A simple no-dependency script I use for serving static files. Very useful for viewing html docs.

serve.js

#!/usr/bin/env node
var http = require('http')
  , path = require('path')
  , url  = require('url')
  , fs   = require('fs')
  , base = path.resolve(process.argv[2] || '.')
  , port = process.argv[3] || 8080

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  var requrl    = url.parse(req.url).pathname
    , pathname  = path.join(base,requrl)

  fs.stat(pathname, function(err, stat){
    if(err){
      error(err, res)

    }
    else if(stat.isDirectory()){
      fs.readdir(pathname, function(err, dir){
        var index = dir.indexOf('index.html') !== -1
        if(err){
          error(err, res)
        }
        else if(index){
          res.statusCode = 302
          res.setHeader('Location',path.join(requrl, 'index.html'))
          res.end()
  //        servefile(res, path.join(requrl, 'index.html'))
        }
        else{
          dir.forEach(function(file){
            res.write('<div><a href="' + path.join(requrl, file) + '">' + file + '</a></div>')
          })
          res.end()
        }
      })
    }
    else{
      servefile(res, pathname)
    }
  })
}).listen(port);

function error(err, res){
  res.status = 404
  res.end('<h4>404</h4><p>' + err.message + '</p><pre>' + err.stack + '</pre>')
  return
}

function servefile(res, pathname){
  var ext       = path.extname(pathname)
  res.setHeader('Content-type', extlookup(ext))
  try{
    var stream = fs.createReadStream(pathname)
  }
  catch(err){
    error(err, res)
    return
  }
  stream.pipe(res)
  stream.on('end', function(){
  })
}

var mime_lookup = {
    '.html': 'text/html'
  , '.json': 'text/json'
  , '.xml': 'text/xml'
  , '.js': 'text/javascript'
  , '.css': 'text/css'
  , '.gif': 'image/gif'
  , '.jpg': 'image/jpeg'
  , '.jpeg': 'image/jpeg'
  , '.png': 'image/png'
}

function extlookup(ext){
  if(ext in mime_lookup){
    return mime_lookup[ext]
  }
  return 'text/plain'
}

console.log(path.resolve(base) + " served on port " + port)