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https://github.com/spoorn/durian

General purpose client/server networking library written in Rust, built on top of the QUIC protocol which is implemented by quinn
https://github.com/spoorn/durian

game-development gamedev netcode networking rust rust-library

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General purpose client/server networking library written in Rust, built on top of the QUIC protocol which is implemented by quinn

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README 

        
# Overview

_"This library stinks!" ... "Unless you like durian"_



`durian` is a client-server networking library built on top of the [QUIC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUIC) protocol which is

implemented in Rust by [quinn](https://github.com/quinn-rs/quinn).



It provides a thin abstraction layer above the lower-level details of connection management, byte management,

framing, and more, to make writing netcode easier and allow the user to focus on the messaging

contents instead.  Serialization and deserialization are built into the APIs so you can send and receive exact

Packets as structs for ease of development.



`durian` is a general purpose library, but was made primarily for me to dabble in game development.  It has been

tested and working with the [Bevy](https://bevyengine.org/) game engine.



Full documentation can be found at https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/



Crates.io: https://crates.io/crates/durian/



### Disclaimer

This library is in very early (but very active!) development, meaning a LOT of it will change rapidly.  

In its current state, it's usable to create a quick multiplayer demo.  I use it myself to learn [game

development](https://github.com/spoorn/multisnakegame).



This __is not production ready__, and is missing a lot of features to make it production ready (see [Features](#features) list below).



However, if you are trying to build something and want to avoid a lot of the headache of lower-level netcode details,

and don't need the "production" features, such as a multiplayer game demo, LAN sandbox applications, etc., then feel

free to try it out!



`durian`'s goal is to make it as simple as possible to setup netcode (See the examples below).



## Features



* [x] Simultaneous basic Client/Server connection management and operations

* [x] Both async and sync APIs for different caller contexts

* [x] Multiplexing without head of line blocking (QUIC feature)

    * Dedicated stream for each Packet type and multi-threaded

* [x] Reliable packets: guaranteed delivery of all messages

* [x] Ordered packets: packets are received in the same order they are sent on each stream

* [x] Packet Fragmentation and re-assembly automatically for you

* [x] Macros to ease creation of Packets

* [x] Send and receive packets simultaneously

* [x] Various Client/Server configurations

    * keep-alive-intervals

    * idle-timeout

    * ALPN Protocol



### Not yet done



* [ ] Certificate authentication between client-server

* [ ] More complex connection configurations such as:

    * Pluggable cryptography

* [ ] Handshake protocol

* [ ] Connection/streams re-establishment

* [ ] Reusing an Endpoint across multiple PacketManagers (for client connected to multiple servers, or having different Packet contracts)

* [ ] Better Error handling/messaging

* [ ] Unreliable packets

* [ ] Unordered packets

* [ ] Probably lots more



# Cargo.toml Dependency



Add `durian` to your Cargo.toml via `cargo add durian` or manually:



```toml

[dependencies]

durian = "0.3"

```



# Packet/PacketBuilder



There are 2 steps needed to create a [`Packet`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) to be used with `durian`:



1. `durian` allows for structuring [`Packets`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) as simple structs.  The structs must implement

   Trait [`Packet`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html), which has a single function [`Packet::as_bytes()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html#tymethod.as_bytes) which will be called for

   serializing the [`Packet`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) into bytes to be sent over the wire between client and server.



2. There also needs to be a struct that implements [`PacketBuilder`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.PacketBuilder.html) which is used to

   deserialize from bytes back into your [`Packet`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) struct via the `PacketBuilder::read()`

   function.



For your convenience, `durian` is bundled with [`durian_macros`](https://docs.rs/durian_macros/latest/durian_macros/index.html) which contains a few macros that

help autogenerate Impl blocks for a struct for both [`Packet`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) and [`PacketBuilder`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.PacketBuilder.html).  The only

requirement is the struct must be de/serializable, meaning all nested fields also need to be

de/serializable.



[`#[bincode_packet]`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/attr.bincode_packet.html) will de/serialize your Packet using [bincode](https://github.com/bincode-org/bincode) and applies necessary derive

macros automatically for you.

```rust

use durian::bincode_packet;



// Automatically implements Packet, and generates a PositionPacketBuilder that implements 

// PacketBuilder.  You can also add other macros such as derive macros so long as they don't

// conflict with what #[bincode_packet] adds (See bincode_packet documentation).

#[bincode_packet]

#[derive(Debug)]

struct Position {

    x: i32,

    y: i32

}



// Works for Unit (empty) structs as well

#[bincode_packet]

struct Ack;

```



You can also use the derive macros ([`BinPacket`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/derive.BinPacket.html) and [`UnitPacket`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/derive.UnitPacket.html)) manually:



```rust

use durian::serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};

use durian::{BinPacket, UnitPacket};



#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, BinPacket)]

#[serde(crate = "durian::serde")]

struct Position { x: i32, y: i32 }



#[derive(UnitPacket)]

struct Ack;

```



# PacketManager



[`PacketManager`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html) is what you will use to initiate connections between clients/servers, and

send/receive [`Packets`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html).



