http-server

What is http-server?

The http-server npm package is a simple, zero-configuration command-line 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.

What are http-server's main functionalities?

Serving static files

This command serves the current directory at localhost:8080. It can be used to view static websites or any static files.

http-server -p 8080

Customizable port

This command serves the current directory on a specified port, in this case, port 3000.

http-server -p 3000

Specify the directory to serve

This command serves the specified directory instead of the current directory.

http-server /path/to/directory

HTTPS support

This command serves the current directory over HTTPS using the specified certificate and key files.

http-server --ssl --cert path/to/cert.pem --key path/to/key.pem

Enable CORS

This command serves files with CORS enabled, allowing resources to be requested from another domain.

http-server -c-1 --cors

Other packages similar to http-server

serve

Similar to http-server, serve is a static file serving and directory listing package. It is also simple to use but comes with a few more features like clean URLs and single-page application (SPA) support.

lite-server

Lite-server is a lightweight development only node server that serves a web app, opens it in the browser, and refreshes when html or javascript files change. It is built on top of BrowserSync and is more tailored towards serving SPAs.

express

Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications. Unlike http-server, Express requires more setup but is much more powerful and extensible.

README

http-server: a command-line http server

http-server is a simple, zero-configuration command-line 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.

Installing globally:

Installation via npm. If you don't have npm yet:

 curl https://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh

Once you have npm:

 npm install http-server -g

This will install http-server globally so that it may be run from the command line.

Usage:

 http-server [path] [options]

[path] defaults to ./public if the folder exists, and ./ otherwise.

Installing as a node app

 mkdir myapp
 cd myapp/
 jitsu install http-server

If you do not have jitsu installed you can install it via npm install jitsu -g

Usage

Starting http-server locally

 node bin/http-server

Now you can visit http://localhost:8080 to view your server

Deploy http-server to nodejitsu

 jitsu deploy

You will now be prompted for a subdomain to deploy your application on

Available Options:

-p Port to use (defaults to 8080)

-a Address to use (defaults to 0.0.0.0)

-d Show directory listings (defaults to 'True')

-i Display autoIndex (defaults to 'True')

-e or --ext Default file extension if none supplied (defaults to 'html')

-s or --silent Suppress log messages from output

--cors Enable CORS via the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header

-o Open browser window after staring the server

-h or --help Print this list and exit.

-c Set cache time (in seconds) for cache-control max-age header, e.g. -c10 for 10 seconds. To disable caching, use -c-1.