httpserver

httpserver
==========

command line HTTP server tool for serving up local files, similar to python -mSimpleHTTPServer

Installation
------------

First, install [Node.js][0]. Then:

npm install -g httpserver

Usage
-----

run httpserver on the command line to fire up a server on 0.0.0.0 port 8080.

$ httpserver
{
"lo0": "127.0.0.1",
"en1": "10.0.1.204"
}
server started: http://0.0.0.0:8080

See the page at [http://localhost:8080][1].

htppserver will serve out of your current working directory.

You can pass in arguments to change the port and host, as well as environmental variables

$ httpserver 80 localhost

or

$ HTTPSERVER_PORT=80 HTTPSERVER_HOST=127.0.0.1 httpserver

example

$ httpserver
{
"lo0": "127.0.0.1",
"en1": "10.0.1.204"
}
server started: http://0.0.0.0:8080
127.0.0.1 - - [30/Oct/2013:18:24:38 -0400] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 - "-" "curl/7.30.0"
127.0.0.1 - - [30/Oct/2013:18:24:41 -0400] "GET /test/ HTTP/1.1" 404 - "-" "curl/7.30.0"

Environmental Variables
-----------------------

- HTTPSERVER_HOST host to serve from, defaults to 0.0.0.0
- HTTPSERVER_PORT port to serve from, defaults to 8080
- HTTPSERVER_NO_INDEX disable reading of index.html/index.htm if found
- HTTPSERVER_NO_DIR_LISTING return 403 for directory listings

Advanced Usage
--------------

usage: httpserver [options] [port] [host]

command line HTTP server tool for serving up local files, similar to python -mSimpleHTTPServer

options
-d, --disable-index disable reading of index.html/index.htm if found, env HTTPSERVER_NO_INDEX
-h, --help print this message and exit
-H, --host the host address on which to listen, env HTTPSERVER_HOST defaults to '0.0.0.0'
-n, --no-indexes return 403 for directory requests instead of a directory listing, env HTTPSERVER_NO_DIR_LISTING
-p, --port the port on which to listen, env HTTPSERVER_PORT, defaults to 8080
-u, --updates check for available updates on npm
-v, --version print the version number and exit

Why?
----

There are a lot of packages in npm that do the same thing. I wanted something that
closely mimicked Python's python -m SimpleHTTPServer with the following conditions.

- Easy - You shouldn't have to provide arguments to get something easy up and running. The IP addresses
on the machine are also printed for you
- Configurable - Command line options and environmental variables can modify behavior at runtime
- Safe - All other packages I found online were susceptible to directory traversal. This isn't
- Simple - All code is in one file
- Parsable - GET requests to directories are returned as directory listings, add ?json for JSON
- Proper HTTP - Proper Mime types (using the Mime module) and Caching headers are returned

License
-------

MIT

[0]: http://nodejs.org
[1]: http://localhost:8080