A very simple HTTP server in C, for Unix, using fork()

ABOUT.md

Pico HTTP Server in C

This is a very simple HTTP server for Unix, using fork(). It's very easy to use

How to use

1. include header httpd.h
2. write your route method, handling requests.
3. call serve_forever("12913") to start serving on port 12913

See main.c, an interesting example.

To log stuff, use fprintf(stderr, "message");

View httpd.h for more information

based on http://blog.abhijeetr.com/2010/04/very-simple-http-server-writen-in-c.html

httpd.c

#include "httpd.h"

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <signal.h>

#define CONNMAX 1000

static int listenfd, clients[CONNMAX];
static void error(char *);
static void startServer(const char *);
static void respond(int);

typedef struct { char *name, *value; } header_t;
static header_t reqhdr[17] = { {"\0", "\0"} };
static int clientfd;

static char *buf;

void serve_forever(const char *PORT)
{
    struct sockaddr_in clientaddr;
    socklen_t addrlen;
    char c;    
    
    int slot=0;
    
    printf(
            "Server started %shttp://127.0.0.1:%s%s\n",
            "\033[92m",PORT,"\033[0m"
            );

    // Setting all elements to -1: signifies there is no client connected
    int i;
    for (i=0; i<CONNMAX; i++)
        clients[i]=-1;
    startServer(PORT);
    
    // Ignore SIGCHLD to avoid zombie threads
    signal(SIGCHLD,SIG_IGN);

    // ACCEPT connections
    while (1)
    {
        addrlen = sizeof(clientaddr);
        clients[slot] = accept (listenfd, (struct sockaddr *) &clientaddr, &addrlen);

        if (clients[slot]<0)
        {
            perror("accept() error");
        }
        else
        {
            if ( fork()==0 )
            {
                respond(slot);
                exit(0);
            }
        }

        while (clients[slot]!=-1) slot = (slot+1)%CONNMAX;
    }
}

//start server
void startServer(const char *port)
{
    struct addrinfo hints, *res, *p;

    // getaddrinfo for host
    memset (&hints, 0, sizeof(hints));
    hints.ai_family = AF_INET;
    hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
    hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE;
    if (getaddrinfo( NULL, port, &hints, &res) != 0)
    {
        perror ("getaddrinfo() error");
        exit(1);
    }
    // socket and bind
    for (p = res; p!=NULL; p=p->ai_next)
    {
        int option = 1;
        listenfd = socket (p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype, 0);
        setsockopt(listenfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &option, sizeof(option));
        if (listenfd == -1) continue;
        if (bind(listenfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == 0) break;
    }
    if (p==NULL)
    {
        perror ("socket() or bind()");
        exit(1);
    }

    freeaddrinfo(res);

    // listen for incoming connections
    if ( listen (listenfd, 1000000) != 0 )
    {
        perror("listen() error");
        exit(1);
    }
}


// get request header
char *request_header(const char* name)
{
    header_t *h = reqhdr;
    while(h->name) {
        if (strcmp(h->name, name) == 0) return h->value;
        h++;
    }
    return NULL;
}

//client connection
void respond(int n)
{
    int rcvd, fd, bytes_read;
    char *ptr;

    buf = malloc(65535);
    rcvd=recv(clients[n], buf, 65535, 0);

    if (rcvd<0)    // receive error
        fprintf(stderr,("recv() error\n"));
    else if (rcvd==0)    // receive socket closed
        fprintf(stderr,"Client disconnected upexpectedly.\n");
    else    // message received
    {
        buf[rcvd] = '\0';

        method = strtok(buf,  " \t\r\n");
        uri    = strtok(NULL, " \t");
        prot   = strtok(NULL, " \t\r\n"); 

        fprintf(stderr, "\x1b[32m + [%s] %s\x1b[0m\n", method, uri);
        
        if (qs = strchr(uri, '?'))
        {
            *qs++ = '\0'; //split URI
        } else {
            qs = uri - 1; //use an empty string
        }

        header_t *h = reqhdr;
        char *t, *t2;
        while(h < reqhdr+16) {
            char *k,*v,*t;
            k = strtok(NULL, "\r\n: \t"); if (!k) break;
            v = strtok(NULL, "\r\n");     while(*v && *v==' ') v++;
            h->name  = k;
            h->value = v;
            h++;
            fprintf(stderr, "[H] %s: %s\n", k, v);
            t = v + 1 + strlen(v);
            if (t[1] == '\r' && t[2] == '\n') break;
        }
        t++; // now the *t shall be the beginning of user payload
        t2 = request_header("Content-Length"); // and the related header if there is  
        payload = t;
        payload_size = t2 ? atol(t2) : (rcvd-(t-buf));

        // bind clientfd to stdout, making it easier to write
        clientfd = clients[n];
        dup2(clientfd, STDOUT_FILENO);
        close(clientfd);

        // call router
        route();

        // tidy up
        fflush(stdout);
        shutdown(STDOUT_FILENO, SHUT_WR);
        close(STDOUT_FILENO);
    }

    //Closing SOCKET
    shutdown(clientfd, SHUT_RDWR);         //All further send and recieve operations are DISABLED...
    close(clientfd);
    clients[n]=-1;
}

httpd.h

#ifndef _HTTPD_H___
#define _HTTPD_H___

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>

//Server control functions

void serve_forever(const char *PORT);

// Client request

char    *method,    // "GET" or "POST"
        *uri,       // "/index.html" things before '?'
        *qs,        // "a=1&b=2"     things after  '?'
        *prot;      // "HTTP/1.1"

char    *payload;     // for POST
int      payload_size;

char *request_header(const char* name);

