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Simple HTTP Server

Simple static file server with directory listing, upload, basic auth, range requests, compression, CORS, SPA fallback, and optional PKCS#12 HTTPS support.

The current implementation is based on axum/tokio. TLS support is behind the tls feature and is disabled by default so the default binary stays smaller.

Screenshot

Installation

Default build:

cargo install simple-http-server

With PKCS#12 HTTPS support:

cargo install simple-http-server --features tls

Usage

Usage: simple-http-server [OPTIONS] [root] Arguments: [root] Root directory Options: -i, --index Enable automatic render index page [index.html, index.htm] -u, --upload Enable upload files. (multiple select) (CSRF token required) --csrf <TOKEN> Use a custom CSRF token for upload. WARNING: this is dangerous as the token is passed via the command line and may be visible in process listings --redirect <URL> takes a URL to redirect to using HTTP 301 Moved Permanently --nosort Disable directory entries sort (by: name, modified, size) --nocache Disable http cache --norange Disable header::Range support (partial request) --cert <FILE> TLS/SSL certificate (pkcs#12 format, requires tls feature) --cors Enable CORS via the "Access-Control-Allow-Origin" header --coop Add "Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy" HTTP header and set it to "same-origin" --coep Add "Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy" HTTP header and set it to "require-corp" --certpass <PASSWORD> TLS/SSL certificate password (requires tls feature) -l, --upload-size-limit <SIZE> Upload file size limit [bytes, or K/M/G/T suffix interpreted with powers of 1024, such as 30K, 50M, 1G] [default: 8M] --ip <IP> IP address to bind [default: 0.0.0.0] -p, --port <PORT> Port number [default: 8000] -a, --auth <USER:PASS> HTTP Basic Auth (username:password) -c, --compress <EXT>... Enable file compression: gzip/deflate Example: -c=js,d.ts Note: disabled on partial request! -t, --threads <NUM> How many worker threads [default: 3] --try-file <PATH> Serve this file in place of missing paths. Relative paths are resolved against the server root; absolute paths are used as-is. [aliases: --try-file-404] -s, --silent Disable all outputs -o, --open Open the page in the default browser -b, --base-url <PATH> Base URL prefix for directory indexes and upload redirects. It is normalized to start with '/' and to end with '/' when not root. [default: /] -h, --help Print help -V, --version Print version 

Examples

Serve a folder:

simple-http-server -i public

Enable upload and raise the upload limit:

simple-http-server -u -l 50M .

Serve an SPA fallback file:

simple-http-server --try-file dist/index.html dist

Run behind a reverse proxy that strips /static/ before forwarding:

simple-http-server --base-url /static/ .

HTTPS Example

--cert expects a PKCS#12 file such as .p12 or .pfx. PEM files are not accepted directly.

1. Generate a local certificate and .p12

mkdir -p /tmp/simple-http-server-tls cd /tmp/simple-http-server-tls openssl req \ -x509 \ -newkey rsa:2048 \ -nodes \ -sha256 \ -keyout key.pem \ -out cert.pem \ -days 7 \ -subj "/CN=localhost" \ -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:localhost" openssl pkcs12 \ -export \ -inkey key.pem \ -in cert.pem \ -out localhost.p12 \ -passout pass:changeit

2. Start the server

simple-http-server \ -i \ --ip 127.0.0.1 \ --port 8443 \ --cert /tmp/simple-http-server-tls/localhost.p12 \ --certpass changeit \ .

3. Verify it

Strict verification:

curl --fail --silent --show-error \ --cacert /tmp/simple-http-server-tls/cert.pem \ https://localhost:8443/

Quick local smoke test:

curl -kI https://localhost:8443/

Features

  • Directory listing with breadcrumb navigation
  • Optional index.html / index.htm rendering
  • File upload with CSRF protection
  • HTTP Basic Auth
  • HTTP cache control with Last-Modified and ETag
  • Single-range partial content support
  • gzip / deflate compression
  • CORS plus COOP / COEP headers
  • SPA fallback via --try-file
  • Optional PKCS#12 HTTPS via the tls feature