🖥️ Based HTTP Server (Python)

This project is a fully working HTTP/1.1 server built from scratch using only Python sockets.

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📋 Features

• Accepts multiple concurrent TCP connections (threaded server)
• Handles basic GET and POST requests
• Supports file serving from a directory
• Supports gzip compression (Content-Encoding: gzip) if requested
• Handles persistent connections (Connection: keep-alive)
• Cleanly closes connections when Connection: close header is received
• Parses incoming HTTP requests manually (no external libraries)
• Dynamically generates appropriate HTTP responses

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🚀 How to Run Locally

# Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/prodmatze/based-http-server-python.git
cd based-http-server-python

# Run the server
python3 app/main.py

The server will listen on localhost:4221.

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🧪 Example Usage

Basic GET request:

curl http://localhost:4221/

Echo endpoint:

curl http://localhost:4221/echo/hello
# Response: "hello"

User-Agent endpoint:

curl -A "my-custom-agent" http://localhost:4221/user-agent
# Response: "my-custom-agent"

File download:

curl http://localhost:4221/files/filename.txt

Request gzip compressed response:

curl --compressed http://localhost:4221/echo/hello

Persistent connections:

curl --keepalive-time 60 http://localhost:4221/echo/keepalive

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🛠️ Technologies Used

• Python 3
• Standard Library only (socket, threading, gzip, os)

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✨ Future Improvements (Optional)

• Better parsing to support HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/2.0 versions
• Support for additional HTTP methods (PUT, DELETE)
• Improved error handling for file operations
• Timeout handling for idle persistent connections
• Refactor project-structure a little (seperate Class for response, etc)

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This project was created as part of the Codecrafters.io "Build Your Own HTTP Server" challenge, where the goal was to reimplement core HTTP server functionality step-by-step.