webserv - HTTP Server in C++98

A custom HTTP server implementation written in C++98 for the 42 project. basically we built our own web server from scratch that can handle multiple connections, serve files, run CGI scripts and more.

Features

what it can do

• serve static files (HTML, CSS, JS, images, etc)
• handle GET, POST, and DELETE methods
• execute CGI scripts (PHP, Python, whatever)
• upload files from clients
• directory listing (like when you browse a folder)
• multiple virtual hosts on different ports
• custom error pages
• HTTP redirections
• configurable request body size limits
• keep-alive connections with timeout

everything runs non-blocking with epoll so the server doesn't freeze when handling multiple clients.

Requirements

• C++ compiler that supports C++98
• Unix-like system
• Make
• optional: php-cgi, python or other CGI stuff if you want dynamic content

installation

pretty straightforward:

git clone https://github.com/01-kali/Webserv.git
cd Webserv
#change "~/Webserv" inside ./tests/website.conf with the actual path 
make

if you want to clean up:

make clean    # removes object files
make fclean   # removes everything including the executable
make re       # rebuild from scratch

Configuration

we use config files similar to nginx. heres an example:

usage

basic stuff

# start the server
./webserv tests/website.conf

# test it with curl
curl http://localhost:8080/

# upload a file
echo test > example.txt
curl -X POST -F "file=@example.txt" http://localhost:8080/upload

using a browser

just open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:8080

testing CGI

1. put your script in the CGI directory
2. make sure its executable
3. access it:

http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/script.php

CGI execution

when a CGI script needs to run, we:

1. fork a child process
2. setup pipes for stdin/stdout communication
3. exec the interpreter (php-cgi, python, etc)
4. pass the request body through stdin
5. read the response from stdout
6. parse CGI headers and send everything to client

the whole thing is non-blocking with a 60 second timeout.

testing

manual tests

# static files
curl http://localhost:8080/index.html

# directory listing
curl http://localhost:8080/images/

# POST request
curl -X POST -d "data=test" http://localhost:8080/upload

# CGI script
curl http://localhost:8080/cgi-bin/info.php

stress testing

use siege or apache bench:

# apache bench - 1000 requests, 10 concurrent
ab -n 1000 -c 10 http://localhost:8080/

# siege
siege -c 50 -r 100 http://127.0.0.1:8080/

known issues / limitations

• only supports HTTP/1.0
• no HTTPS
• CGI scripts timeout after 60 seconds
• max URI length: 1024 chars
• max header line: 1024 chars

error codes we handle

• 400 - bad request (malformed HTTP)
• 403 - forbidden (permission denied)
• 404 - not found
• 405 - method not allowed
• 408 - request timeout
• 413 - payload too large
• 414 - URI too long
• 500 - internal server error
• 501 - not implemented
• 503 - service unavailable

authors

iboutadg yait-lhi zelkalai