RustWeb - High-Performance HTTP Server

RustWeb is a modern, high-performance HTTP server written in Rust, designed to replace nginx/httpd while following Linux philosophy principles. It provides enterprise-grade features with memory safety, high concurrency, and exceptional performance.

🚀 Features

✅ Implemented

HTTP/1.1 & HTTP/2 - Full protocol support with ALPN negotiation
Static File Serving - Efficient static content delivery with MIME type detection
Virtual Hosts - Multiple domains/sites on a single server
Reverse Proxy - Load balancing with health checks and multiple algorithms
SSL/TLS Termination - rustls-based TLS with modern cipher suites
Security - Built-in rate limiting, security headers, and path traversal protection
Compression - Gzip, Brotli, and Zstd compression with content negotiation
Configuration - TOML-based configuration with validation and hot reload
Signal Handling - Graceful shutdown and configuration reload
Metrics - Performance monitoring and request statistics
CLI Interface - Full command-line interface with argument parsing
Access Logging - Structured logging with request IDs and timing
Packaging - Debian (.deb), RPM, and Docker packages
Systemd Integration - Full systemd service support

🔄 Planned

HTTP/3 & QUIC - Next-generation protocol support (architecture ready)
WebSocket Proxying - Full WebSocket support
Advanced Health Checks - Custom health check endpoints
Prometheus Metrics - Native Prometheus metrics export

🏗️ Architecture

RustWeb is built with a modular architecture following Rust best practices:

src/
├── main.rs              # Entry point and CLI
├── config.rs            # Configuration management
├── server/              # Core HTTP server
│   ├── http_server.rs   # Server orchestration
│   ├── request_handler.rs # Request routing and handling
│   ├── static_files.rs  # Static file serving
│   └── response.rs      # Response building
├── security/            # Security features
├── compression/         # Compression algorithms
├── proxy/              # Reverse proxy and load balancing
└── metrics/            # Performance monitoring

📦 Installation

🚀 Quick Install (Linux)

# Download and run the installation script
curl -sSL https://github.com/your-org/rustweb/raw/main/install.sh | sudo bash

# Or with specific version
RUSTWEB_VERSION=1.0.0 curl -sSL https://github.com/your-org/rustweb/raw/main/install.sh | sudo bash

📱 Package Managers

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)

# Download the .deb package
wget https://github.com/your-org/rustweb/releases/latest/download/rustweb_0.1.0_amd64.deb

# Install
sudo dpkg -i rustweb_0.1.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f  # Fix dependencies if needed

# Start the service
sudo systemctl start rustweb
sudo systemctl enable rustweb

Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora (.rpm)

# Download the .rpm package
wget https://github.com/your-org/rustweb/releases/latest/download/rustweb-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# Install
sudo rpm -ivh rustweb-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# Start the service
sudo systemctl start rustweb
sudo systemctl enable rustweb

🐳 Docker

# Quick start with Docker
docker run -d \
  --name rustweb \
  -p 80:8080 \
  -p 443:8443 \
  -v /var/www/html:/var/www/html:ro \
  ghcr.io/your-org/rustweb:latest

# Or use Docker Compose
curl -O https://github.com/your-org/rustweb/raw/main/docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up -d

🛠️ From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-org/rustweb.git
cd rustweb

# Build release binary
cargo build --release

# The binary will be at ./target/release/rustweb
sudo cp target/release/rustweb /usr/bin/
sudo cp rustweb.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable rustweb

Dependencies

Rust 1.70+ (2021 edition)
OpenSSL or equivalent for TLS support
Linux kernel 3.9+ (for modern async I/O)

🎯 Quick Start

Create a configuration file (optional - defaults available):

# rustweb.toml
[server]
listen = ["0.0.0.0:8080"]

[virtual_hosts.default]
server_name = ["*"]
document_root = "./www"

Create content directory:

mkdir www
echo "<h1>Hello, RustWeb!</h1>" > www/index.html

Start the server:

./target/release/rustweb -c rustweb.toml

Test it:

curl http://localhost:8080/

⚙️ Configuration

Production Configuration

[server]
listen = ["0.0.0.0:80", "0.0.0.0:443"]
listen_quic = ["0.0.0.0:443"]  # HTTP/3 support
enable_http3 = true
max_connections = 10000
keep_alive_timeout = 65

[logging]
log_level = "info"
access_log = "/var/log/rustweb/access.log"
error_log = "/var/log/rustweb/error.log"

[security]
enable_rate_limiting = true
rate_limit_requests_per_second = 1000
rate_limit_burst = 2000
allowed_methods = ["GET", "POST", "HEAD", "PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH", "OPTIONS"]

[security.security_headers]
"X-Frame-Options" = "DENY"
"X-Content-Type-Options" = "nosniff"
"Strict-Transport-Security" = "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"

