Rust HTTP File Server

A simple, fast, and multi-threaded HTTP server for serving files and directories, written in Rust.

Description

This project is a lightweight command-line HTTP server that serves the contents of the directory it's run from. It's built to be performant by handling multiple client connections concurrently using a thread pool. It also includes basic security to prevent path traversal attacks.

Features

• Directory Listing: Provides a clean, user-friendly HTML view of directories.
• File Serving: Serves any kind of file to the browser or a client like curl.
• Concurrent: Uses a thread pool to handle multiple requests at the same time.
• Secure: Prevents directory traversal attacks (e.g., requests for ../../..).
• Configurable: Allows setting the port and number of threads via command-line arguments.
• Efficient: Handles large files by streaming them in chunks.

Prerequisites

You need to have the Rust programming language and its package manager, Cargo, installed. You can get them from rustup.rs.

Building and Running

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <your-repository-url>
   cd <repository-name>

2. Build the project for release:

   cargo build --release

   The executable will be located at target/release/cmd.

3. Run the server:

   • With default settings (Port: 8123, Threads: 4):

     ./target/release/file_server

   • With a custom port (e.g., port 8080):

     ./target/release/file_server 8080

   • With a custom port and thread count (e.g., port 8080, 8 threads):

     ./target/release/file_server 8080 8

   Once running, open your web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:8123 (or your custom port).

Dependencies

This project uses the following external crate:

• urlencoding: For decoding URL-encoded characters in request paths.

Cargo will automatically handle the installation of this dependency when you build the project.