WebServ

Project Overview

Webserv is a school project made by group of school mates, the purpose of it was to implement a simple HTTP server inspired by Nginx that runs HTTP 1.1 version, it can server a fully static website, upload files through it and can also handle multiple clients at the same time as well as listen to multiple ports. You can provide the server with a configuration file to direct its behavior.

📝 Note: The project was fully written in C++ 98 programming language.

What I Learned

I was responsible for socket programming and some HTTP response duties.

• Learned to setup sockets of type Stream Sockets, which enables reliable two-way communication streams of two connected programs.
• Learned to do Synchronous I/O Multiplexing using poll() function, which basically let us handle mutiple clients and requests at the same time.
• Learned how to implement POST & DELETE HTTP methods.

How to Use

Run make to compile all necessary files.

make

Then run the executable webserv with a configuration file.

./webserv [configfile]

And that's it you have a running Web Server.

📝 Note: Try to play with already existing config files in ./tests/configfiles/ or script files in ./tests/scripts/.

Configuration File

As I said before our web server was inspired by nginx so our configuration file, we used so called Directives to specify server options.

First and foremost the mandatory directives which are of type group directives.

<HTTP>
	// HTTP holds all virtual servers
	<server>
		// configuration of HTTP virtual server 1  
		<location>
			path=/one
			// configuration for processing URIs starting with '/one'
		<location>
	<server>
	<server>
		// configuration of HTTP virtual server 2  
		<location>
			path=/two
			// configuration for processing URIs starting with '/two'
		<location>
	<server>
<HTTP>

Server Directives	Required	Value	Description
listen	true	ex. 9002	The port you want the server to accept requests from.
host	true	ex. 127.0.0.1	The host IP address you want the server to accept requests from.
server-name	true	ex. example.com	Sets names of a virtual server.
error-pages	false	ex. /../../../../tests/scripts	The absolute path to a directory containing custom HTML error pages.
max-body-size	false	ex. 1024	Sets the maximum allowed size of the client request body.

Location Directives	Required	Value	Description
path	true	ex. /en/docs	Sets the routes for example http://domain-name/en/docs
index	true	ex. index.html	Defines the file that will be used as an index.
root	true	Absolute Path	Sets the root directory for requests.
autoindex	true	on or off	Enables or disables the directory listing output.
return	false	307 or 301 | https://www.facebook.com	Stops processing and returns the specified code to a client.
methods	false	ex. DELETE, POST, GET	Sets allowed HTTP methods for a specific route.
cgi	false	ex. php-cgi	Sets CGI name.
cgi-ext	false	ex. php	Sets file extension that a specific CGI can accept as an input.
upload	false	upload	Sets the route for uploading.

Here's an example of a valid configuration file.

<HTTP>
	<server>
		error-pages=/home/USERNAME/Desktop/webserv/tests/scripts
		max-body-size=4000000
		listen=9002
		host=127.0.0.1
		server-name=example.com
		<location>
			path=/
			index=index.html
			root=/home/USERNAME/Desktop/webserv/tests/scripts/site/Graphic
			return=307 | https://www.facebook.com
			methods=DELETE, POST, GET
			autoindex=on
			cgi=php-cgi
			cgi-ext=php
		<location>
		<location>
			path=/upload
			index=index.html
			root=/home/USERNAME/Desktop/webserv/tests/scripts/site/Graphic
			upload=upload
		<location>
	<server>
<HTTP>

📝 Note: The project has been tested both in 🍏 macOS and 🐧 Linux machines.

Collaborators

• Youssef Noam
• El Hadjaoui Mohamed

Resources

HTTP Theory Stuff:

• Transport Layer | OSI Model
• The HTTP Server Explained
• HTTP Messages
• List of RFCs

Socket Programming:

• Beej's Guide to Network Programming
• SOCKETS - SERVER & CLIENT
• Socket Programming in C/C++

HTTP Server Components:

• HTTP Server: Everything you need to know to Build a simple HTTP server from scratch
• Simple Http Web Server in Linux using C/C++ from Scratch
• HTTP request parser in C
• How does HTTP Deliver a Large File?

Other:

• Understanding the Nginx Configuration File Structure and Configuration Contexts
• Chapter 3: CGI Environment Variables
• Load Testing Web Servers with Siege