http-server
Simple and configurable command-line HTTP server
[](https://crates.io/crates/http-server)
[](https://docs.rs/http-server)
## Installation
```bash
cargo install http-server
```
Verify successful installation.
```bash
http-server --help
```
Expect the following output:
```
USAGE:
http-server [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [root-dir]
FLAGS:
--cors Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing allowing any origin
--graceful-shutdown Waits for all requests to fulfill before shutting down the server
--gzip Enable GZip compression for HTTP Responses
--help Prints help information
-l, --logger Prints HTTP request and response details to stdout
-q, --quiet Turns off stdout/stderr logging
--spa Route non-existent files to /index.html
--tls Enables HTTPS serving using TLS
-i, --index Route directories to index.html if present
-V, --version Prints version information
OPTIONS:
-c, --config Path to TOML configuration file
-h, --host Host (IP) to bind the server [default: 127.0.0.1]
--password Specifies password for basic authentication
-p, --port Port to bind the server [default: 7878]
--proxy Proxy requests to the provided URL
--tls-cert Path to the TLS Certificate [default: cert.pem]
--tls-key Path to the TLS Key [default: key.rsa]
--tls-key-algorithm Algorithm used to generate certificate key [default: rsa]
--username Specifies username for basic authentication
ARGS:
Directory to serve files from [default: ./]
```
> If you find this output is out of date, don't hesitate to open a [PR here][1].
## Configuration
When running the server with no options or flags provided, a set of default
configurations will be used. You can always change this behavior by either
creating your own config with the [Configuration TOML](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server/blob/main/fixtures/config.toml) file
or by providing CLI arguments described in the [usage](#usage) section.
| Name | Description | Default |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- |
| Host | Address to bind the server | `127.0.0.1` |
| Port | Port to bind the server | `7878` |
| Root Directory | The directory to serve files from | `CWD` |
| File Explorer UI | A File Explorer UI for the directory configured as the _Root Directory_ | Enabled |
| Configuration File | Specifies a configuration file. [Example](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server/blob/main/fixtures/config.toml) | Disabled |
| HTTPS (TLS) | HTTPS Secure connection configuration. Refer to [TLS (HTTPS)](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server#tls-https) reference | Disabled |
| CORS | Cross-Origin-Resource-Sharing headers support. Refer to [CORS](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server#cross-origin-resource-sharing-cors) reference | Disabled |
| Compression | GZip compression for HTTP Response Bodies. Refer to [Compression](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server#compression) reference | Disabled |
| Quiet | Don't print server details when running. This doesn't include any logging capabilities. | Disabled |
| Index | Route directories to index.html if present | Disabled |
| SPA | Route non-existent files to /index.html | Disabled |
| Basic Authentication | Authorize requests using Basic Authentication. Refer to [Basic Authentication](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server#basic-authentication) | Disabled |
| Logger | Prints HTTP request and response details to stdout | Disabled |
## Usage
```
http-server [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [root-dir]
```
### Flags
Flags are provided without any values. For example:
```
http-server --help
```
| Name | Short | Long | Description |
| ----------------------------- | ----- | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cross-Origin Resource Sharing | N/A | `--cors` | Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing allowing any origin |
| GZip Compression | N/A | `--gzip` | Enable GZip compression for responses |
| Graceful Shutdown | N/A | `--graceful-shutdown` | Wait for all requests to be fulfilled before shutting down the server |
| Help | N/A | `--help` | Print help information |
| Logger | `-l` | `--logger` | Print HTTP request and response details to stdout |
| Version | `-V` | `--version` | Print version information |
| Quiet | `-q` | `--quiet` | Don't print output to console |
| Index | `-i` | `--index` | Route directories to index.html if present |
| SPA | N/A | `--spa` | Route non-existent files to /index.html |
### Options
Options receive a value and support default values as well.
```
http-server --host 127.0.0.1
```
| Name | Short | Long | Description | Default Value |
| ------------------ | ----- | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| Host | `-h` | `--host` | Address to bind the server | `127.0.0.1` |
| Port | `-p` | `--port` | Port to bind the server | `7878` |
| Configuration File | `-c` | `--config` | Configuration file. [Example](https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server/blob/main/fixtures/config.toml) | N/A |
| TLS | N/A | `--tls` | Enable TLS for HTTPS connections. Requires a Certificate and Key. [Reference](#tls-reference) | N/A |
| TLS Certificate | N/A | `--tls-cert` | Path to TLS certificate file. **Depends on `--tls`** | `cert.pem` |
| TLS Key | N/A | `--tls-key` | Path to TLS key file. **Depends on `--tls`** | `key.rsa` |
| TLS Key Algorithm | N/A | `--tls-key-algorithm` | Algorithm used to generate certificate key. **Depends on `--tls`** | `rsa` |
| Username | N/A | `--username` | Username to validate using basic authentication | N/A |
| Password | N/A | `--password` | Password to validate using basic authentication. **Depends on `--username`** | N/A |
| Proxy | N/A | `--proxy` | Proxy requests to the provided URL | N/A |
## Request Handlers
This HTTP Proxy supports different _Request Handlers_ which determine how each
incoming HTTP request is handled. They can't be combined, you must
choose one based on your needs.
- [File Server](#file-server-handler) _default_
- [Proxy](#proxy-handler)
### File Server Handler
Serves files from the provided directory. Navigation is scoped to the
specified directory. If no directory is provided the CWD will be used.
