micro_httpd - really small HTTP server

micro_httpd directory

micro_httpd is a very small HTTP server. It runs from inetd, which means its performance is poor. But for low-traffic sites, it's quite adequate. It implements all the basic features of an HTTP server, including:

*

Security against ".." filename snooping.

*

The common MIME types.

*

Trailing-slash redirection.

*

index.html

*

Directory listings.

All in 150 lines of code.

To install it, add a line like this to /etc/inetd.conf:

    micro_http  stream tcp nowait nobody  /usr/local/sbin/micro_httpd micro_httpd dir

    micro_http   port/tcp   #Micro HTTP server

On some systems, inetd has a maximum spawn rate - if you try to run inetd services faster than a certain number of times per minute, it assumed there's either a bug of an attack going on and it shuts down for a few minutes. If you run into this problem - look for syslog messages about too-rapid looping - you'll need to find out how to increase the limit. Unfortunately this varies from OS to OS. On FreeBSD, you add a "-R 10000" flag to inetd's initial command line. On some Linux systems, you can set the limit on a per-service basis in inetd.conf, by changing "nowait" to "nowait.10000".

Note that you can use micro_httpd to serve HTTPS, if you like, by running it from stunnel. First fetch and install stunnel - FreeBSD users can just go to /usr/ports/security/stunnel and do a "make cert ; make install". Then as root run:

    stunnel -p /usr/local/certs/stunnel.pem -d 443 
	-l /usr/local/sbin/micro_httpd -- 
	micro_httpd dir

Copyright (C) 1999 by Jef Poskanzer <jef@mail.acme.com>. All rights reserved.