🍿 web server

This is a simple, multi-threaded web server written in C. It's capable of serving static files and handling multiple simultaneous connections.

Features

• Multi-threaded: Handles multiple clients concurrently using POSIX threads.
• Static File Serving: Serves static files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, etc.).
• Configuration: Uses a config.json file for easy configuration of port, backlog, and root directory.
• MIME Type Support: Correctly identifies and serves common file types with the appropriate MIME types.
• Error Handling: Sends appropriate HTTP error codes (400, 404, 500) to the client.

Dependencies

• cJSON: Used for parsing the config.json file. The source code for cJSON is included in the cjson directory.

How to Compile and Run

1. Compile:

   gcc -o server.out server.c server_utils.c cjson/cJSON.c -lpthread

2. Configure: Create a config.json file in the same directory with the following format:

   {
     "port": "8080",
     "backlog": 10,
     "root": "./public"
   }

   • port: The port number for the server to listen on.
   • backlog: The maximum number of pending connections.
   • root: The root directory from which to serve files.

3. Run:

   ./server.out

The server will then be running and listening for connections on the specified port.

Code Structure

• server.c: The main entry point of the application. It sets up the socket, listens for incoming connections, and creates a new thread to handle each client.
• server_utils.h: Header file for the server utility functions.
• server_utils.c: Contains helper functions for the server, including:
  • Socket setup and configuration.
  • Request parsing.
  • Response generation.
  • File handling and MIME type detection.
• cjson/: Contains the cJSON library for parsing JSON.
• public/: The default root directory for serving static files.
• config.json: Configuration file for the server.