Thread pool Web Server

Introduction

This is a basic server that will answer simple HTTP/1.1 requests. The main thread accepts the connect from the client and a reader thread will read the request and answer providing the whole HTML file requested (or any file that exists in the <server_directory>).

Compile

I suggest going through the Makefile as you read this part

make all / make : Will compile the web server files creating the myhttpd executable and the server test programs (More on them later)
make server : Will compile only the web server
make compTests : Will compile only the test programs

Run server

The server constantly listens on 2 ports. The serving_port is for answering the site requests, the command_port is for answering/executing basic commands. Implemented commands are STATS which returns time_running | pages_sent | bytes_sent and SHUTDOWN which begins the shutdown sequence of the server.

Also, the server needs a directory which will search for the files requested. In my repo, the webSites directory has these files.

Necessary flags:
1. -p <serving_port>
2. -c <command_port>
3. -t <thread_numb> Do not put an unnecessarily big number as it will end up slowing the server due to synchronization overhead
4. -d <server_directory>

For example a run command of my repo would be:
./myhttpd -p 8085 -c 9095 -t 4 -d /home/users/.../threadPoolWebServer/webSites/
(Care, on the directory we need the last /)

In the Makefile you can also see a runServer rule. You can use that too, if you adjust properly the SERVING_PORT, COMMAND_PORT, WEB_SERVER_THREADS, ROOT_DIR.

Running tests on the server

The simplest test would be to open your browser and go to:
http://localhost:<serving_port>/<path_to_the_site_from_server_directory>
e.x.: http://localhost:8085/site2/page2_1667.html/
As you can see thw webServer will not serve any page. Just only the ones being saved in the root_directory.
Or you can use the siteReq test program located in the webServerTests directory.

Test programs execution:
1. siteReq: ./siteReq <host> <serving_port> <file_requested>
2. stats: ./stats <host> <command_port>
3. shutdown ./shutdown <host> <command_port>

I suggest as a host to put localhost. For remote access, although possible the firewall will block it.

These executions can also be called by the commands make runSiteReq, make runStats, make runShutdown.
Care when you adjust the REQ_SITE variable in the Makefile.

webcreator.sh

A simple shell script which will create our <server_directory>.
It creates w websites and each website has p pages.

./webcreator.sh <base_directory> <text_file> <w> <p>
e.x. ./webcreator.sh webSites text 5 5

<base_directory> : A file preferably located in the starting directory of this repo. Must already exist before executing the shell.
<text_file> : A sample text file that we use to create the HTML files. My repository has the Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/164
(If you want to put your text file, in order for the script to work you should put something with 10.000 lines or more).
<w> : Number of websites created
<p> : Number of pages each website has