Task #

Write a program to simulate “My Ship Sails” using processes that communicate via pipes.
The program takes two arguments:
N - number of players (4 <= N <= 7)
M - number of cards per hand (M >= 4 and M ⋅ N <= 52)

Rules #

Players are dealt M cards each from a 52-card deck (cards are represented as integers 0-51).
Each turn, players simultaneously pass a card to their right neighbor.
The game continues until a player collects M cards of the same suit and declares: My ship sails!.
The first to declare wins.
The suit of a card can be determined using % 4 operation.

Stages #

1. Initialize:

   • The server process creates N player processes.
   • It shuffles the deck and deals M cards to each player via pipes.
   • Each player prints their received hand with their process ID and exits.

2. Gameplay:

   • Players form a ring, passing cards via pipes (nᵗʰ player → (n+1 % N)ᵗʰ player).
   • A player who collects M cards of the same suit prints [PID]: My ship sails! (game runs endlessly).

3. Winning Condition:

   • The server creates a shared pipe for winners to announce victory.
   • A player who wins writes their PID to the pipe, prints [PID]: My ship sails!, and exits.
   • The server reads the PID, prints Server: [PID] won!, and exits.

4. Termination:

   • Ctrl-C instantly stops all processes and cleans up resources.