[compression]
enable_gzip = true
enable_brotli = true
enable_zstd = true
compression_level = 6

[virtual_hosts.default]
server_name = ["_"]
document_root = "/var/www/html"
index_files = ["index.html", "index.htm"]

[virtual_hosts.default.ssl]
certificate = "/etc/rustweb/ssl/cert.pem"
private_key = "/etc/rustweb/ssl/key.pem"
protocols = ["TLSv1.2", "TLSv1.3"]

Virtual Hosts

[virtual_hosts.example]
server_name = ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
document_root = "/var/www/example.com"
index_files = ["index.html"]

[virtual_hosts.example.ssl]
certificate = "/etc/rustweb/ssl/example.com.pem"
private_key = "/etc/rustweb/ssl/example.com.key"
protocols = ["TLSv1.2", "TLSv1.3"]

[virtual_hosts.example.locations."/api/"]
proxy_pass = "backend"

Reverse Proxy

[upstream.backend]
servers = ["http://127.0.0.1:3000", "http://127.0.0.1:3001"]
load_balancing = "RoundRobin"

[upstream.backend.health_check]
path = "/health"
interval = 30
timeout = 5

📋 Command Line Options

# Basic usage
rustweb -c config.toml

# Test configuration
rustweb -t -c config.toml

# Override listen address
rustweb -h 0.0.0.0 -p 8080

# Enable verbose logging
rustweb -v -c config.toml

# Run as daemon (Unix only)
rustweb -d -c config.toml

Options:

-c, --config <FILE> - Configuration file path
-h, --host <HOST> - Listen host (default: 0.0.0.0)
-p, --port <PORT> - Listen port (default: 8080)
-t, --test-config - Test configuration and exit
-v, --verbose - Enable verbose logging
-d, --daemon - Run as daemon (Unix only)

🔧 Operations

Signal Handling

SIGTERM/SIGINT - Graceful shutdown
SIGQUIT - Immediate shutdown

Graceful Shutdown

# Send SIGTERM for graceful shutdown
kill -TERM $(pidof rustweb)

Health Monitoring

Built-in metrics collection and optional Prometheus export:

# Access metrics endpoint (if enabled)
curl http://localhost:8080/metrics

🚀 Performance

Benchmarks (Target)

Static files: 50k+ RPS on commodity hardware
Reverse proxy: 30k+ RPS with <1ms upstream latency
Memory usage: <1MB per 1000 idle connections
CPU usage: <5% at 10k RPS on modern CPU

Optimizations

Zero-copy I/O where possible
Connection pooling and reuse
Efficient HTTP parsing
SIMD optimizations
Custom memory allocator support

🛡️ Security

Built-in Protection

Memory Safety - Rust's ownership system prevents buffer overflows
Path Traversal Protection - Validates and sanitizes file paths
Rate Limiting - Configurable per-client request limits
Security Headers - Automatic security headers (HSTS, CSP, etc.)
Input Validation - All inputs validated and sanitized

Security Headers (Default)

X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains

📊 Monitoring

Request Logging

[2025-09-24T09:45:57.310258Z] INFO Request completed 
  request_id=90db1599-500f-4f2b-bd81-9c8ddd8b7ca3 
  status=200 OK 
  duration_ms=0

Metrics Collection

Request count and timing
Status code distribution
Active connections
Bytes sent/received
Error rates

🧪 Testing

Manual Testing

# Test static files
curl http://localhost:8080/

# Test virtual hosts
curl -H "Host: example.com" http://localhost:8080/

# Test compression
curl -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" http://localhost:8080/

# Test security
curl http://localhost:8080/../../../etc/passwd

Load Testing

# Example with Apache Bench
ab -n 10000 -c 100 http://localhost:8080/

# Example with wrk
wrk -t12 -c400 -d30s http://localhost:8080/

🤝 Contributing

RustWeb follows standard Rust development practices:

# Format code
cargo fmt

# Lint code
cargo clippy

# Run tests
cargo test

# Build documentation
cargo doc --open

📝 License

Licensed under either of:

Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
MIT License (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option.

🙋‍♀️ Support

📖 Documentation: See CLAUDE.md for technical specifications
🐛 Issues: Report bugs and feature requests via GitHub Issues
💬 Discussions: Join the community discussions

RustWeb - Fast, Safe, Reliable 🦀

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 12 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
benches		benches
sites/example		sites/example
src		src
static		static
tests		tests
www		www
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.gitignore		.gitignore
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
FEATURES.md		FEATURES.md
README.md		README.md
benchmark.sh		benchmark.sh
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
docker-config.toml		docker-config.toml
install.sh		install.sh
quick_test.py		quick_test.py
rustweb.service		rustweb.service
rustweb.toml		rustweb.toml
test_client.py		test_client.py
test_config.toml		test_config.toml
uninstall.sh		uninstall.sh

exec/rustweb

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