A [`PacketManager`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html) would be created on each client to connect to a

single server, and one created on the server to connect to multiple clients. It contains both

synchronous and asynchronous APIs, so you can call the functions both from a synchronous

context, or within an async runtime (_Note: the synchronous path will create a separate

isolated async runtime context per [`PacketManager`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html) instance._)



There are 4 basic steps to using the [`PacketManager`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html), which would be done on both the client

and server side:



1. Create a [`PacketManager`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html) via [`new()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.new) or, if calling from an async context, [`new_for_async()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.new_for_async)



2. Register the [`Packets`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) and [`PacketBuilders`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.PacketBuilder.html) that the [`PacketManager`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html) will __receive__

   and __send__ using [`register_receive_packet()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.register_receive_packet) and [`register_send_packet()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.register_send_packet).  

   The ordering of [`Packet`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/trait.Packet.html) registration matters for the `receive` channel and

   `send` channel each - the client and server must register the same packets in the same order,

   for the opposite channels.

    - In other words, the client must register `receive` packets in the

      same order the server registers the same as `send` packets, and vice versa, the client must

      register `send` packets in the same order the server registers the same as `receive` packets.

      This helps to ensure the client and servers are in sync on what Packets to send/receive, almost

      like ensuring they are on the same "version" so to speak, and is used to properly identify

      Packets.



3. Initiate connection(s) with [`init_client()`](`PacketManager::init_client()`) (or the async variant [`async_init_client()`](`PacketManager::async_init_client()`)

   if on the client side, else use [`init_server()`](`PacketManager::init_server()`) (or the async variant [`async_init_server)`](`PacketManager::async_init_server()`)

   if on the server side.



4. Send packets using any of [`broadcast()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.broadcast), [`send()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.send), [`send_to()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.send_to)

   or the respective `async` variants if calling from an async context already.  Receive packets

   using any of [`received_all()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.received_all) , [`received()`](https://docs.rs/durian/latest/durian/struct.PacketManager.html#method.received), or the respective

   `async` variants.



Putting these together:



```rust

use durian::PacketManager;

use durian_macros::bincode_packet;



#[bincode_packet]

struct Position { x: i32, y: i32 }

#[bincode_packet]

struct ServerAck;

#[bincode_packet]

struct ClientAck;

#[bincode_packet]

struct InputMovement { direction: String }



fn packet_manager_example() {

    // Create PacketManager

    let mut manager = PacketManager::new();



    // Register send and receive packets

    manager.register_receive_packet::(PositionPacketBuilder).unwrap();

    manager.register_receive_packet::(ServerAckPacketBuilder).unwrap();

    manager.register_send_packet::().unwrap();

    manager.register_send_packet::().unwrap();



    // Initialize connection to an address

    manager.init_connections(true, 2, 2, "127.0.0.1:5000", Some("127.0.0.1:5001"), 0, None).unwrap();



    // Send and receive packets

    manager.broadcast(InputMovement { direction: "North".to_string() }).unwrap();

    manager.received_all::(false).unwrap();



    // The above PacketManager is for the client.  Server side is similar except the packets

    // are swapped between receive vs send channels.



    // Create PacketManager

    let mut server_manager = PacketManager::new();



    // Register send and receive packets

    server_manager.register_receive_packet::(ClientAckPacketBuilder).unwrap();

    server_manager.register_receive_packet::(InputMovementPacketBuilder).unwrap();

    server_manager.register_send_packet::().unwrap();

    server_manager.register_send_packet::().unwrap();



    // Initialize a client

    let client_config = ClientConfig::new("127.0.0.1:5001", "127.0.0.1:5000", 2, 2);

    server_manager.init_client(client_config).unwrap();



    // Send and receive packets

    server_manager.broadcast(Position { x: 1, y: 3 }).unwrap();

    server_manager.received_all::(false).unwrap();

}

```



# Examples



For beginners, creating packets to be sent between clients/server should be extremely straight-forward

and the above examples should cover most of what you'd need.  For more complex scenarios, such as

serializing/deserializing packets in a custom way, can be done by implementing the various Traits

yourself, or through extra configurations in the [`PacketManager`](PacketManager).



For a comprehensive minimal example, see the [example crate](https://github.com/spoorn/durian/tree/main/example).



I also use this library myself for simple game development.  See the [multisnakegame repo](https://github.com/spoorn/multisnakegame).



# Debugging



`durian` uses the `log` API with debug and trace logs.  Enable debug logging to see update logs

from `durian`, and enable trace logging to see packet byte transmissions.