libchttpx

libchttpx is a compact cross-platform HTTP/1.1 server library for C. It provides an App-based runtime, routing, middleware, request parsing, JSON binding and responses, uploads, request-scoped memory, CORS, cookies, i18n, logging, rate limiting, and graceful shutdown while keeping a direct C-style API.

The library is designed so handlers contain application logic instead of repetitive HTTP plumbing.

Highlights

• Linux and Windows support
• multiple independent HTTP servers inside one cHTTPX_App
• local direct server-to-server calls and remote HTTP/HTTPS calls
• route groups and {parameter} paths
• global, router, and route middleware with before/after phases
• typed path/query accessors and URL decoding
• request-scoped allocation, deferred cleanup, and named contexts
• JSON parsing, validation, normalization, binding, and builder responses
• multipart forms, multiple uploads, upload policies, and temporary-file cleanup
• request IDs and Accept-Language negotiation
• CORS, cookies, logging callbacks, and rate limiting
• configurable gzip response compression with Accept-Encoding negotiation
• optional built-in metrics with thread-safe snapshots and a Prometheus exporter
• configurable server limits and graceful shutdown

cHTTPX_ResFile() currently reads the complete file into memory. Streaming responses, sendfile(), and zero-copy output are not implemented in the current API.

Installation

Debian / Ubuntu via APT (recommended)

For Debian/Ubuntu on amd64, add the libchttpx APT repository once:

curl -fsSL https://netcorelink.github.io/libchttpx/apt/libchttpx.sources \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libchttpx.sources >/dev/null

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libchttpx-dev

After that, libchttpx updates are installed through the normal APT flow:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Remove the package:

sudo apt remove libchttpx-dev

Remove the repository itself:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libchttpx.sources
sudo apt update

The current repository uses Trusted: yes, so users do not need to install a separate GPG key. Package signing can be added later.

Compile an application after installation:

gcc server.c -o server $(pkg-config --cflags --libs libchttpx)

Other Linux distributions

Native packages are also attached to GitHub Releases:

Fedora / RHEL and compatible RPM distributions

sudo dnf install ./libchttpx-dev-*.rpm

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -U ./libchttpx-dev-*.pkg.tar.zst

Alpine Linux

sudo apk add --allow-untrusted ./libchttpx-dev_*.apk

Download the package for your distribution from GitHub Releases.

Legacy installer scripts

The existing shell and PowerShell installers are kept as compatibility fallbacks.

Linux:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/netcorelink/libchttpx/main/scripts/install.sh | sudo sh

Windows:

iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/netcorelink/libchttpx/main/scripts/install.ps1 -UseBasicParsing | iex

Restart the terminal after the Windows installation so environment changes are visible.

Docker

Pull the published runtime image:

docker pull noneandundefined/libchttpx:latest

The image contains the installed shared library, headers, pkg-config metadata, and the cJSON runtime.

FROM noneandundefined/libchttpx:latest

COPY my-server /usr/local/bin/my-server
CMD ["/usr/local/bin/my-server"]

Build from source on Linux

Requirements: GCC, Make, pkg-config, cJSON development files, and zlib development files.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential pkg-config libcjson-dev zlib1g-dev

git clone https://github.com/netcorelink/libchttpx.git
cd libchttpx

make lin-lib
sudo make lib-install PREFIX=/usr/local DESTDIR=

Tests:

make test
make test-sanitize

Optional native TLS/HTTPS support uses OpenSSL and does not affect the default plain HTTP build:

sudo apt install -y libssl-dev openssl
make TLS=1 libchttpx.so
make test-tls

See Native TLS / HTTPS for server certificates, HTTPS remote calls, custom CA verification, and mTLS.

Response compression is included in the standard build. zlib is a normal libchttpx dependency; applications enable compression at runtime with cHTTPX_CompressionUse() and configure minimum size, level, MIME policy, or custom providers in code.

make test-compression

TLS remains independently optional: make TLS=1 libchttpx.so. See Response compression.

Build from source on Windows

Use MinGW/GCC. The Windows build uses the bundled lib/cjson source and requires zlib (for MSYS2/MinGW64: mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib).

git clone https://github.com/netcorelink/libchttpx.git
cd libchttpx

make win-lib
make test-win

The generated DLL/import library and headers are copied into tools/.

Documentation

Detailed documentation is split by functionality:

• Documentation index
• App runtime, multiple servers, AppRemote, Call and CallEx
• Server configuration, limits, lifecycle and error codes
• Native TLS / HTTPS
• Response compression
• Metrics and Prometheus exporter
• Routing and route groups
• Middleware
• Requests, headers, params, queries and body access
• Responses and ownership
• JSON binding, validation and JSON builder
• Request-scoped memory and contexts
• Uploads, multipart forms and MIME helpers
• CORS
• Cookies
• Request IDs and i18n
• Logging
• Rate limiting
• WebSocket API — experimental

License

BSD 3-Clause. See LICENSE.