Server large files with a stream.

static_server.js

var http = require("http"),
    url = require("url"),
    path = require("path"),
    fs = require("fs")
    port = process.argv[2] || 8888;

http.createServer(function(request, response) {

  var uri = url.parse(request.url).pathname
    , filename = path.join(process.cwd(), uri);

  path.exists(filename, function(exists) {
    if(!exists) {
      response.writeHead(404, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
      response.write("404 Not Found\n");
      response.end();
      return;
    }


    fs.stat(filename, function(error, stat) {
      if (error) { throw error; }

      response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Length' : stat.size });

      var readStream = fs.createReadStream(filename);

      readStream.on('open', function () {
        // This just pipes the read stream to the response object (which goes to the client)
        readStream.pipe(response);
      });

      readStream.on('error', function(err) {
        response.end(err);
      });

    });


  });
}).listen(parseInt(port, 10));

console.log("Static file server running at\n  => http://localhost:" + port + "/\nCTRL + C to shutdown");