*****Simple HTTP Web Server*****
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Author: Gaurav Tungatkar
Description:
A simple HTTP server written in C, using sockets, that serves static web pages.
Along with the server engine, some additional utilities like the fileparser,
connection handler, tokenizer that may be helpful later in other projects.
Code organization and directory structure:
Project1
|__ src - All .c source files in this directory
|__ include - All header files in this directory
|_Makefile, config.txt - These files at the same level
tokenize.c -utility function to separate a line into tokens
fileparser.c -utility function to parse a file line by line
http_config.c -Handles reading of config file, error checking and populating
in-memory config object.
http_server.c -Main http server engine
listener.c -Connection handler routine
Instructions to compile:
1. Go to base project folder Project1.
2. make
Instructions to run:
1. From Project1 folder
./obj/http_server [config_file]
Config file path is optional. It may be specified at the command line.
If not provided, following assumptions hold:-
a. config.txt located in Project1 directory is the default config file
b. The config.txt file must be located in the cwd(current working
directory from which server is run)
Technique to handle concurrent requests:
A new process is "fork"ed on receiving a request. The newly forked server
instance then processes this request, while the original process keeps listening
for new connections. Though fork can be costly, it allows a simpler model of
implementation without needing locking(in case of threads), etc.
However, the implementation is modular enough so that a pthread based
server can be implemented with minimal change.
Limitations:
Client may send requests in HTTP/1.0 or HTTP/1.1 version. However, server response is always HTTP/1.0
This folows the Robustness principle given in rfc 2145 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2145.txt
Logging:
Logs can be turned off by defining TRACE to be 0 in log.h at compile time.
All logs are currently directed to stdout.