Http-Server

Overview

Http-Server is a low-level C++ HTTP/1.1 server library. It exposes a small API under the http namespace for request parsing, response generation, connection management, and request and response body handling.

Contract

What it does

• Accepts HTTP/1.1 requests.
• Parses request lines, headers, and request bodies.
• Builds responses with headers and body data.
• Manages connections and request handling in an event-driven loop.

What it does not do

• It is not a routing framework.
• It does not provide middleware, templates, or session management.
• It does not hide HTTP details from the caller.

Defaults

Setting	Default
Port	8080
Pending connections	128
Concurrent connections	128
Idle timeout	60 seconds
Logging	Disabled

Limits

• Request line limit: 8 KB.
• Header block limit: 8 KB.
• Read buffer size: 8 KB.
• Response version is fixed to HTTP/1.1.

Ownership and Lifetime

• HttpRequest is read-only from user code.
• HttpResponse is mutated by the request handler.
• Request and response body handling is stateful; repeated reads continue from the current position.
• Moving a request or response must preserve stream state in the destination object.

Thread Safety

• Treat request and response objects as single-threaded, per-request objects.
• Do not share stream objects across threads unless you own the synchronization.
• Logging is synchronized internally.

Error Model

• Most protocol and stream failures are reported through exceptions.
• Invalid requests, malformed headers, and unsupported protocol states fail fast.
• Body-related errors are surfaced through library exceptions.

Build Instructions

You can build the library using either CMake or the provided script.

CMake

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build

Script

sh ./build.sh --help

Install

cmake --install build

For a custom install prefix:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/your/custom/path
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

Using the Library

CMake

find_package(http REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(your_target_name PRIVATE http::http)

Include

#include "http/http.hpp"

Core Types

• HttpServer: server entry point.
• HttpServerConfig: server settings.
• HttpRequest: incoming request view.
• HttpResponse: outgoing response object.

Example

#include "http/http.hpp"

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

int main()
{
    try
    {
        http::HttpServerConfig config;
        config.port = 8080;

        http::HttpServer server(config, [](const http::HttpRequest &, http::HttpResponse &response) {
            response.set_status_code(http::status_codes::OK);
            response.set_reason_phrase("OK");
            response.set_header("Content-Type", "text/plain");

            std::string body = "Hello, World!";
            response.set_body(std::vector<char>(body.begin(), body.end()));
        });

        server.start();
    }
    catch (const std::exception &e)
    {
        std::cerr << "Error: " << e.what() << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Notes

• Public headers are in include/http/.
• The exported CMake target is http::http.
• The library uses platform-specific socket/event backends under the hood.