ZWS - Minimalist Web Server

A minimalist, multi-threaded web server written in Zig, designed to mimic the simplicity and application-serving nature of uWSGI.

Features

• Multi-threaded: Handles multiple connections concurrently using Zig's std.Thread.
• Minimalist: Uses only the Zig Standard Library (std.net, std.Thread).
• Educational: Every line of code is commented to explain the concepts.
• Application Container: Simulates an application entry point, similar to how uWSGI runs apps.

Prerequisites

• Zig (0.13.0 or later recommended)

Build and Run

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/hepidad/zws.git
   cd zws

2. Run in Debug mode:

   zig build run

3. Build Release: To build a small, optimized release binary:

   zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSmall

   The binary will be available at zig-out/bin/zws.

Usage

Once running, the server listens on http://127.0.0.1:8080.

You can test it with curl:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8080

Deployment Tutorials (Extending ZWS)

ZWS is designed as a minimalist foundation. To deploy real-world frameworks, you need to extend the application_entry_point in src/main.zig. Here are conceptual guides for common scenarios.

Python (Flask, Django, etc.)

To serve Python applications (like uWSGI does), you would implement the WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface) protocol.

Strategy:

1. Embed Python: Link your Zig application with libpython (using build.zig).
2. Initialize: Start the Python VM in main().
3. Bridge: In application_entry_point:
   • Convert the raw HTTP request into a Python dictionary (the WSGI environ).
   • Call your Flask app's entry point (e.g., app(environ, start_response)).
   • Convert the Python response back to Zig bytes.

Frontend (React, Vue, Next.js)

Single Page Applications (SPAs) or Static Site Generators (SSGs) typically compile to static files (index.html, .js, .css).

Strategy:

1. Build: Run npm run build (or yarn build) in your frontend project to generate a dist/ or out/ folder.
2. Serve Static Files: Modify application_entry_point to map the request URL to a file path.

Example Implementation Plan:

fn application_entry_point(request: []const u8) []const u8 {
    // 1. Parse the path from the request (e.g., "GET /index.js ...")
    // 2. Open the corresponding file in "./dist"
    // 3. Return the file contents
    // 4. Set the correct Content-Type (text/html, application/javascript)
}

JSON APIs

To use ZWS as a backend API server:

Strategy:

1. Parse the incoming JSON body using std.json.
2. Perform your business logic.
3. Return a JSON string.

// Example response
return 
    \\HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    \\Content-Type: application/json
    \\
    \\{"status": "ok", "message": "Hello from ZWS API"}
;

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.