HTTP Rust Server

A lightweight, asynchronous HTTP/1.1 server implementation written in Rust using Tokio. This project demonstrates modern HTTP server architecture with support for persistent connections, chunked encoding, and comprehensive HTTP/1.1 compliance.

Features

Core HTTP/1.1 Support

• Multiple HTTP Methods: GET, POST, HEAD, and more
• Persistent Connections: Keep-alive support for improved performance
• Chunked Transfer Encoding: Efficient handling of large responses
• Case-Insensitive Headers: RFC-compliant header processing
• Multi-Field Headers: Support for headers with multiple values
• Comprehensive Status Codes: Proper error handling and response codes

Server Features

• Asynchronous Architecture: Built on Tokio for high concurrency
• Static File Serving: Efficient serving of static content
• MIME Type Detection: Automatic content-type detection
• CORS Support: Cross-Origin Resource Sharing headers
• Security: File access control and path validation

RFC Compliance

• Required headers (Date, Server, Connection)
• Proper request parsing and response formatting
• HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 protocol support

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70 or later
• Cargo package manager

Installation and Running

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/annurdien/http-rust.git
cd http-rust

2. Build and run the server:

cargo run

3. Test the server:

# Basic GET request
curl http://127.0.0.1:7878/index.html

# With verbose output to see headers
curl -v http://127.0.0.1:7878/index.html

# POST request example
curl -X POST -d "test data" http://127.0.0.1:7878/

The server will start on 127.0.0.1:7878 and serve files from the public/ directory.

Configuration

The server currently serves files from the public/ directory. Allowed files are configured in the create_allowed_file_table() function in src/main.rs.

Default served files:

• public/index.html - Main page
• public/style.css - Stylesheet

Architecture

This server implements a modern asynchronous architecture:

• Async/Await: Uses Tokio runtime for non-blocking I/O
• Connection Pooling: Supports multiple concurrent connections
• Request Processing: Efficient parsing and response generation
• File System: Secure file serving with access controls

For detailed architecture information, see docs/architecture.md.

HTTP/1.1 Compliance

This implementation supports most HTTP/1.1 features as defined in RFC 7230-7235:

• Protocol negotiation and version handling
• Request/response message format
• Header field parsing and generation
• Connection management
• Transfer encoding

For a detailed feature matrix, see docs/http1-spec.md.

Development

Building

cargo build

Checking for errors

cargo check

Running tests

cargo test

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Test thoroughly
5. Submit a pull request

License

This project is open source. See the repository for license details.

Additional Documentation

• Architecture Details - Server design and components
• HTTP/1.1 Specification Compliance - Feature support matrix