serve_it

A super simple fileserver based on cowboy. Basically this application provides a cowboy_http_handler implementation with support for range headers, index files and (as a fallback) directory listings.

Mimetypes will be detected using the cow_mimetypes:all/1 function, so it should be sufficient for all your needs from website development to audio/video streaming (and of course it supports resumable downloads, think of ISOs).

Although this project is meant to be an example for the rebar_escript_plugin it can really be a handy tool if Erlang/OTP is installed on the executing machine. serve_it needs rebar version 2.5.1 and Erlang/OTP 17.0 or newer.

Get it

Of course this is done the usual way:

$ git clone https://github.com/schlagert/serve_it.git

Build it

It is intended to issue the compile command twice. Unfortunately this is needed when initially cloning dependencies. This is not needed when recompiling.

$ rebar get-deps
$ rebar compile
$ rebar compile

Configure it (optional)

The application can of course be configured through the application environment. However, this is only useful when you want to include serve_it in an Erlang release. The following configuration options are implemented:

• {port, inet:port_number()}

  Specifies the server listen port. Default is (guess what) 8080.

• {base_dir, DirectoryPath :: string()}

  Specifies the server's root directory. Defaults to the current working directory.

• {index_file, Basename :: string()}

  Specifies the basename of the server directory index file (e.g. index.html). The basename may contain * as wildcard. Default is "index.*".

• {show_hidden_files, boolean()}

  Indicating whether hidden files should be shown in directory listings (they will always be served). Hidden files is defined the unix way (files/directories with names starting with a dot). Default is false.

Serve it

After compilation you'll find an executable, self-contained escript called serve_it in the project's top level directory. To run this script, all you need is having Erlang/OTP installed and in your path. This means the script is fully relocatable. Copy the script somewhere into your path or onto another machine (maybe even a Windows machine, didn't try it yet) and call it from the directory you want to serve. Done!

To browse your directory, fire up a browser and visit localhost:8080.