A high-performance web server written in pure C, inspired by Nginx architecture.
- Event-driven architecture using epoll for high performance
- Multi-threaded worker processes for concurrent connections
- HTTP/1.1 protocol support
- Static file serving with MIME type detection
- Access and error logging
- Configurable via command line options
- Non-blocking I/O for scalability
- Zero external dependencies - pure C implementation
┌─────────────┐
│ Master │
│ Process │
└──────┬──────┘
│
├─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ │ │ │
┌───▼───┐ ┌───▼───┐ ┌───▼───┐ ┌───▼───┐
│Worker 1│ │Worker 2│ │Worker 3│ │Worker N│
└───┬───┘ └───┬───┘ └───┬───┘ └───┬───┘
│ │ │ │
┌───▼─────────────▼─────────────▼─────────────▼───┐
│ Event Loop (epoll) │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
# Build the project
make
# Clean build artifacts
make clean
# Rebuild from scratch
make rebuild
# Build with debug symbols
make debug
# Start server with default settings (port 8080, 4 workers)
./bin/nginx
# Start server on custom port
./bin/nginx -p 9000
# Start with specific number of workers
./bin/nginx -w 8
# Run as daemon
./bin/nginx -d
# Test configuration
./bin/nginx -t
# Show help
./bin/nginx -h
# Show version
./bin/nginx -v
| Option | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
-p, --port PORT | Set listen port | 8080 |
-w, --workers NUM | Number of worker processes | 4 |
-d, --daemon | Run as daemon | false |
-t, --test | Test configuration | - |
-v, --version | Show version | - |
-h, --help | Show help | - |
nginx-c/
├── src/
│ ├── nginx.c # Main entry point
│ ├── config.h/c # Configuration management
│ ├── master.c/h # Master process management
│ ├── worker.c/h # Worker process implementation
│ ├── event.c/h # Event loop (epoll wrapper)
│ ├── http.c/h # HTTP protocol parsing
│ └── log.c/h # Logging system
├── html/ # Static files directory
│ └── index.html # Default welcome page
├── logs/ # Log files directory
├── obj/ # Build objects
├── bin/ # Build output
└── Makefile # Build configuration
The server uses a simple configuration system:
typedef struct {
int port; // Listen port
int worker_processes; // Number of workers
int worker_connections; // Connections per worker
char access_log[MAX_PATH_LEN];
char error_log[MAX_PATH_LEN];
char pid_file[MAX_PATH_LEN];
int daemon;
server_config_t server;
} global_config_t;
Default settings:
- Port: 8080
- Workers: 4
- Document Root:
./html - Index file:
index.html
Start the server and access it in a browser:
./bin/nginx
# Then visit: http://localhost:8080
Test with curl:
curl http://localhost:8080
curl -I http://localhost:8080
Logs are written to:
logs/access.log- HTTP access logslogs/error.log- Error messages
Log format:
[2025-02-15 10:30:45.123] [INFO] Server listening on port 8080
127.0.0.1 - - [15/Feb/2025:10:30:50 +0000] "GET /index.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234
- HTTP Methods: GET, POST, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS
- Keep-alive connections
- Static file serving with MIME types
- Directory listing with index files
- Non-blocking I/O
- Signal handling (SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGHUP)
The server is designed for high performance:
- Uses edge-triggered epoll
- Non-blocking sockets
- Multi-threaded workers
- Minimal memory copying
- Input validation
- Buffer overflow protection
- Path traversal prevention (basic)
- Resource limits
This is an educational project demonstrating web server implementation.
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.
- Configuration file support (nginx.conf style)
- HTTPS/TLS support
- FastCGI support
- gzip compression
- Virtual hosts
- URL rewriting
- Reverse proxy
- Load balancing
- WebSocket support
- Cache system
- Rate limiting
Created as a demonstration of web server implementation in pure C.
35/F,Tencent Building,Kejizhongyi Avenue,Nanshan District,Shenzhen
