MicroHTTP

MicroHTTP is a minimalist HTTP server written in pure C with no external dependencies.
It's mainly designed for educational purposes or lightweight embedded use cases, allowing you to understand how HTTP servers work under the hood.

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Features

• Supports GET and POST requests
• Custom route handlers
• Parses headers and body manually (no HTTP libraries used)
• Works with plain text and JSON payloads
• Zero external dependencies — just standard C and sockets

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Project Structure

microhttp/
├── microhttp.h       # Public API header
├── microhttp.c       # HTTP server implementation
└── main.c            # Example app using the library

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Build & Run

Compile

gcc main.c microhttp.c -o microhttp_server

Run

./microhttp_server

The server will start and listen on http://localhost:8080.

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Usage Examples

GET Request

curl http://localhost:8080/

POST Request with JSON

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/submit \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"nome":"Marco", "cognome":"Barca"}'

Server response:

Nome: Marco
Cognome: Barca

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Limitations

• Only handles one request at a time (no concurrency)
• No HTTPS (pure HTTP only)
• No routing wildcards or query parameter parsing (yet)
• Only supports simple body formats (text / raw JSON)

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Example: Define Routes

In main.c:

void handle_root(HttpRequest *req, HttpResponse *res) {
    http_send(res, 200, "text/plain", "Welcome to microhttp!");
}

void handle_post(HttpRequest *req, HttpResponse *res) {
    http_send(res, 200, "application/json", "{\"status\":\"ok\"}");
}

int main() {
    http_server_start(8080);
    http_on("GET", "/", handle_root);
    http_on("POST", "/submit", handle_post);
    http_server_run();
}

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Future Ideas

• Multithreading or forking to handle concurrent clients
• Support wildcard routes: /user/:id
• Handle query strings and URL decoding
• Static file serving (HTML, CSS, etc.)

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License

MIT License — free to use, modify and share.