// user shall implement this function

void route();

// some interesting macro for `route()`
#define ROUTE_START()       if (0) {
#define ROUTE(METHOD,URI)   } else if (strcmp(URI,uri)==0&&strcmp(METHOD,method)==0) {
#define ROUTE_GET(URI)      ROUTE("GET", URI) 
#define ROUTE_POST(URI)     ROUTE("POST", URI) 
#define ROUTE_END()         } else printf(\
                                "HTTP/1.1 500 Not Handled\r\n\r\n" \
                                "The server has no handler to the request.\r\n" \
                            );

#endif

main.c

#include "httpd.h"

int main(int c, char** v)
{
    serve_forever("12913");
    return 0;
}

void route()
{
    ROUTE_START()

    ROUTE_GET("/")
    {
        printf("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n\r\n");
        printf("Hello! You are using %s", request_header("User-Agent"));
    }

    ROUTE_POST("/")
    {
        printf("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n\r\n");
        printf("Wow, seems that you POSTed %d bytes. \r\n", payload_size);
        printf("Fetch the data using `payload` variable.");
    }
  
    ROUTE_END()
}

Makefile

all: server

clean:
	@rm -rf *.o
	@rm -rf server

server: main.o httpd.o
	gcc -o server $^

main.o: main.c httpd.h
	gcc -c -o main.o main.c

httpd.o: httpd.c httpd.h
	gcc -c -o httpd.o httpd.c

There might be a little overflow error while reading the header:
if "recv" recieves the complete buffer size of 65535, "rcvd" will be set to 65535, so:

"buf[rcvd] = '\0';"

would cause an overflow.

Hi! Greate job.

It would be great, that you resolve a small memory leak from buf variable.

You can just add one line, at the end of respond function like

free(buf);

Hi, I am pretty busy with another project right now, but I am happy for you to do contribute the change. Can you do a pull Request? Glen.

…

------Original Mail------ From: "Juan Mesaglio" <notifications@github.com> To: "laobubu" <laobubu@noreply.github.com>, "Glen Kleidon" <glenk@galkam.com.au>, "Comment" <comment@noreply.github.com> Sent: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 10:01:04 -0700 Subject: Re: laobubu/ABOUT.md Hi! Greate job. It would be great, that you resolve a small memory leak from `buf` variable. You can just add one line, at the end of `respond` function like ```c free(buf); ```

-- You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://gist.github.com/d6d0e9beb934b60b2e552c2d03e1409e#gistcomment-3509140

Sure! PRs are welcomed :) Glen Kleidon <notifications@github.com> 于2020年10月30日周五 上午10:05写道：

…

***@***.**** commented on this gist. ------------------------------ Hi, I am pretty busy with another project right now, but I am happy for you to do contribute the change. Can you do a pull Request? Glen. ------Original Mail------ From: "Juan Mesaglio" ***@***.***> To: "laobubu" ***@***.***>, "Glen Kleidon" ***@***.***>, "Comment" ***@***.***> Sent: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 10:01:04 -0700 Subject: Re: laobubu/ABOUT.md Hi! Greate job. It would be great, that you resolve a small memory leak from `buf` variable. You can just add one line, at the end of `respond` function like ```c free(buf); ``` -- You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://gist.github.com/d6d0e9beb934b60b2e552c2d03e1409e#gistcomment-3509140 — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/d6d0e9beb934b60b2e552c2d03e1409e#gistcomment-3509694>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAKPNWXPLBQAH6VMBFC33BDSNINP3ANCNFSM4HG523CA> .

\r\n? Unix?

It's not about Unix. That is the standard for http. You can send http messages from any device, AFAIK the standard only specifies message formatting and TCP connections.

Fair comment. From: Villain_Mahil <notifications@github.com> Sent: Monday, 15 February 2021 1:58 PM To: laobubu <laobubu@noreply.github.com> Cc: Glen Kleidon <glenk@galkam.com.au>; Comment <comment@noreply.github.com> Subject: Re: laobubu/ABOUT.md @VillainMahil commented on this gist.

…

_____ \r\n? Unix? It's not about Unix. That is the standard for http — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/d6d0e9beb934b60b2e552c2d03e1409e#gistcomment-3631438> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AE6JMP7JT2LTAXGJNQJB7HTS7CEUHANCNFSM4HG523CA> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AE6JMP4CO7PGIX6KZRKKKCLS7CEUHA5CNFSM4HG523CKYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVNDWS43UINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQAG5UU4.gif>

Hi, thank you for this code!
I was able to get it working on a Raspberry, using VS2019 with remote debug. But there are 2 things that needs to be corrected for a successful compile.

First: in line 131, buf = malloc(65535); -malloc needs casting. This line should be:
buf = (char *) malloc(65535);

Second: there are variables declared in the header that causes "multiple declared" errors in the linker. This should be avoided by copiying those variables into the c file, while adding "extern" to them in the header.

So these should be in the first part of the c file:

char* method,    // "GET" or "POST"
* uri,       // "/index.html" things before '?'
* qs,        // "a=1&b=2"     things after  '?'
* prot;      // "HTTP/1.1"

char* payload;     // for POST
int      payload_size;

While line 12..18 in the header should be:

extern char* method,    // "GET" or "POST"
* uri,       // "/index.html" things before '?'
* qs,        // "a=1&b=2"     things after  '?'
* prot;      // "HTTP/1.1"

extern char* payload;     // for POST
extern int      payload_size;

another thing to note: make sure to flush stdout before calling serve_forever.