A cross platform, zero-config, dependency free, pure Go local file server that serves a directory on your file system over HTTP and automatically reloads HTML files in the browser when the document or any of its dependencies have changed.
The simplest way to install this tool is by using the Go command. Simply run
go install github.com/meblum/serv@latest
If you want to run the server without installing it, you can just run
go run github.com/meblum/serv@latest
Running the serv command starts a local server that serves the current directory on port 8080 and automatically shuts down after 30 minutes of idle time (no request to the server).
Auto shutdown can be configured with the --shutdown-after flag where you can pass any value that is understood by the Go time.ParseDuration function, for example --shutdown-after=1.5h (or --shutdown-after=0 to disable shutdown).
Use serv path/to/directory to specify a different directory to serve. Navigating to a directory in the browser will return an auto generated index of the directory, if an index.html file is present in the directory, it will be served instead. By default, all HTML documents will be injected with a tiny script which will tell the browser to reload when a change is detected.
Use the --no-reload flag to simply serve the directory without reloading, and --port to use an alternative port.
A main design goal was to keep this tool extremely simple. A few optional flags may be set.
As an example:
serv --no-reload --port=4200 --shutdown-after=2h path/to/dir
run serv --help to display the following help message:
Usage (v0.0.11): serv [-options] [directory (default ".")]
-no-reload
serve without reloading on file update
-port int
port to serve on (default 8080)
-shutdown-after duration
shutdown after idle time ("0" for no shutdown) (default 30m0s)
The server adds a tiny script to served HTML files. The script keeps a long-running HTTP connection between the document and the server, and the server keeps a mapping of files the HTML document depends on. The server notifies the script when a file has changed and the script reloads the page.
You can use and extend the functionality of this tool. The module exposes a single FileServer function that returns the file server as an http.Handler. Please refer to the go doc for more information.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2023 Meir Blumenfeld
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.