pixelsnow / 42_webserv

This project is about writing your own HTTP server.

Webserv

This project is about writing your own HTTP server.

• Setting up the server for basic reading and writing operations
  • set up the server socket, bind it to a port, and start listening for incoming connections. When a connection is accepted, it should spawn a new thread to handle the connection
• Parsing what we exchange with the clients (i.e. messages)

  • Reading the Request from the socket using a function like recv()

  • Parsing the Request Line: The first line of the request is the request line, which contains the HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.), the request target (usually a URL or file path), and the HTTP version. For example, parsing the request line GET /index.html HTTP/1.1, to extract HTTP method GET, the request target /index.html, and the HTTP version HTTP/1.1

  • Parsing the Headers: After the request line, the request contains several headers, which provide additional information about the request. These are formatted as Name: Value.

  • Parsing the Body: If the request is a POST request, it will have a body after the headers. This will contain the data for the file upload.

• Implementing logic to handle different HTTP methods, process requests, and generate appropriate responses
  • Handle GET Request with the requested file path from parsing:
    • Locate the file on the disk
    • Read the file into memory
    • Send the file over the connection
  • Handle POST Request with the file data and the destination file path from parsing:
    • Write the file data to the specified file on the disk
    • Send a response confirming the upload
• CGI handling
  • Implement support for executing CGI scripts and returning their output in the HTTP response
• Configuration files
• Testing:
  • default basic files to test and demonstrate every feature works
  • script(s) to check CGI
  • simple website to test the server
• Logging (Optional):
  • to log everything happened in the server

Resources

Networking

• Beej's Guide to Network Programming
• webserv: Building a Non-Blocking Web Server in C++
• Socket Programming in C
• Explores epoll
• Using poll() instead of select()

HTTP

• RFC 9112 - HTTP/1.1
• RFC 9110 - HTTP Semantics
• How the web works: HTTP and CGI explained

General

• https://github.com/Bima42/webserv
• https://github.com/Kaydooo/Webserv_42
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10631933/nginx-static-file-serving-confusion-with-root-alias

CGI

• C++ Web Programming