HTTP Server (C)

This is a work-in-progress HTTP server written in C using POSIX sockets on Linux.
It communicates directly over TCP and does not use any external HTTP or networking libraries.

The project is based on UNIX Network Programming (2nd Edition) by W. Richard Stevens and was written to better understand TCP, HTTP, and how servers like Nginx work internally.

Current State

• POSIX sockets over TCP
• Non-blocking I/O
• poll() for handling multiple connections
• Single-threaded, event-driven design
• GET requests only
• No external HTTP libraries

Configuration

Before building, edit server_config.h to set:

• SERVER_PORT – Port to listen on (default: "8080")
• ROOT_DIR – Absolute path to your website files
• DEFAULT_FILE – File to serve for directory requests (default: "index.html")

Example:

#define SERVER_PORT "8080"
#define ROOT_DIR "/var/www/mysite"
#define DEFAULT_FILE "index.html"

Building

The project uses a simple Makefile.

From the project root, run:

make

This will build the server binary.

To remove build artifacts:

make clean

Planned Work

• Multi domain configuration file parsing, similar to nginx config files in /etc/nginx/sites_available
• Switch to epoll() to follow nginx setup
• Improved request parsing and error handling
• Additional HTTP features

Work in progress..