byte-space

Simulating the Early Internet

Installation • Quick Start • Features • Architecture • Contributing

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Terminal-based internet simulator from the early internet era. Build networks, browse websites in terminals, send email, and watch packets travel in real-time with the visualizer.

Note: The TUI (tui/) is the only vibe coded element of this project. Everything else is handcrafted.

Features

Kernel + Process Model

• Syscall API: read, write, stat, exec, ioctl, and more
• Process groups and foreground job control
• FD table inherited on exec, context-based cancellation
• Programs like login and adduser run with elevated permissions when needed using setuid

TTY

• Canonical and raw modes switchable at runtime
• Echo, password masking, cursor movement, tab expansion
• Ctrl-C routes SIGINT to the foreground process group, echoes ^C, re-prompts
• SIGWINCH on terminal resize

Shell

• Line editing, command history (up/down arrows)
• Built-ins: cd, pwd, exit
• Programs: ls, cat, clear, mkdir, touch, chmod, rm, adduser, v

Programs

• login -- reads /etc/issue, authenticates against /etc/passwd, shows motd
• adduser -- creates users with masked password entry
• v -- terminal text editor, normal/insert modes, Ctrl-S to save
• standard unix utils: ls -l, cat, chmod, rm, mkdir, touch, clear

Filesystem + Permissions

• Full owner/other rwx permission enforcement
• chmod with u/o/a and +/-/= operators
• Filesystem and metadata (ownership, permissions) persisted per node

Note: BS-EXTFS (Bull-Shit Extended FileSystem), an inode-based filesystem, is in progress. Currently backed by afero.

TUI Visualizer

• Live event log per TTY
• Shows TTY mode, echo state, input buffer, foreground program, session info

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Ekansh38/byte-space.git
cd byte-space

Note: Requires Go 1.21 or higher

Quick Start

Start the engine + TUI:

cd cmd/engine && go run .

Connect as a user (separate terminal):

cd cmd/client && go run .

No nodes exist on first run. Connect as admin to spawn one:

cd cmd/admin && go run .

admin> spawn computer mypc 192.168.1.1

Then connect as a user, pick your machine, and log in. Run adduser to create your first account.

Architecture

blog post coming soon, hold on tight!!

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING

License

MIT - see LICENSE file for details