Simple TCP/IP time client

This program demonstrates a simple TCP/IP client. It will connect to a time server and display the current time.

Programming Issues

This program illustrates the classic process for a TCP/IP client program. Summarised, it is as follows:

Create a socket with a call to socket()
Create and initialize a socket address structure with the address family (AF_INET here), the server's remote IP address, and the port the server is listening on.
Actively connect to the server by calling connect()
Communicate with the server, and (in this case) allow the server to perform the active close.

Usage

Launch a server process in the background (or find one already running) and run the program to connect to it:

[paul@localhost paul]$ ./timeserv 3357 &
[paul@localhost paul]$ ./timeclnt -a 127.0.0.1 -p 3357
The current time is: Sat Oct 16 19:26:17 1999

[paul@localhost paul]$

Use the -a and -p switches to specify the remote IP address and port of the server.