Zig HTTP Server

A simple, multithreaded HTTP server written from scratch in Zig.

This project is an educational exercise to build a functional HTTP/1.1 server, handling multiple concurrent connections and implementing several common endpoints.

How it Works

The server listens for TCP connections on 127.0.0.1:4221. It uses a thread pool to handle each incoming connection concurrently.

The server can parse HTTP requests, including headers and body, and generate appropriate HTTP responses. It supports GET and POST methods, keep-alive connections, and gzip compression for responses.

Features

• Multithreaded: Handles multiple clients concurrently using a thread pool.
• HTTP/1.1 Parsing: Parses request lines, headers, and bodies.
• Endpoint Routing: Supports the following endpoints:
  • GET /: Returns a simple 200 OK response.
  • GET /echo/{message}: Echoes the message back in the response body.
  • GET /user-agent: Returns the client's User-Agent header in the response body.
  • GET /files/{filename}: Serves a file from a specified directory.
  • POST /files/{filename}: Creates a new file in a specified directory with the content of the request body.
• File Serving: Can serve static files and create new files in a directory provided via a command-line argument.
• Gzip Compression: Compresses response bodies if the client supports it (Accept-Encoding: gzip).

How to Build and Run

You need to have Zig installed to build and run this project.

1. Build the server:

   zig build

2. Run the server:

   The server requires a directory to be specified for file-related endpoints. You can provide it using the --directory flag.

   ./zig-out/bin/zig --directory <path/to/your/directory>

   For example, to use the current directory:

   ./zig-out/bin/zig --directory .

   Alternatively, you can use the provided Makefile for a convenient shortcut:

   make run

   This will build the project and run the server, using the project's root as the file directory.

How to Test

You can use a tool like curl to test the server's endpoints. Make sure the server is running in a separate terminal.

Test the root endpoint:

curl -v http://127.0.0.1:4221/

Test the echo endpoint:

curl -v http://127.0.0.1:4221/echo/hello

Test the user-agent endpoint:

curl -v -A "My-Test-Client" http://127.0.0.1:4221/user-agent

Test file creation (POST):

This command will create a file named test.txt in the directory you specified when running the server.

echo "Hello from a file!" | curl -v --data-binary @- http://127.0.0.1:4221/files/test.txt

Test file retrieval (GET):

This command will retrieve the content of test.txt.

curl -v http://127.0.0.1:4221/files/test.txt

Test gzip compression:

curl -v --compressed http://127.0.0.1:4221/echo/some-long-string-to-compress