C++ Minimal HTTP API Server

A lightweight, low-level HTTP server written in C++ using raw socket programming.
Designed for learning, experimentation, and showcasing low-resource server design without any frameworks.

🌐 Features

• Accepts and processes HTTP GET requests
• Serves data based on path
• IP-based connection rate limiting to mitigate abuse (per-IP burst control)
• Fully manual request parsing using basic read()/send()
• Manual (low-level) struct management using pointers

⚙️ Rate Limiting Logic

Each client is tracked by IP, and a maximum of 10 connections is allowed in a short configurable window (MINSECPERTENCONS).
New connections that violate this window are deferred (connection is silently closed), and if necessary, banned, making the server more resistant to spam/floods.

🧪 Example Usage

Start the server:

./api-server

Send a request:

curl http://localhost:8080/
curl http://localhost:8080/api/utc

📁 Project Structure

src/
├── server.cpp         # Main server logic
├── htdocs/index.html  # Static HTML content

📦 Dependencies

• C++20-compliant compiler (g++, clang++, or MSVC)
• POSIX-compatible system (Linux, macOS, WSL recommended)
• No external libraries required

🛠️ Compiling

Run the following in the root directory:

g++ -std=c++20 -o api-server src/server.cpp

Then start the server:

./api-server

🧠 Why

This project was built to understand:

• How HTTP actually works under the hood
• How to implement real-world protections (like rate limiting) manually
• How to structure a minimal API server in pure C++