http-server, a simple HTTP file server

http-server is a static file server with zero dependencies: just one binary to run. It also supports:

• CORS support: by setting the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to *. HEAD requests, although unnecessary when doing CORS on GET requests, are also supported.
• Authentication support: via either plain username and password or through a JWT token, with optional support for validating if the token isn't expired.
• Directory listing: if no index.html or index.htm files are present in the directory, a directory listing page will show instead.
• Markdown support: if a README.md or readme.md file is present in the directory during directory listing, it will be rendered as HTML. Additional support for GitHub-flavored markdown is also available.
• Fully air-gapped: the directory listing feature is fully air-gapped, meaning that it does not require any external resources to be loaded. This is useful for environments where internet access is not available.

The app is available both as a standalone binary and as a Docker container image.

Docker image

Find the latest version available here. latest will always map to the latest version, which could led you to download a newer major version that might contain a breaking change. I recommend using v2 for the tag, since it will always map to a stable version with all potential patches applied. This is the safest way to use to avoid any breaking changes.

# stable version 2
docker pull ghcr.io/patrickdappollonio/docker-http-server:v2

# pin to specific version
docker pull ghcr.io/patrickdappollonio/docker-http-server:v2.0.0

# bleeding edge version (will always update to latest)
docker pull ghcr.io/patrickdappollonio/docker-http-server:latest

Configuring the container

There are three ways to configure the container:

• Using a YAML configuration file: create a configuration file named .http-server.yaml. This file cannot be accessed using the file explorer mode nor it will show up in the directory listing. The variable names match the command line flags. For example, to set --disable-markdown, you can use disable-markdown: true in the configuration file.
• Using environment variables: The environment variables match the command line flags. For example, to set --disable-markdown, you can use DISABLE_MARKDOWN=true as an environment variable. Additionally, and to avoid collisions, all environment variables can be prefixed with FILE_SERVER_. For example, to set --path parameter, which would collide with your Operating System's $PATH, you can use instead FILE_SERVER_PATH.
• Overwriting the command and args: Overriding the arguments passed to the container is also possible. For Docker, see overriding CMD but keep the ENTRYPOINT intact. For docker compose, see overriding the command. For Kubernetes, see overriding command and args.

Static binary

You can download the latest version from the Releases page.

Usage options

The following options are available.

A simple HTTP server and a directory listing tool.

Usage:
  http-server [flags]

Flags:
      --banner string          markdown text to be rendered at the top of the directory listing page
      --cors                   enable CORS support by setting the "Access-Control-Allow-Origin" header to "*"
      --disable-cache-buster   disable the cache buster for assets from the directory listing feature
      --disable-etag           disable ETag header generation
      --disable-markdown       disable the markdown rendering feature
      --ensure-unexpired-jwt   enable time validation for JWT claims "exp" and "nbf"
      --gzip                   enable gzip compression for supported content-types
  -h, --help                   help for http-server
      --hide-links             hide the links to this project's source code
      --jwt-key string         signing key for JWT authentication
      --markdown-before-dir    render markdown content before the directory listing
      --password string        password for basic authentication
  -d, --path string            path to the directory you want to serve (default "./")
      --pathprefix string      path prefix for the URL where the server will listen on (default "/")
  -p, --port int               port to configure the server to listen on (default 5000)
      --title string           title of the directory listing page
      --username string        username for basic authentication
  -v, --version                version for http-server

Detailed configuration

All the available configuration options are documented in the docs. You can find them here.