sirv

What is sirv?

The sirv npm package is a simple, high-performance, single-purpose HTTP server for serving static files. It is designed to be fast and efficient, making it ideal for serving the static assets of web applications.

What are sirv's main functionalities?

Serving static files

This code sample demonstrates how to use sirv with Polka (a lightweight web server) to serve static files from the 'public' directory.

const sirv = require('sirv');
const polka = require('polka');

const server = polka();

server.use(sirv('public'));

server.listen(3000, err => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log('> Running on localhost:3000');
});

Customizing options

This code sample shows how to customize sirv with options such as cache control headers and enabling single-page application (SPA) mode.

const sirv = require('sirv');

const options = {
  maxAge: 31536000, // 1 year in seconds
  immutable: true,
  etag: true,
  single: true
};

const serve = sirv('public', options);

Using with middleware

This code sample illustrates how to use sirv as middleware in an Express application to serve static files with development options enabled.

const sirv = require('sirv');
const express = require('express');

const app = express();

app.use(sirv('public', { dev: true }));

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));

Other packages similar to sirv

express-static

Express' built-in middleware function to serve static files. It is part of the Express.js framework and is widely used for serving static assets. Compared to sirv, it is more feature-rich but also heavier due to being part of a larger framework.

serve-static

A Node.js middleware for serving static files that is compatible with many frameworks like Express. It is similar to sirv but offers more configuration options and is part of the larger Express ecosystem.

koa-static

A static file serving middleware for Koa, which is another web framework for Node.js. Koa-static is designed to work within the Koa ecosystem and provides a similar feature set to sirv but is tailored for Koa's middleware pattern.

README

sirv

The optimized and lightweight middleware for serving requests to static assets

You may use sirv as a very fast and lightweight alternative to serve-static.

The massive performance advantage over serve-static is explained by not relying on the file system for existence checks on every request. These are expensive interactions and must be avoided whenever possible! Instead, when not in "dev" mode, sirv performs all its file-system operations upfront and then relies on its cache for future operations.

This middleware will work out of the box for Polka, Express, and other Express-like frameworks. It will also work with the native http, https and http2 modules. It requires very little effort to modify/wrap it for servers that don't accept the (req, res, next) signature.

:bulb: For a feature-complete CLI application, check out the sibling sirv-cli package as an alternative to zeit/serve~!

Install

$ npm install --save sirv

Usage

const sirv = require('sirv');
const polka = require('polka');
const compress = require('compression')();

// Init `sirv` handler
const assets = sirv('public', {
  maxAge: 31536000, // 1Y
  immutable: true
});

polka()
  .use(compress, assets)
  .use('/api', require('./api'))
  .listen(3000, err => {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log('> Ready on localhost:3000~!');
  });

API

sirv(dir, opts={})

Returns: Function

The returned function is a middleware in the standard Express-like signature: (req, res, next), where req is the http.IncomingMessage, res is the http.ServerResponse, and next (in this case) is the function to call if no file was found for the given path.

When defined, a next() callback is always called instead of the opts.onNoMatch callback. However, unlike onNoMatch, your next() is given no arguments.

dir

Type: String
Default: .

The directory from which to read and serve assets. It is resolved to an absolute path — you must provide an absolute path yourself if process.cwd() is not the correct assumption.

opts.dev

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Enable "dev" mode, which disables/skips caching. Instead, sirv will traverse the file system on every request.

Additionally, dev mode will ignore maxAge and immutable as these options generate a production-oriented Cache-Control header value.

Important: Do not use dev mode in production!

opts.etag

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Generate and attach an ETag header to responses.

Note: If an incoming request's If-None-Match header matches the ETag value, a 304 response is given.

opts.dotfiles

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Allow requests to dotfiles (files or directories beginning with a .).

Note: Requests to /.well-known/* are always allowed.

opts.extensions

Type: Array<String>
Default: ['html', 'htm']

The file extension fallbacks to check for if a pathame is not initially found. For example, if a /login request cannot find a login filename, it will then look for login.html and login.htm before giving up~!

Important: Actually, sirv will also look for login/index.html and login/index.htm before giving up.

opts.gzip

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Determine if sirv look for precompiled *.gz files.
Must be enabled and the incoming request's Accept Encoding must include "gzip" in order for sirv to search for the gzip'd alternative.

