ECE312 Simple Webserver

This repository holds course posts and resources. A minimal Node.js server is included to serve files from resources/ and to accept POST/PUT requests which write into posts/. Note that the server must have write permissions to the posts/ directory, so if you are using user www-data for the server you will need to give that user/group write permissions to the posts directory.

Start the server:

npm install   # optional, no dependencies
npm start

Examples:

• Serve a resource file (GET):

curl http://localhost:8080/image.png --output image.png

• Create or overwrite a post (POST):

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/2025-11-03-sample.md -d '# Sample Post' -H "Content-Type: text/markdown"

• Update a post (PUT):

curl -X PUT http://localhost:8080/2025-11-03-sample.md -d '# Updated Content'

Notes on ports and running on port 80

By default the server listens on port 8080 for development. To bind to port 80 (the standard HTTP port) you can:

PORT=80 npm start

- Use a reverse proxy (nginx) to forward traffic from port 80 → 8080.
- Use port forwarding / iptables to redirect port 80 to 8080.
- Grant Node the ability to bind low ports (e.g., `sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' $(which node)`) — consider security implications.

Running as a systemd service

This repo includes a deploy/ece312-webserver.service systemd unit template and a deploy/README.md with steps to install and enable the service. Edit the WorkingDirectory and User fields in the unit file before enabling.