DEADWIRE HTTPD

A tiny HTTP/1.0 static file server with explicit platform backends.

No HTTP framework. No server library. No hidden runtime layer.

Current milestone

DEADWIRE HTTPD v1.0.0 STABLE

The v1.0.0 target is the stable static-file core across Windows, Linux, and macOS.

DEADWIRE is intentionally small. It is not a TLS server, not an async framework, and not an internet-facing daemon.

Platform support

Windows -> WinSock2 + Kernel32 backend
Linux   -> raw Linux syscall backend
macOS   -> POSIX socket backend

The Makefile selects the backend automatically:

Windows_NT -> build/deadwire.exe
Linux      -> build/deadwire
Darwin     -> build/deadwire

Current scope

DEADWIRE does one narrow job:

• bind 127.0.0.1:18080 by default
• accept an optional port argument: deadwire 19090
• accept an optional bind argument: deadwire 19091 127.0.0.1
• accept 0.0.0.0 when explicitly requested
• accept blocking TCP clients
• parse GET <path> HTTP/...
• parse HEAD <path> HTTP/...
• serve files from public/
• render / as public/index.html
• return /health
• emit explicit Content-Type and Content-Length
• detect MIME for .html, .htm, .txt, .css, .js, and .svg
• print small structured request trace lines to stdout
• reject unsupported methods with 405
• reject path traversal with 403
• reject raw % paths until percent-decoding exists
• return missing files with 404
• close the connection after every response

Example request trace lines:

access status=200 route=static
access status=200 route=/health
access status=405 reason=method
access status=403 reason=forbidden
access status=404 reason=not-found

Windows build

Use a Windows toolchain that provides:

• make
• GNU assembler: as
• gcc for PE/COFF linking
• PowerShell

make clean
make doctor
make verify
make run

Manual tests:

build\deadwire.exe
curl.exe http://127.0.0.1:18080/health

build\deadwire.exe 19090
curl.exe http://127.0.0.1:19090/health

build\deadwire.exe 19091 127.0.0.1
curl.exe -I http://127.0.0.1:19091/health

Linux build

Use Linux with:

• make
• GNU assembler: as
• GNU linker: ld
• curl for verification

make clean
make doctor
make verify
make run

macOS build

Use macOS with:

• make
• C compiler: cc
• curl for verification

make clean
make doctor
make verify
make run

The macOS backend is intentionally direct POSIX socket code. It exists to make v1.0.0 tri-platform without pretending that Darwin uses the Linux syscall ABI.

Verify

make verify

Verification checks:

• /health returns deadwire: ok
• / returns Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
• /hello.txt returns Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
• /style.css returns Content-Type: text/css; charset=utf-8
• HEAD /health returns headers without a body where that backend supports the v1 request path
• POST / returns 405
• traversal attempts return 403
• a missing file returns 404
• structured request trace lines are emitted
• custom port works
• explicit loopback bind works
• explicit any-address bind works
• bad argument cases exit with fatal: bad arg
• generated Windows source contains expected release markers

Current limitations

• single-threaded blocking I/O
• HTTP/1.0 response style
• no TLS
• no keep-alive
• no chunked encoding
• no percent-decoding yet
• max request buffer: 4096 bytes
• max served file size: 65536 bytes
• Windows argument support is generated at build time

Release tags

v0.1.0  initial native server
v0.2.0  port arg
v0.3.0  bind arg
v0.4.0  log shape
v0.5.0  HEAD request
v0.6.0  any bind
v0.7.0  bad arg verify
v0.8.0  preflight verify
v0.9.0  release polish
v1.0.0  stable tri-platform core

Core design

Linux path:

socket -> bind -> listen -> accept -> read -> parse -> openat -> read -> write -> close

Windows path:

WSAStartup -> socket -> setsockopt -> bind -> listen -> accept -> recv -> parse -> CreateFileA -> ReadFile -> send -> closesocket

macOS path:

socket -> setsockopt -> bind -> listen -> accept -> recv -> parse -> fopen -> fread -> send -> close

Every platform boundary is explicit.