HTTP Server Design and
Implementation from Scratch
Network Programming (UCS 413)
HTTP Server: Introduction
• An HTTP Server is software that understands URLs (web
addresses) and HTTP (the protocol browser uses to view
pages).
• An HTTP Server can be accessed through the domain names
of the websites it stores and it delivers the content of these
hosted websites to the end user’s device.
HTTP Server: Introduction
• Lets have a look at the interaction between
Server and Web Browser.
Outline of client-server interaction
HTTP Client Request
• Client needs to connect to the server every time.
• When we want to connect to the server, we type some URL/Address
of the website in the browser
• To display the page, browser fetches the file index.html from a web
server.
• For example, www.example.com (Defaults: port 80, file index.html,
http protocol).
• On entering link www.example.com in the web browser, the web
browser re-constructs the URL/Address as:
http://www.example.com:80
• This reconstructed URL web-browsers send to the servers every time
we navigate the internet pages.
• If the server is configured to certain default pages. Like, server has a
default web page, it is displayed when we visit a website on that
server.
• That web page is decided by the name of the file. Some servers
have public.html and some will have index.html.
HTTP Client Request
• Lets consider index.html as default page.
• When browser Sends HTTP request to server, a HTTP
header is sent.
• This HTTP Request is received at Server’s end, which is
processed by the server
HTTP Server Response
• The client sent some headers to HTTP server and
expects same in-return.
• This is the HTTP response format the web-browser is
expecting from Server
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 1: Creating socket file descriptor
if ((server_fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) == 0)
{
perror("In socket");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
// This is a TCP socket
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 2: Create a struct sockaddr_in address;
#define PORT 80 //define with header files
address.sin_family = AF_INET;
address.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
address.sin_port = htons( PORT );
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 3: Bind server_fd and address
if (bind(server_fd, (struct sockaddr *)&address,
sizeof(address) ) <0)
{
perror("In bind");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 4: Listen on server_fd
if (listen(server_fd, 10) < 0)
{
perror("In listen");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
• Here 10 is queue_limit, i.e. number of active
participants that can “wait” for a connection
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 5: Accept client request using accept()
int addrlen = sizeof(address);
while(1) // infinite while loop for accepting request of different clients
{
if ((new_socket = accept(server_fd, (struct sockaddr *)&address,
(socklen_t*)&addrlen))<0)
{
perror("In accept");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
} //end while(1)
• Note that “new_socket “ will be used for further communication
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 6: Read and Print data received from client
while(1)
{
if ((new_socket = accept(server_fd,………
……………………………………………………………..
char buffer[30000] = {0};
valread = read( new_socket , buffer, 30000);
printf("%s\n",buffer );
} //end while(1)
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 7: Create HTTP Response in a String
char *server_response = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\nContent-Type:
text/html\nContent-Length: 72\n\n <!DOCTYPE
HTML><HTML><body><h1>Hello Thapar
Institute</h1></body></HTML>";
while(1)
{
…………………..
}
• Here, we are sending HTTP response header appended
with HTML content <html><body><h1>Hello Thapar
Institute</h2></body></html>
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 7: Send the Response to client and close new_socket
char *server_response = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\nContent-Type:
text/html\nContent-Length: 72\n\n <!DOCTYPE
HTML><HTML><body><h1>Hello Thapar Institute
</h1></body></HTML>";
while(1)
{
………accept()…………..
…….print client data….
write(new_socket , server_response , strlen(server_response));
printf("-------Response sent to client---------\n");
close(new_socket);
}//end while(1)
