80 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
80 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
# cHTTP
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This is an HTTP client and server library for C.
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Here are some examples of how it looks like on the client and server. If you want to learn more, go through the files in `examples/` (they are intended to be skimmed in order).
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Here is a client performing a GET request:
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```c
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#include <chttp.h>
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int main(void)
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{
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http_global_init();
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HTTP_String headers[] = {
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HTTP_STR("User-Agent: cHTTP"),
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};
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HTTP_RequestHandle handle;
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HTTP_Response *res = http_get(
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HTTP_STR("http://example.com/index.html"),
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headers, HTTP_COUNT(headers),
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&handle
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);
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fwrite(res->body.ptr, 1, res->body.ptr, stdout);
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http_request_free(handle);
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http_global_free();
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return 0;
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}
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```
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And this is an HTTP server:
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```c
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#include <http.h>
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int main(void)
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{
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HTTP_Server *server = http_server_init(HTTP_STR("127.0.0.1"), 8080);
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for (;;) {
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HTTP_Request *req;
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HTTP_ResponseHandle res;
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http_server_wait(server, &res, &res);
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HTTP_String path = req->url.path;
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printf("requested path [%.*s]\n", HTTP_UNPACK(req->url.path));
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http_response_status(res, 200);
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http_response_header(res, "Content-Type: text/plain");
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http_response_body(res, HTTP_STR("Hello"));
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http_response_body(res, HTTP_STR(", world!"));
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http_response_done(res);
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}
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http_server_free(server);
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return 0;
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}
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```
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## Use Cases
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cHTTP is perfect for tooling or production environments of limited scale (up to about 1000 concurrent connections). To scale it further, users can take cHTTP's I/O independant HTTP state machine and use it in conjunction with more scalable I/O solutions (see examples/engine).
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## Why another HTTP library?
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This is my attempt at solving the "HTTP problem" for the C language. Writing C programs that behave as or interact with web services is always more painful than necessary in C. You either need to use `libcurl` which is overkill in most situations or link a large scale web servers to serve simple pages. This library targets smaller scale use-cases and tries to be as nice as possible to work with. Even then, it is fast. No performance is left on the table unless there is a specific reason. And if you do want to work at larger scales by using more sophisticate I/O systems (io_uring, I/O completion ports, etc) you can reuse the core state machine of the library that is I/O independant.
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## Features & Limitations
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* HTTP/1.1 server & client
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* Cross-platform (Windows & Linux)
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* TLS (HTTPS) support using OpenSSL
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* Minimal dependencies (libc and OpenSSL)
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* Non-blocking design based on `poll()`
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* I/O independant core reusable with more sophisticated I/O models
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* Virtual hosts
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* Single-threaded
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