#!/usr/bin/env bash # # Bash HTTP Server in Pure Bash. # # Watch how this was made on YouTube: # - https://youtu.be/L967hYylZuc # # Author: Dave Eddy # Date: July 08, 2025 # License: MIT VERSION='v1.0.2' PORT=8080 ADDRESS='0.0.0.0' DIR='.' read -d '' -r USAGE <<- EOF Usage: bash-web-server [-p port] [-b addr] [-d dir] An HTTP server in Pure Bash. Options -b Address to bind to, defaults to 0.0.0.0. -d Directory to serve, defaults to your current directory. -h Print this message and exit. -p Port to bind to, defaults to 8080. -v Print the version number and exit. EOF fatal() { echo '[fatal]' "$@" >&2 exit 1 } mime-type() { local f=$1 local bname=${f##*/} local ext=${bname##*.} [[ $bname == "$ext" ]] && ext= case "$ext" in html|htm) echo 'text/html';; jpeg|jpg) echo 'image/jpeg';; png) echo 'image/png';; txt) echo 'text/plain';; css) echo 'text/css';; js) echo 'text/javascript';; json) echo 'application/json';; *) echo 'application/octet-stream';; esac } html-encode() { local s=$1 s=${s//&/\&} s=${s///\>} s=${s//\"/\"} s=${s//\'/\'} echo "$s" } list-directory() { local d=$1 shopt -s nullglob dotglob echo '' echo '' echo '' echo ' ' printf ' Index of %s\n' "$(html-encode "$d")" echo ' ' echo '' echo '' echo '

Directory Listing

' echo "

Directory: $(html-encode "$d")

" echo '

' echo '

' echo '' echo '' } urlencode() { # Usage: urlencode "string" local LC_ALL=C for (( i = 0; i < ${#1}; i++ )); do : "${1:i:1}" case "$_" in [a-zA-Z0-9.~_-]) printf '%s' "$_" ;; *) printf '%%%02X' "'$_" ;; esac done printf '\n' } urldecode() { # Usage: urldecode "string" : "${1//+/ }" printf '%b\n' "${_//%/\\x}" } normalize-path() { local path=/$1 local parts IFS='/' read -r -a parts <<< "$path" local -a out=() local part for part in "${parts[@]}"; do case "$part" in '') ;; # ignore empty directories (multiple /) '.') ;; # ignore current directory '..') unset 'out[-1]' 2>/dev/null;; *) out+=("$part");; esac done local s s=$(IFS=/; echo "${out[*]}") echo "/$s" } parse-request() { declare -gA REQ_INFO=() declare -gA REQ_HEADERS=() local state='status' local line while read -r line; do line=${line%$'\r'} case "$state" in 'status') # parse the status line # "GET /foo.txt HTTP/1.1" local method path version read -r method path version <<< "$line" REQ_INFO[method]=$method REQ_INFO[path]=$path REQ_INFO[version]=$version state='headers' ;; 'headers') # parse the headers if [[ -z $line ]]; then # XXX this doesn't support body parsing break fi local key value IFS=: read -r key value <<< "$line" key=${key,,} value=${value# *} REQ_HEADERS[$key]=$value ;; 'body') fatal 'body parsing not supported' ;; esac done } process-request() { local fd=$1 parse-request <&"$fd" # validate the request [[ ${REQ_INFO[version]} == 'HTTP/1.1' ]] \ || fatal 'unsupported HTTP version' [[ ${REQ_INFO[method]} == 'GET' ]] \ || fatal 'unsupported HTTP method' [[ ${REQ_INFO[path]} == /* ]] \ || fatal 'path must be absolute' echo "${REQ_INFO[method]} ${REQ_INFO[path]}" # if we are here, we should reply to the caller # "/././foo%20bar.txt?query=whatever" local path="${REQ_INFO[path]}" # "././foo%20bar.txt?query=whatever" path=${path:1} # "././foo%20bar.txt" local query IFS='?' read -r path query <<< "$path" # "././foo bar.txt" path=$(urldecode "$path") # "/foo bar.txt" path=$(normalize-path "$path") # "foo bar.txt" path=${path:1} # handle empty path (root path) path=${path:-.} # try to serve an index page local totry=( "$path" "$path/index.html" "$path/index.htm" ) local try file for try in "${totry[@]}"; do if [[ -f $try ]]; then file=$try break fi done if [[ -n $file ]]; then # a static file was found! local mime mime=$(mime-type "$file") printf 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n' >&"$fd" printf 'Content-Type: %s\r\n' "$mime" >&"$fd" printf '\r\n' >&"$fd" tee < "$file" >&"$fd" elif [[ -d $path ]]; then # redirect to /path/ if directory requested without trailing slash if [[ ${REQ_INFO[path]} != */ ]]; then printf 'HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently\r\n' >&"$fd" printf 'Location: %s/\r\n' "${REQ_INFO[path]}" >&"$fd" printf '\r\n' >&"$fd" return fi # try a directory listing printf 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n' >&"$fd" printf 'Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8\r\n' >&"$fd" printf '\r\n' >&"$fd" list-directory "$path" >&"$fd" else # nothing was found printf 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n' >&"$fd" printf '\r\n' >&"$fd" fi } main() { enable accept || fatal 'failed to load accept' enable tee # fallback to POSIX tee if not loadable local OPTIND OPTARG opt while getopts 'b:hp:d:v' opt; do case "$opt" in b) ADDRESS=$OPTARG;; p) PORT=$OPTARG;; d) DIR=$OPTARG;; h) echo "$USAGE"; exit 0;; v) echo "$VERSION"; exit 0;; *) echo "$USAGE" >&2; exit 2;; esac done cd "$DIR" || fatal "failed to move to $DIR" echo "listening on http://$ADDRESS:$PORT" echo "serving out of $PWD" local fd ip while true; do accept -b "$ADDRESS" -v fd -r ip "$PORT" \ || fatal 'failed to read socket' process-request "$fd" & exec {fd}>&- done } main "$@"