Simple HTTP Server

A lightweight, asynchronous HTTP server written in Rust as a learning project. This server demonstrates concurrent connection handling using Tokio and includes custom request handling capabilities.

Features

• Asynchronous I/O: Built with Tokio for efficient concurrent connection handling
• Connection Limiting: Supports up to 10,000 concurrent connections
• Cross-Platform: Works on both Windows and Unix-based systems
• Modular Architecture: Organized into separate libraries for request handling and utilities
• Graceful Shutdown: Interactive console control with graceful server termination

Project Structure

simple_http_server/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs           # Entry point and server initialization
│   └── lib.rs            # Core server logic
├── libs/
│   ├── request_handler/  # HTTP request handling library
│   └── utils/            # Utility functions (thread pool, logging)
├── resources/            # HTML files and static resources
│   ├── hello.html
│   ├── 404.html
│   └── debug.html
├── tests/                # Integration tests
└── Cargo.toml           # Project configuration

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70 or higher
• Cargo (comes with Rust)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/simple_http_server.git
cd simple_http_server

2. Build the project:

cargo build --release

Usage

Running the Server

Start the server with:

cargo run

The server will start listening on http://127.0.0.1:7877 by default.

Stopping the Server

Type q in the terminal and press Enter to gracefully stop the server.

Testing

Run the test suite:

cargo test --workspace

Configuration

The server binds to 127.0.0.1:7877 by default. To change the address or port, modify the following line in src/main.rs:

run_server("127.0.0.1:7877", handle_input()).await?;

Dependencies

• tokio (1.49.0): Asynchronous runtime with full features
• anyhow (1.0.100): Error handling
• request_handler: Custom HTTP request handler (local library)
• utils: Utility functions (local library)

Platform-Specific Dependencies

• Unix: libc (0.2)
• Windows: windows-sys (0.52)

Development

Building for Development

cargo build

Running in Debug Mode

cargo run

Generating Documentation

cargo doc --open

Workspace Structure

This project uses Cargo workspaces with the following members:

• libs/request_handler: HTTP request parsing and handling
• libs/utils: Shared utilities (thread pool, scope time logger)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Learning Goals

This project was created as a Rust learning exercise to explore:

• Asynchronous programming with Tokio
• TCP socket handling
• HTTP protocol basics
• Rust's module system and workspace organization
• Concurrent programming patterns
• Error handling with anyhow

Acknowledgments

Built as part of learning Rust programming language. Special thanks to the Rust community and the excellent Tokio documentation.

Contributing

As this is a learning project, contributions, suggestions, and feedback are welcome! Feel free to:

• Open issues for bugs or feature requests
• Submit pull requests
• Share your improvements or learning experiences

---

Note: This is a learning project and not intended for production use. For production HTTP servers, consider using battle-tested solutions like Actix-web, Rocket, or Axum.