Rebol/HTTPd

A Webserver Scheme for Rebol3. Based on 'A Tiny HTTP Server' by Andreas Bolka and Christopher Ross-Gill's Adaptation to Scheme made as a part of Oldes' Rebol3 sources as a more feature complete web server. Now having its own home here to better track future improvements.

Features:

• handle basic POST, GET and HEAD methods
• send large files in chunks (using a file port)
• using actors for main actions which may be customized
• implemented keep-alive behaviour
• sends Not modified response if file was not modified in given time
• client can stop the server (useful for OAuth2 as a short-living server)

TODO:

• support for multidomain serving using Host header field
• add support for other methods - PUT, DELETE, TRACE, CONNECT, OPTIONS?
• better error handling
• test in real life

History:

• 04-Nov-2009 Andreas Bolka: A Tiny HTTP Server
• 04-Jan-2017 Christopher Ross-Gill: Adaptation to Scheme
• 01-Apr-2019 Oldes: Rewritten to be usable in real life situations
• 10-May-2020 Oldes: Implemented directory listing, logging and multipart POST processing
• 02-Jul-2020 Oldes: Added possibility to stop server and return data back to client (useful for OAuth2)
• 06-Dec-2022 Oldes: Added minimal support for WebSocket connections
• 09-Jan-2023 Oldes: Setting up a new home for the project on Github
• See: https://github.com/Oldes/Rebol-HTTPd/commits/master/

Usage:

1. Minimal server setup for serving content of the current directory on port 8000:

serve-http 8000

2. Minimal server setup for serving content of the specified directory on default port 8000

serve-http %hosts/test/

3. Simple server setup for in-memory generated content (root-less)

serve-http [port: 8000 actor: [
    On-Get: func [ctx][
        ;; just responding with the content we received...
        ctx/out/content: mold ctx/inp
    ]
    On-Post: func[ctx][
        ;; responding with a parsed content; including a custom message in the header...
        ctx/out/header/X-Response: "Just a custom message in the header."
        ctx/out/content: mold ctx/inp/content
    ]
]]

At this moment there are these actors which may be used:

• On-Accept = can be used to limit access per IP
• On-Header = can be used for redirects
• On-Get = classic GET request
• On-Post = contains fully decoded (x-www-form-urlencoded/multipart/json/text) input content
• On-Read = to handle other then current HEAD/GET/POST request methods
• On-Read-Post = to process raw POSTed data
• On-Read-Websocket = to process READ action on client's port using websocket
• On-Close-Websocket = used when client closes websocket connection
• On-List-Dir = to provide own directory listing content
• On-Not-Found = to provide a custom content, when requested file is not found

For more complete server setup check server-test.r3 script.

Setup a service on Linux

The best way to start a Linux service that persists through a boot is to create a systemd service. Here are the steps to create a systemd service:

1. Create a new service file in the /etc/systemd/system directory using a text editor. For example, create a file named mywebserver.service.

2. Inside the service file, define the service by providing a [Unit] section with a Description and After directive, and a [Service] section with the ExecStart directive. For example:

[Unit]
Description=My Rebol Web Server
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rebol3 -qs /path/to/server/script.r3
Restart=always
User=rebol
Group=www-data

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Save the service file and reload the systemd daemon to pick up the new service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

4. Enable the service to start at boot:

sudo systemctl enable mywebserver.service

5. Start the service:

sudo systemctl start mywebserver.service

The service should now be running and will start automatically on boot. You can use the systemctl command to manage the service, such as to stop or restart it:

sudo systemctl stop mywebserver.service
sudo systemctl restart mywebserver.service

Or to get a status of the service:

sudo systemctl status mywebserver.service