Simple static HTTP file server

Serves files from a given path. Uses Node streams for low memory usage and no dependencies on third party modules.

Clone

git clone https://github.com/varadero/http-fs.git

cd http-fs

Install

npm install

Build

The source code is written in TypeScript so it must be build before use:

npm run build

Application files can be found in dist folder

Samples

Serve path ./dist at http://localhost with default file index.html with sample log output:

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path ./dist --log-events

Serve absolutely specified directory

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path "c:/some/path/to/web files"

Serve relatively specified directory

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path ./dist

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path ../../webapp

Serve with Windows-style envionment variable in the path

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path %WEBAPP_FOLDER%

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path ../../webapps/%WEBAPP_NAME%/dist

Serve without default file so trying to access a folder will result in HTTP 404 Not Found:

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --default-file-name ""

Serve with directory content listing

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --directory-listing

Serve specified file if requested is not found. Can be used for SPA applications so when the browser is refreshed while at some route URL, the application will be loaded from specified HTML file keeping the URL in the browser

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --not-found-file ./index.html

Serve at specific IP and port

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --host 192.168.0.1 --port 12345

Serve with HTTPS using internal self-signed certificate

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --use-ssl

Serve with HTTPS specifying certificate .pem files (you can create .pem files using openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -new -nodes -x509 -days 3650 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem)

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --use-ssl --ssl-cert-file "C:\path\to\certificate files\cert.pem" --ssl-key-file "C:\path\to\certificate files\key.pem"

Serve with MIME map overwrites provided as JSON file

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --mime-map-file path/to/mime-map.json

Serve with MIME map overwrites provided as argument (js:text/plain overwriting exiting js:application/javascript and added htm:text/html)

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --mime-map "{\"js\":\"text/plain\",\"htm\":\"text/html\"}"

Serve with MIME map disabling ttf files ("ttf":"")

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --mime-map "{\"ttf\":\"\"}"

Serve with MIME map disabling all non-specified files ("*":"")

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --mime-map "{\"*\":\"\"}"

Serve with 2 custom headers added (permissions-policy and X-Some-Name)

node path/to/http-fs/dist/index.js --path ./dist --response-header "permissions-policy:geolocation=(),microphone=(),camera=(),magnetometer=(),gyroscope=(),fullscreen=(self),payment=()" --response-header "X-Some-Name:some value"

Command line parameters

--path - Root path to be served. Can be either relative or absolute. Defaults to . (if not provided, current directory will be served). Can contain only Windows-style (%NAME%) environment variables.
--host - Host or IP at which to listen. Defaults to 127.0.0.1.
--port - Port at which to listen. Defaults to 80 if --use-ssl is not provided and 443 if --use-ssl is provided.
--directory-listing - Will show directory content.
--default-file-name - The default file name to serve if the URL is a folder. Defaults to index.html. To switch off default file serving, set it to empty string inside quotes - --default-file-name "". Will be ignored if --directory-listing is provided
--not-found-file - The file which must be served in case the requested file cannot be found. Can contain environment variables.
--use-ssl - If provided, files will be served over HTTPS. If optional --ssl-cert-file and ssl-key-file are not provided, internal self-signed certificate will be used.
--ssl-cert-file - Points to a file containing the certificate. Can contain environment variables. If provided, --ssl-key-file must also be provided.
--ssl-key-file - Points to a file containing the certificate key. Can contain environment variables. If provided, --ssl-cert-file must also be provided.
--mime-map-file - Points to a JSON file containing MIME map. Can contain only Windows-style (%NAME%) environment variables.
--mime-map - JSON (special characters like double quotes must be escaped - \") representing MIME map of file extensions (without the dot in front of the extension) and HTTP Content-Type header value. The entries in the default MIME map with the same key as these provided in --mime-map will be overwritten. Defaults to empty JSON. Default MIME map contains the following entries:

{
    "css": "text/css",
    "gif": "image/gif",
    "html": "text/html",
    "ico": "image/x-icon",
    "jpeg": "image/jpeg",
    "jpg": "image/jpeg",
    "js": "application/javascript",
    "json": "application/json",
    "otf": "font/otf",
    "png": "image/png",
    "svg": "image/svg+xml",
    "ttf": "font/ttf",
    "txt": "text/plain",
    "woff": "font/woff",
    "woff2": "font/woff2",
    ".": "application/octet-stream",
    "*": "application/octet-stream"
}

--log-events - Logs some of the request and response events
--response-header - Adds specified response header to success responses (this excludes HTTP 404's for example). The value after this parameter should be enclosed in quotes and must contain the header name and its value in format header-name:value - the name of the header followed by : followed by the value. Multiple --response-header can be added in case multiple response headers are needed

MIME map specifics

Files without extensions are referenced with . map
File extensions not specified are referenced with * map
All file extensions that map to empty content type will not be served (404 Not Found will be returned). The logic for finding content type is the following: If the file extension exists in the mapping - use its content type, if it doesn't exists - use content type specified in * map
If all not specified file extesions must be disabled, set * map to empty string. This will constrain http-fs to serve only file extensions specified in the MIME map (which does not map to empty strings)