backend-framework

A minimal HTTP server framework written in C. This project exposes a tiny routing API for registering handlers and receiving parsed request metadata.

Features

• TCP HTTP server setup with socket creation, SO_REUSEADDR | SO_REUSEPORT, bind, listen, and accept flow.
• Route registration API via add_route(server *web_server, char *path, void (*func)(server *)).
• Request-line parsing for method, URL, and HTTP version.
• Header parsing into key/value pairs (web_server->headers).
• Query-string argument parsing into key/value pairs (web_server->args) for matched routes.
• Per-route callbacks that receive the active server context.
• Simple built-in HTTP response (200 OK with an HTML body).
• Connection lifecycle helpers: create, accept loop, clear request state, and close server.

Project Structure

.
├── main.c              # Example app wiring routes to handlers
├── server/
│   ├── server.h        # Public data structures and API
│   └── server.c        # Socket, parser, routing, and response implementation
└── backend             # Prebuilt binary (if present)

Build

Compile with GCC:

gcc -Wall -Wextra -pedantic main.c server/server.c -o backend

Run

./backend

The sample app in main.c starts on port 8000 and registers:

• /something
• /something/param (reads query args in the handler)

Example Requests

curl "http://127.0.0.1:8000/something"
curl "http://127.0.0.1:8000/something/param?name=codex&lang=c"

Minimal Usage Example

#include "server/server.h"

void hello(server *web_server) {
  // Access parsed fields:
  // web_server->method, web_server->url, web_server->headers, web_server->args
}

int main() {
  server *app = create_server(8000);
  add_route(app, "/hello", hello);
  accept_clients(app);
  close_server(app);
  return 0;
}

Notes

This is intentionally lightweight and low-level. It is useful as a learning or experimentation base for HTTP parsing and routing in C.