Minimal web server using netcat

Question

I\'m trying to set up a minimal web server using netcat (nc). When the browser calls up localhost:1500, for instance, it should show the result of a function (date

Answer 1

I had the same need/problem but nothing here worked for me (or I didn't understand everything), so this is my solution.

I post my minimal_http_server.sh (working with my /bin/bash (4.3.11) but not /bin/sh because of the redirection):

rm -f out
mkfifo out
trap "rm -f out" EXIT
while true
do
  cat out | nc -l 1500 > >( # parse the netcat output, to build the answer redirected to the pipe "out".
    export REQUEST=
    while read -r line
    do
      line=$(echo "$line" | tr -d '\r\n')

      if echo "$line" | grep -qE '^GET /' # if line starts with "GET /"
      then
        REQUEST=$(echo "$line" | cut -d ' ' -f2) # extract the request
      elif [ -z "$line" ] # empty line / end of request
      then
        # call a script here
        # Note: REQUEST is exported, so the script can parse it (to answer 200/403/404 status code + content)
        ./a_script.sh > out
      fi
    done
  )
done

And my a_script.sh (with your need):

#!/bin/bash

echo -e "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r"
echo "Content-type: text/html"
echo

date