFFLINE_MSG_STORE	Offline leave-messages

Federation (multi-server), users, firewall, and Cloudflare file HTTPS are documented in detail in README.zh.md.

iSH server notes: docs/en/deploy-ish.md · DEPLOY-iSH.md

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Mini-games

Games are per room (one active match at a time). Host can /game on|off <name>.

Id	Notes	Aliases
chess	International chess	—
gomoku	15×15	—
go	19×19	weiqi, baduk
xiangqi	Chinese chess	cchess
sanguo	Sanguosha (UI mostly ZH for now)	sgs, 三国杀
werewolf	5–12 players	langrensha
holdem	Texas Hold'em	poker, texas
zjh	Zha Jin Hua	zhajinhua
niutou	Niu Tou Wang	—
mahjong	4 players (+ AI fill)	—
doushou	Jungle / Dou Shou Qi	—

Typical flow:

/game new chess
/game join
/game move e2e4
/game show
/game resign

Many move verbs accept Chinese or English aliases (e.g. holdem 跟注 / call).

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Electron GUI

cd electron
npm ci
npm run dev

Portable Windows build: npm run build:portable → electron/release/.

The GUI has its own locale toggle (default English). On connect it sends /lang so server chat text matches.

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File transfer security (summary)

/sendfile opens a one-time HTTP(S) upload/download page. Keys are not embedded in URLs; upload and download tokens are single-use. Details: docs/en/file-sharing.md.

Upload/download HTML defaults to English; add ?lang=zh for Chinese pages.

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Development

python3 -m unittest tests.test_i18n
python3 -m unittest tests.test_client_dnd
python3 test_file_preview.py

Locale catalogs live under locales/ (en.py, zh.py, game_phrases.py). Core API: i18n.py, persistence: locale_store.py.

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License

See LICENSE.