📖 Webserv

A C++ High Performance Web Server

About · Usage · Testing

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"This is when you finally understand why a URL starts with HTTP"

About

Webserv is a project of the mandatory part of the cursus that I made with my friend [Helene Herin][2].

It's only made in C++ and was about creating a web server able to handle one of the most famous web protocol, HTTP 1.1. Our program is working with a configuration file, so you can setup the port, some routes, the allowed methods and some other basic paramaters for a webserver.
It's build based on UNIX sockets, and since it's an HTTP server you can access web pages using your favorite browser.

Our server handles the following HTTP features :

• The basics of HTTP protocol (status line / request line, a few headers, and payload).
• GET, POST and DELETE methods.
• HTTP response status codes (200, 404, ...).
• Error pages for the appropriate status code.
• CGI, like rendering a .php file in your browser thanks to php-cgi for example.

Understanding the configuration file

Webserv need a configuration file that will be loaded at the beginning of the program, setting up all the necessary parameters. It works in a similar way than Nginx configuration file.
It will allow you to setup the following parameters :

• server -- to define several virtual servers (with multiple server blocks).
• server_name -- to identify a specific server block thanks to host header.
• listen -- to configure on which port the server will be listening (only one listen per server block).
• error -- to set a path for custom error pages.
• location -- to set parameters for a specific route.
• index -- to serve a default file if none match the requested URI.
• root -- to route the requested URI to another directory.
• upload_path -- to set a specific directory for upload requests.
• autoindex -- to list all files present in the targeted directory.
• allow_method -- to define the allowed methods for HTTP requests.
• cgi -- to configure a cgi to execute for a specific file extenstion (php-cgi for .php files for example).

Here is a short example of a configuration file, where webserv will :

• ✅ : serve requests made on port 8080.
• ✅ : have custom error pages stored in ./webserv/www/errors/test_changing_path directory.
• ✅ : route any requests made to /cgi/* to /www/tests/test_cgi directory.
• ✅ : execute /cgi/*.php files with php-cgi program.
• ✅ : accept only POST requests for URIs targeting /post.

You can fing more examples in conf directory. www is a directory which allow you to test some cases / requests. If testing with your broser, use the browser*.conf files.

Building and running the project

1. Download/Clone this repo

    git clone https://github.com/lxu-wu/42_webserv
   

2. cd into the root directory and run make

    cd 42_webserv
    make
   

3. Run webserv with a configuration file.

   ./webserv conf/browser.conf
   

4. Make curl request to webserv without omitting host header.

    curl -H "host:localhost" http://localhost:8080/cgi/hello_world.php
   

5. Access web pages using your browser.

   # Example of a valid URI to request with a browser, with the config file from step 3
   http://localhost:8080/cgi/index.php