czhttpd

Simple http server written in 99.9% pure zsh

$ ./czhttpd -h
Usage: czhttpd [OPTIONS] [file or dir]

czhttpd - cloud's zsh http server

Options
    -c :    Optional configuration file (default: ~/.config/czhttpd/main.conf)
    -h :    Print this help message
    -p :    Port to bind to (default: 8080)
    -v :    Redirect log messages to stdout

If no file or directory is given, czhttpd defaults to serving
the current directory.

The czhttpd script is completely standalone. The only dependency is zsh version 5.6 or higher. There is a docker image available if the version shipped by your OS is older or if it lacks the tcp module.

# Launch default directory listing of czhttpd files
$ docker run -p 8080:8080 -it jsks/czhttpd

# To serve a local directory use a bind mount
$ docker run -p 8080:8080 -v $PWD:/data -it jsks/czhttpd czhttpd -v /data

Optional Dependencies

When available:

• file is used for fallback mime-type support
• ifconfig is used on macOS/*BSD when IP_REDIRECT is not set

Features

• Basic support for HTTP/1.1 (methods limited to HEAD, GET, POST)
• Dynamic directory listing with primitive caching
• UTF-8 support
• Multiple concurrent connections
• Live config reload
• Module support for:
  • Gzip compression
  • Basic CGI/1.1 support
    • phpMyAdmin appears fully functional, and partially Wordpress (requires configuring for an alternative port)
  • Basic url rewrite

Configuration

The provided sample conf/main.conf lists the variables that can be changed. Any additional files or modules can be sourced using the standard shell command, source. Similarly, the configuration variables for each module can be found in their respective config files.

By default, czhttpd searches for main.conf in ~/.config/czhttpd/conf/. An alternative configuration file can be specified with the commandline option -c. If no file is found, then czhttpd will simply use the defaults listed in the sample conf/main.conf.

Live Reload

czhttpd will automatically reload its configuration file and gracefully handle any changes and open connections when the HUP signal is sent to the parent czhttpd pid. Ex:

$ kill -HUP <czhttpd pid>

Testing

Integration and benchmarking stress tests are available and can be invoked either directly or through the provided Makefile. Running the full test suite requires md5sum/md5 and vegeta.

# Integration tests. Log file saved as `./test.log`
$ make test

# Stress tests with vegeta. Log file saved as `./stress.log`
$ make stress

The results from the latter tests are saved in test/stress/report and can be used by vegeta report. Additionally, html plots will be automatically created and saved in test/stress/html.

Invoke the scripts directly for a full list of additional options.

$ test/integration/test.sh --help
$ test/stress/stress.sh --help

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Disclaimer: This is not intended for serious use.

czhttpd is not portable between shells (POSIX, what?) and, of course, has terrible performance and scalability since it spawns a separate child process to handle each incoming connection. It's also a shell script. On top of that, I shouldn't even have to mention the (lack of) security...