http-server: a simple static HTTP server
http-server is a simple, zero-configuration command-line static HTTP server. It is powerful enough for production usage, but it's simple and hackable enough to be used for testing, local development and learning.
Installation:
Running on-demand:
Using npx you can run the script without installing it first:
npx http-server [path] [options]
Globally via npm
npm install --global http-server
This will install http-server globally so that it may be run from the command line anywhere.
Globally via Homebrew
brew install http-server
As a dependency in your npm package:
npm install http-server
Using Docker
Note: a public image is not provided currently, but you can build one yourself
with the provided Dockerfile.
- Create an image
docker build -t my-image .
- Run a container
docker run -p 8080:8080 -v "${pwd}:/public" my-image
In the example above we're serving the directory ./ (working directory).
If you wanted to serve ./test you'd replace ${pwd} with ${pwd}/test.
Usage:
http-server [path] [options]
[path] defaults to ./public if the folder exists, and ./ otherwise.
Now you can visit http://localhost:8080 to view your server
Note: Caching is on by default. Add -c-1 as an option to disable caching.
Available Options:
| Command |
Description |
Defaults |
-p or --port |
Port to use. Use -p 0 to look for an open port, starting at 8080. It will also read from process.env.PORT. |
8080 |
-a |
Address to use |
0.0.0.0 |
--base-dir |
Base path to serve files from |
/ |
-d |
Show directory listings |
true |
-dir-overrides-404 |
Whether -d should override magic 404.html |
false |
-i |
Display autoIndex |
true |
-g or --gzip |
When enabled it will serve ./public/some-file.js.gz in place of ./public/some-file.js when a gzipped version of the file exists and the request accepts gzip encoding. If brotli is also enabled, it will try to serve brotli first. |
false |
-b or --brotli |
When enabled it will serve ./public/some-file.js.br in place of ./public/some-file.js when a brotli compressed version of the file exists and the request accepts br encoding. If gzip is also enabled, it will try to serve brotli first. |
false |
-e or --ext |
Default file extension if none supplied |
html |
-s or --silent |
Suppress log messages from output |
|
--coop |
Enable COOP via the Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header |
|
--cors |
Enable CORS via the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header |
|
--private-network-access |
Enable Private Network Access via the Access-Control-Allow-Private-Network header |
|
--cors |
Enable CORS via the Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header. Optionally provide comma-separated values to add to Access-Control-Allow-Headers |
|
-H or --header |
Add an extra response header (can be used several times) |
|
-o [path] |
Open browser window after starting the server. Optionally provide a URL path to open. e.g.: -o /other/dir/ |
|
-c |
Set cache time (in seconds) for cache-control max-age header, e.g. -c10 for 10 seconds. To disable caching, use -c-1. |
3600 |
-t |
Connection timeout in seconds, e.g. -t60 for 1 minute. To disable timeout, use -t0. |
120 |
-T or --title |
Custom title suffix for the terminal window. The title will be "http-server PORT [TITLE]". |
|
-U or --utc |
Use UTC time format in log messages. |
|
--log-ip |
Enable logging of the client's IP address |
false |
-P or --proxy |
Proxies all requests which can't be resolved locally to the given url. e.g.: -P http://someurl.com |
|
--proxy-options |
Pass proxy options using nested dotted objects. e.g.: --proxy-options.secure false |
|
--proxy-config |
Pass in .json configuration file or stringified JSON. e.g.: ./path/to/config.json |
|
--proxy-all |
Forward every request to the proxy target instead of serving local files |
false |
--proxy-options |
Pass proxy options using nested dotted objects. e.g.: --proxy-options.secure false |
|
--user or --username |
Username for basic authentication |
|
--password |
Password for basic authentication |
|
-S, --tls or --ssl |
Enable secure request serving with TLS/SSL (HTTPS) |
false |
-C or --cert |
Path to ssl cert file |
cert.pem |
-K or --key |
Path to ssl key file |
key.pem |
-r or --robots |
Automatically provide a /robots.txt (The content of which defaults to User-agent: *\nDisallow: /) |
false |
--no-dotfiles |
Do not show dotfiles |
|
--mimetypes |
Path to a .types file for custom mimetype definition |
|
--hide-permissions |
Do not show file permissions |
|
--allowed-hosts |
Comma-separated list of hosts allowed to access the server. e.g.: --allowed-hosts localhost,example.com |
|
-h or --help |
Print this list and exit. |
|
-v or --version |
Print the version and exit. |
|
--no-panic |
Don't print error stack in the console, put it in a log file |
false |
Magic Files
index.html will be served as the default file to any directory requests.404.html will be served if a file is not found. This can be used for Single-Page App (SPA) hosting to serve the entry page.
Catch-all redirect
To implement a catch-all redirect, use the index page itself as the proxy with:
http-server --proxy http://localhost:8080?
Note the ? at the end of the proxy URL. Thanks to @houston3 for this clever hack!
TLS/SSL
First, you need to make sure that openssl is installed correctly, and you have key.pem and cert.pem files. You can generate them using this command:
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -new -nodes -x509 -days 3650 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem
You will be prompted with a few questions after entering the command. Use 127.0.0.1 as value for Common name if you want to be able to install the certificate in your OS's root certificate store or browser so that it is trusted.
This generates a cert-key pair and it will be valid for 3650 days (about 10 years).
Then you need to run the server with -S for enabling SSL and -C for your certificate file.
http-server -S -C cert.pem
If you wish to use a passphrase with your private key you can include one in the openssl command via the -passout parameter (using password of foobar)
e.g.
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -passout pass:foobar -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 365 -out cert.pem
For security reasons, the passphrase will only be read from the NODE_HTTP_SERVER_SSL_PASSPHRASE environment variable.
This is what should be output if successful:
Starting up http-server, serving ./ through https
http-server settings:
COOP: disabled
CORS: disabled
Cache: 3600 seconds
Connection Timeout: 120 seconds
Directory Listings: visible
AutoIndex: visible
Serve GZIP Files: false
Serve Brotli Files: false
Default File Extension: none
Available on:
https://127.0.0.1:8080
https://192.168.1.101:8080
https://192.168.1.104:8080
Hit CTRL-C to stop the server
Development
Checkout this repository locally, then:
$ npm i
$ npm start
Now you can visit http://localhost:8080 to view your server
You should see the turtle image in the screenshot above hosted at that URL. See
the ./public folder for demo content.
http-server 是一个简单、零配置的命令行静态 HTTP 服务器：把它指向一个文件夹，它就能通过 HTTP 提供里面的文件。README 说它强大到可以用于生产环境，同时又足够简单、易于修改，适合用来做测试、本地开发和学习。