darkhttpd

When you need an httpd in a hurry.

darkhttpd-1.7.tar.bz2 (18,208 bytes)

Features:

Simple to set up:
- Single binary, no other files, no installation needed.
- Standalone, doesn't need inetd or ucspi-tcp.
- No messing around with config files - all you have to specify is the www root.
Written in C - efficient and portable.
Small memory footprint.
Event loop, single threaded - no fork() or pthreads.
Generates directory listings.
Supports HTTP GET and HEAD requests.
Supports partial content. (try streaming music files or resuming a download)
Supports If-Modified-Since.
Supports Keep-Alive connections.
Uses sendfile() on FreeBSD, Solaris and Linux.
Can use acceptfilter on FreeBSD.
Tested on FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD, Solaris.
BSD license.

Security:

Can log accesses, including Referer and User-Agent.
Can chroot.
Can drop privileges.
Impervious to /../ sniffing.
Times out idle connections.
Drops overly long requests.

Limitations:

Only serves static content - no CGI.

History:

1.0 - First release.
1.1 - Optimized directory listing generation, report CPU usage on exit, Makefile for the terminally lazy.
1.2 - Code cleanup, report traffic stats on exit.
1.3 - Added --pidfile and --daemon, a number of portability fixes, use sendfile() on Solaris.
1.4 - Fix a segfault in log_connection(). That was dumb of me. &sadface;
1.5 - Minor performance enhancements, less computation, less memory manglement, fewer syscalls, much simpler Makefile.
1.6 - Fix use-after-free bug.
1.7 - In autogenerated directory listings, URL encode links that need it, found and fixed by nf.

Screenshot:

$ make
cc -O2 -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe `[ \`uname\` = "SunOS" ] && echo -lsocket -lnsl` darkhttpd.c -o darkhttpd
$ ./darkhttpd ~/public_html
darkhttpd/1.7, copyright (c) 2003-2008 Emil Mikulic.
listening on 0.0.0.0:80
^C
caught Interrupt: 2, stopping
$ _

A review of darkhttpd appeared in APC magazine (Jan 2007 issue). Big ups to dandaman for spotting it and sending me this scan.