Webserv

Introduction

A lightweight, HTTP/1.1 compliant web server built in C++17 for educational purposes as part of the 42 school curriculum.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Project structure
• Quick start
• Configuration

Features

• HTTP/1.1 Protocol: RFC 9110/9112 compliant
• HTTP Methods: GET, POST, DELETE support
• Static File Serving: HTML, CSS, JS, images, etc.
• Directory Listings: Automatic index generation
• File Uploads: Multipart form data handling
• Custom Error Pages: With fallback defaults
• Configuration System: Nginx-style config parsing
• Virtual Hosts: Multiple server support
• Location Blocks: Routing with method restrictions
• Chunked Transfer: Request body support
• Connection Management: Keep-alive and timeout handling
• Event-Driven I/O: Epoll-based architecture
• Security: Path traversal protection
• Logging: Basic request/error logging
• CGI Support: Dynamic script execution

Project structure

webserv/
├── includes/          # Header files
│   └── *.hpp
├── srcs/              # Source files
│   ├── Config/        # Configuration system
│   ├── main.cpp       # Server entry point
│   └── *.cpp
├── docs/              # Static web content
│   └── fusion_web/    # Demo website
├── tests/             # Unit tests
└── Makefile           # Build system

Demo website structure

docs/fusion_web/
├── index.html          # Main landing page
├── style.css           # Shared stylesheet
├── tours/              # Static content example
├── uploads/            # File upload destination
├── cgi-bin/            # CGI scripts
│   ├── time.py         # Python CGI example
│   └── hello.py        # Simple CGI demo
└── error_pages/        # Custom error pages
    └── 404.html

Quick start

Prerequisites

• C++17 compatible compiler.
• Make build system.
• Linux/Unix environment.

Building

# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd webserv

# Build the server
make

# Build with tests (optional)
make test-unit

Running

# Start server with default configuration
./webserv

# Start server with config file
./webserv [path/to-config-file.conf]

# View logs
tail -f logs/webserv.log

# Test manually
curl http://localhost:8002/
curl -X POST -F "[email protected]" http://localhost:8002/uploads/

Configuration

Basic server block:

server {
    listen 8002;
    server_name localhost;
    root docs/fusion_web/;
    index index.html;
    error_page 404 error_pages/404.html;

    location / {
        allow_methods GET POST DELETE;
    }

    location /uploads {
        allow_methods GET POST;
        autoindex on;
    }

    location /cgi-bin {
        allow_methods GET POST;
        cgi_path /usr/bin/python3 /bin/bash;
        cgi_ext .py .sh;
    }
}

Configuration directives Server directives:

• listen: Port number to bind to
• server_name: Virtual host names
• host: IP address
• root: Document root directory
• index: Default file to serve
• error_page: Custom error page mappings

Location directives:

• allow_methods: Permitted HTTP methods
• autoindex: Enable/disable directory listings
• return: HTTP redirect configuration
• cgi_path: CGI interpreter paths
• cgi_ext: CGI file extensions

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Developed by

• Julia Persidskaia
• Mark Byrne
• Johannes Rimpiläinen