web_server

• A small, POSIX-oriented HTTP web server written in C++98 (epoll-based event loop). This project implements a minimal but featureful HTTP server with support for:

• Level-triggered epoll-based event loop and file descriptor management

• HTTP parsing and response generation

• CGI script handling (for dynamic content)

• Multipart/form-data parsing (file uploads)

• Custom configuration and error pages

• Simple test pages and CGI test scripts in test/

This README explains how to build, run and extend the server. More design details are available in the docs/ folder.

Quick start

Requirements

• C++98 toolchain (g++/clang++)
• make (a Makefile is included)
• Linux (the server uses epoll)

Build

1. From the project root run:

   make

   This will build the project using the provided Makefile. If your environment differs, you can build the binary manually by inspecting the Makefile or compiling src/ files directly.

Run

1. After building, run the produced binary. The Makefile typically generates an executable in the project root (check the output of make). For example:

   ./webserv # or the executable name produced by your build

2. The server reads its configuration from configs/default.conf by default. Update that file to change the listening port, document root and other settings.

3. Open a browser and visit http://localhost:/ where <port> is the port set in your configs/default.conf.

Configuration

Configuration files live in the configs/ directory. The default server configuration is configs/default.conf.

Error pages are stored in configs/error_pages/ (for example 404.html). You can customize the error pages there.

Project layout

• src/ — C++ source files. Main server code and feature implementations.
  • server/ — event loop, epoll integration, socket and server bootstrap code.
  • http/ — HTTP parser, request/response handling and multipart parsing.
  • cgi/ — CGI handling implementation.
  • Config/, error_pages/, Routing/, utils/ — supporting components.
• include/ — public headers for the project (mirrors src/ structure).
• configs/ — configuration files and default error pages.
• docs/ — design and implementation notes (read these to understand architecture and event loop choices).
• test/ — test HTML pages and CGI test scripts used for manual testing.
• www/ — example static site files used as a document root in tests.
• sessions/ — Python helper files for session/cookie experiments (not required for the server binary itself).

Tests and manual checks

There are simple manual test pages under test/ and test/cgi_scripts/:

• test/test.html and test/upload.html — quick pages to verify static serving and multipart uploads.
• test/cgi_scripts/ — small CGI scripts (Python and C) used to test CGI handling.

To test:

1. Start the server.
2. Point your browser at the test pages or use curl to exercise endpoints, uploads, and CGI scripts.

Example:

curl -v http://localhost:8080/test/test.html

Development notes

• The event loop is implemented in src/server/EventLoop.cpp and uses Epoll and FdManager helpers.
• HTTP parsing and request routing is implemented in src/http/ and src/Routing/.
• CGI handling forks and attaches standard streams to handle dynamic scripts; check src/cgi/CGIHandler.cpp and corresponding headers in include/cgi/.
• See docs/ for architecture rationale (level-triggered vs edge-triggered epoll, event loop design, etc.).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Suggested workflow:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch.
3. Add tests or manual instructions demonstrating the behavior.
4. Open a pull request describing the change and reasoning.

Please keep changes small and focused. If you change public headers in include/, update callers and add brief tests or usage examples.

TODOs & improvements

• Add an automated unit / integration test suite.
• Add CI build configuration (GitHub Actions) to build and run quick smoke tests.

License

MIT license is included in this repository.

---

For a deep dive into the design and implementation, see the files in docs/ (particularly IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md and EVENT_LOOP_ARCHITECTURE.md).