WEBSERVER

Webserver is a 42 Wolfsburg curriculum project which is written using C++, Python for CGI scripts and HTML for basic webpages.

What is Webserver?

The project is about writing an HTTP server in C++ 98 and learning about the primary function of a web server, which is to store, process and serve webpages to to clients. Communication between client and server is done using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) --> listening to clients HTTP requests for files and returning them back to the client.
The web browser initiates communication by requesting a specific resource using HTTP, and the server responds with the content of that resource or an error message if it is unable to do so.

How does the Client acces the webserver?

Client can access the webserver using a localhost and the port that is specified by the webserver. For it to work the webserver first has to be running in the background.

How to run the webserver

• Clone the repository git clone git@github.com:RanniSch/Webserv.git ./the_name_of_your_choice
• cd into the repository cd the_name_of_your_choice
• cd into the simplified-serv cd simplified-serv
• Run the command make
• Run webserver ./webserv [path of config file]
• Open the browser and type in localhost:8000
• You can test different scenarios by localhost:8000/[different scenarios] f.e. localhost:8000/upload.html

Prerequisites

• The server is serving a fully static website
• The GET, POST and DELETE methods are implemented.
• Clients can upload files.
• The HTTP response status codes are correct
• The server has default error pages if none are provided
• The server can listen on multiple ports
• The server is compatible with the Firefox and Chrome web browsers.
• The program takes a configuration file as an argument or uses a default path
• The program is non-blocking and uses only 1 poll() (or equivalent) for all I/O operations between the client and the server (including listening).
• poll() checks reads and writes at the same time
• Every read or write goes through poll()
• A request to the server will never hang forever
• NGINX is HTTP 1.1 compliant

Configuration File

In the configuration file, you can

• Choose the port and host of each 'server'.
• Set the server_names or not
• Set default error pages
• Limit client body size
• Set up routes with one or more rules/configurations

Various configuration files and default base files for testing and demonstrating each feature are provided.