> This is the default behavior for the HTTP server.
### Proxy Handler
Proxies requests to the provided URL. The URL provided is used as the base URL
for incoming requests.
## Reference
The following are some relevant details on features supported by this HTTP Server
that may be of interest to the user.
### Compression
Even though compression is supported, by default the server will not compress any
HTTP response contents.
You must specify the compression configuration you want to use, in the
configuration file or on the command line.
As of today the server only supports compression with the GZip algorithm, but
`brotli` support is also planned.
The following MIME types are never compressed:
- `application/gzip`
- `application/octet-stream`
- `application/wasm`
- `application/zip`
- `image/*`
- `video/*`
#### The Configuration File's Compression Section
As future support for other compression algorithms is planned,
the configuration file already supports compression settings.
```toml
[compression]
gzip = true
```
#### The `--gzip` flag
Provide the `--gzip` argument to the server when executing it.
```bash
http-server --gzip
```
### TLS (HTTPS)
The TLS solution supported for this HTTP Server is built with the [rustls](https://github.com/ctz/rustls)
crate along with [hyper-rustls](https://github.com/ctz/hyper-rustls).
When running with TLS support you will need:
- A certificate
- A matching RSA Private Key for the certificate
A script to generate certificates and keys is available here [tls-cert.sh](./docs/tls-cert.sh).
This script relies on `openssl`, so make sure you have it installed on your system.
Run `http-server` as follows:
```sh
http-server --tls --tls-cert --tls-key --tls-key-algorithm pkcs8
```
### Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
This HTTP Server supports CORS headers _out of the box_.
Based on the headers you want to provide in your HTTP Responses, two
different methods for CORS configuration are available.
By providing the `--cors` option to `http-server`, CORS headers
will be appended to every HTTP Response, allowing any origin.
For more complex configurations, like specifying an origin, a set of allowed
HTTP methods and more, you should specify the configuration via the configuration
TOML file.
The following example shows all the available options.
```toml
[cors]
allow_credentials = false
allow_headers = ["content-type", "authorization", "content-length"]
allow_methods = ["GET", "PATCH", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE"]
allow_origin = "example.com"
expose_headers = ["*", "authorization"]
max_age = 600
request_headers = ["x-app-version"]
request_method = "GET"
```
### Basic Authentication
Basic Authentication is supported to deny requests when credentials are invalid.
You must provide the allowed `username` and `password` either by using the CLI
options `--username` along with the desired username and `--password` along with
the desired password, or by specifying such values through the configuration
TOML file.
```toml
[basic_auth]
username = "John"
password = "Appleseed"
```
### Proxy
The HTTP Server is able to proxy requests to a specified URL.
When using the proxy, the FileExplorer won't be available, as the proxy is
an alternate _Request Handler_.
The config TOML file can be used to provide proxy configurations:
```toml
[proxy]
url = "https://example.com"
```
## Roadmap
The following roadmap list features to provide for the version `v1.0.0`.
This roadmap is still open for suggestions. If you find that there's a missing
feature in this list, that you would like to work on or expect for the first
stable release, please contact the software editors by opening an issue or a
discussion.
If you want to contribute to one of these, please make sure
there's an issue tracking the feature and ping me. Otherwise
open an issue to be assigned and track the progress there.
- [x] Logging
- [x] Request/Response Logging
- [x] Service Config Logins
- [ ] File Explorer
- [x] Modified Date
- [x] File Size
- [ ] Breadcrumb Navigation
- [ ] File Upload
- [ ] Filtering
- [ ] Sorting
- [ ] Sort By: File Name
- [ ] Sort By: File Size
- [ ] Sort By: File Modified Date
- [x] Directories First
- [ ] Files First
- [x] HTTPS/TLS Serving
- [x] HTTPS/TLS Support
- [ ] Compression
- [x] `gzip/deflate` Compression
- [ ] `brotli` Compression
- [ ] CORS
- [x] Cross Origin Resource Sharing
- [x] Allow Credentials
- [x] Allow Headers
- [x] Allow Methods
- [x] Allow Origin
- [x] Expose Headers
- [x] Max Age
- [x] Request Headers
- [x] Request Methods
- [ ] Multiple Origins (#8)
- [ ] Cache Control
- [ ] `Last-Modified` and `ETag`
- [ ] Respond with 304 to `If-Modified-Since`
- [ ] Partial Request
- [ ] `Accept-Ranges`
- [ ] `Content-Range`
- [ ] `If-Range`
- [ ] `If-Match`
- [ ] `Range`
- [x] Standalone Builds
- [x] macOS
- [x] Linux
- [x] Windows
- [ ] Development Server
- [ ] Live Reload
- [x] Proxy
- [x] URL Configuration
- [x] Basic Authentication
- [x] Username
- [x] Password
- [x] Graceful Shutdown
## Release
In order to create a release you must push a Git tag as follows
```sh
git tag -a -m
```
**Example**
```sh
git tag -a v0.1.0 -m "First release"
```
> Tags must follow semver conventions.
> Tags must be prefixed with a lowercase `v` letter.
Then push tags as follows:
```sh
git push origin main --follow-tags
```
## Contributing
Every contribution to this project is welcome. Feel free to open a pull request or
an issue. Just by using this project you're helping it grow. Thank you!
## License
Distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0)
[1]: https://github.com/http-server-rs/http-server