Note: The .gz assumption also applies to the opts.extensions list.

// NOTE: PSEUDO CODE
// Showing lookup logic

// Request: [Accept-Encoding: gzip] "/foobar.jpg"
lookup([
  '/foobar.jpg.gz', '/foobar.jpg',
  '/foobar.jpg.html.gz', '/foobar.jpg/index.html.gz',
  '/foobar.jpg.htm.gz', '/foobar.jpg/index.htm.gz',
  '/foobar.jpg.html', '/foobar.jpg/index.html',
  '/foobar.jpg.htm', '/foobar.jpg/index.htm',
]);

// Request: [Accept-Encoding: gzip] "/"
lookup([
  '/index.html.gz',
  '/index.htm.gz',
  '/index.html',
  '/index.htm',
]);

opts.brotli

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Determine if sirv look for precompiled *.br files.
Must be enabled and the incoming request's Accept Encoding must include either "br" or "brotli" in order for sirv to search for the brotli-compressed alternative.

Note: The .br assumption also applies to the opts.extensions list.

When both opts.broli and opts.gzip are enabled — and all conditions are equal — then the brotli variant always takes priority.

// NOTE: PSEUDO CODE
// Showing lookup logic

// Request: [Accept-Encoding: br] "/foobar.jpg"
lookup([
  '/foobar.jpg.br', '/foobar.jpg',
  '/foobar.jpg.html.br', '/foobar.jpg/index.html.br',
  '/foobar.jpg.htm.br', '/foobar.jpg/index.htm.br',
  '/foobar.jpg.html', '/foobar.jpg/index.html',
  '/foobar.jpg.htm', '/foobar.jpg/index.htm',
]);

// Request: [Accept-Encoding: br,gz] "/"
lookup([
  '/index.html.br'
  '/index.htm.br'
  '/index.html.gz'
  '/index.htm.gz'
  '/index.html'
  '/index.htm'
]);

opts.maxAge

Type: Number
Default: undefined

Enables the Cache-Control header on responses and sets the max-age value (in seconds).
For example, maxAge: 31536000 is equivalent to one year.

opts.immutable

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Appends the immutable directive on your Cache-Control header, used for uniquely-named assets that will not change!

Important: Will only work if opts.maxAge has a value defined!

opts.single

Type: Boolean or String
Default: false

Treat the directory as a single-page application.

When true, the directory's index page (default index.html) will be sent if the request asset does not exist.
You may pass a string value to use a file instead of index.html as your fallback.

For example, if "/about" is requested but no variants of that file exist, then the response for "/" is sent instead:

// Note: This is psuedo code to illustrate what's happening

// Request: "/about"
let file = find(['/about', '/about.html', '/about.htm', '/about/index.html', '/about.htm']);
if (file) {
  send(file);
} else if (opts.single === true) {
  file = find(['/', '/index.html', '/index.htm']);
  send(file);
} else if (typeof opts.single === 'string') {
  file = find([opts.single]);
  send(file);
} else {
  // next() or 404
}

opts.ignores

Type: false or Array<String | RegExp>

Specify paths/patterns that should ignore the fallback behavior that opts.single provides.

By default, any asset-like path (URLs that end with an extension) will be ignored. This means that, for example, if /foobar.jpg is not found, a 404 response is sent instead of the index.html fallback.

Additionally, any /.well-known/* pathname ignores the fallback – as do all other dotfile requests when opts.dotfiles is enabled.

Any string value(s) will be passed through new RegExp(value, 'i') directly.

Finally, you may set ignores: false to disable all ignores, including the defaults. Put differently, this will fallback all unknown pathnames to your index.html (or custom opts.single value).

Important: Only has an effect if opts.single is enabled.

opts.onNoMatch

Type: Function

A custom function to run if a file cannot be found for a given request.
By default, sirv will send a basic (404) Not found response.

The function receives the current req <IncomingMessage>, res <ServerResponse> pair for as its two arguments.

Note: This won't run if a next callback has been provided to the middleware; see sirv description.

opts.setHeaders

Type: Function

A custom function to append or change any headers on the outgoing response. There is no default.

Its signature is (res, pathname, stats), where res is the ServerResponse, pathname is incoming request path (stripped of queries), and stats is the file's result from fs.statSync.

License

MIT © Luke Edwards