Description
The aim of this project is to increase your familiarity with socket programming, multi-threading, and the HTTP protocol. Your task is to write a basic
HTTP server that responds correctly to a limited set of GET requests. The
HTTP server must return valid response headers for a range of files and
paths.
Your HTTP Server must be written in C. Submissions that do not compile
and run on a NeCTAR instance may receive zero marks. You must write your
own HTTP handling code, you may not use existing HTTP libraries.
Project Details
Your task is to write a simple HTTP Server. There is only a limited range
of content that needs to be served, and it only needs to respond to GET
requests. The content that needs to be served is as follows:
Content File Extension
HTML .html
JPEG .jpg
CSS .css
JavaScript .js
You can assume that all files have a valid file extension.
The minimum requirement is that the server implements HTTP 1.0, and
as such, your server does not have to support pipelining or persistent connections. Your server should be able to handle multiple incoming requests
by making use of Pthreads (or similar concurrent programming technique)
to process and respond to each incoming request.
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Your server program must uses the following command line arguments:
• port number
• string path to root web directory
The port number will constitute the port the server will listen for connections on. The string path to the root web directory points to the directory
that contains the content that is to be served. For example:
“/home/comp30023/website”
All paths requested by a client should be treated as relative to the path
specified on the command line. For example, if a request was received with
the path /css/style.css it would be expected to be found at:
“/home/comp30023/website/css/style.css”
The server must support responding with either a 200 response containing
the requested file, or a 404 response if the requested file is not found. You can
assume that request headers will be valid, but paths to non-existent files may
be requested, and if they are a 404 should be returned. Response headers
should be valid and must included at a minimum:
• Http Status
• Content-type
Program execution / command line arguments
To run your server program on your NeCTAR cloud instance prompt:
./server [port number] [path to web root]
where:
• [port number] is a valid port number (e.g., 8080), and
• [path to web root] is a valid path (e.g., /home/comp30023/website)
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Submission details
Please include your name and login id in a comment at the top of each
file. Our plan is to directly harvest your submissions on the due date from
your provided GitLab git account. You must create a repository called
comp30023-2018-project-1 in your GitLab account and push your submission to it.
You must submit program file(s), including a Makefile. Make sure that
your Makefile, header files and source files are added/committed and pushed
to your GitLab repository. Do not add/commit object files or executables.
Anything you want to mention about your submission, write a text file called
README.
• If you do not use your Git repository for the project you will NOT have
a submission and will be awarded zero marks.
• It should be possible to “checkout” the Git repository, then type make
clean and then make to produce the executable server.
• Late submissions will incur a deduction of 2 marks per day (or part
thereof).
• If you submit late, you MUST email the lecturer, Chris Culnane
cculnane@unimelb.edu.au.
Extension policy: If you believe you have a valid reason to require an
extension you must contact the lecturer, Chris Culnane cculnane@unimelb.edu.au
at the earliest opportunity, which in most instances should be well before the
submission deadline.
Requests for extensions are not automatic and are considered on a case
by case basis. You will be required to supply supporting evidence such as a
medical certificate. In addition, your git log file should illustrate the progress
made on the project up to the date of your request.
Plagiarism policy: You are reminded that all submitted project work in
this subject is to be your own individual work. Automated similarity checking
software will be used to compare submissions against each other and known
public source code. It is University policy that cheating by students in any
form is not permitted, and that work submitted for assessment purposes
must be the independent work of the student concerned.
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Using Git is an important step in the verification of authorship. You are
encouraged to commit regularly so that you have a record of your work. This
is also best practice when using version control software.
Assessment
Code that does not compile and run on a NeCTAR will be awarded zero
marks. Your submission will be tested and marked with the following criteria:
• Compiles from Git (3 marks)
– Code successfully added to your git repository
– Make file included (and it works)
– Clarity of code – appropriate comments and documentation where
necessary
– Code correctly implements command line interface
• Server runs and sends valid responses (4 marks)
– Code runs on a NeCTAR instance without seg faulting
– Server sends a valid HTTP 200 response in reply to a GET request
for an HTML file located in web root directory
– Server sends a valid HTTP 404 response in reply to a GET request
for a non-existent file in the web root directory
• Server MIME types and paths (4 marks)
– Server sends a valid HTTP 200 response with the correct MIME
type in reply to a GET request for either a JavaScript or CSS file
located in web root directory
– Server sends a valid HTTP 200 response with the correct MIME
type in reply to a GET request for a JPEG file located in web
root directory
– Server sends a valid HTTP 200 response with the correct MIME
type in reply to a GET request with a path below the web root for
any of the specified file types (e.g. GET /css/style.css HTTP/1.0)
• Multi-threading (4 marks)
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– Server uses Pthreads (or similar concurrent programming technique) to process incoming requests and sending responses
– Server can process and respond to at least two HTTP requests
concurrently
Testing your server
Your server will be partially evaluated using automated testing. A sample
test script is provided in the repository:
https://gitlab.eng.unimelb.edu.au/cculnane/COMP30023Assignment1TestScript
The repository contains a shell script and sample HTML, CSS, JavaScript,
and JPEG files. You may use this script to test your server successfully passes
the following assessment criteria:
• Server runs and sends valid responses (4 marks)
• Server MIME types and paths (4 marks)
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