HopServer

HopServer is a simple, lightweight web server written in Python. It was built to be easy to use and understand, making it a great starting point for learning about web servers and HTTP request handling.

Features

• Static File Serving: Serve any file from the server's directory.
• Directory Listing: If you request a directory that doesn't have an index.html file, it will list the contents of the directory.
• CGI Script Execution: The server can execute Python scripts (.py files) and return their output.
• Customizable Request Handling: The server uses a case-based approach to handle requests, which can be easily extended to add new functionality.
• Error Handling: The server provides informative error pages for common issues like missing files.

How to Run

1. Make sure you have Python 3 installed.

2. Open your terminal and navigate to the project directory.

3. Run the server with the following command:

   python server.py

4. The server will start on port 7000. You can access it by opening your web browser and navigating to http://localhost:7000.

Usage

• Accessing Files: To access a file, simply navigate to its path in your browser. For example, to view the index.html file, go to http://localhost:7000/index.html.
• Directory Listing: To see a directory listing, navigate to the directory's path. For example, http://localhost:7000/.
• CGI Scripts: To execute a Python script, navigate to its path. For example, if you have a hello.py script, you can run it by going to http://localhost:7000/hello.py.

Project Structure

• server.py: The main entry point for the server. It creates an HTTPServer and uses the RequestHandler to handle requests.
• request_handler.py: This file contains the RequestHandler class, which defines how to handle GET requests. It uses a list of "cases" to decide how to respond to a request.
• cases.py: This file defines the different "cases" for handling requests. Each case has a test method to see if it applies to the current request and an act method to handle the request.
• index.html: A sample HTML file that is served by default.
• consider.md: Contains some notes and considerations about the server's implementation.

Dependencies

This project uses only standard Python libraries, so there are no external dependencies to install.

Limitations

• The server reads the entire content of a file into memory before serving it. This can be an issue when dealing with very large files.
• The server is single-threaded and can only handle one request at a time.