6 ms·

Go comes with a built in web server that can serve static web pages easily. What's the point of this?

ojanik 11y ago
I was wandering the same thing. It takes only few lines to set this one up: https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer
beefsack 11y ago
Specifically: https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer
ashark 11y ago
It's handy to have a program, easily compiled for multiple platforms, that can be told to simply serve a given directory, with optional HTTPS support, and no config files or dependencies—just cross-compile to the target arch/OS, scp it over, and run. Without, you know, having to write it, even if Go's libraries make it fairly easy to do so. My go-to (haha) for this is Goserve[1]. I'm not sure why I'd switch to this, except that it may now have more eyes on it after today's publicity (it's already got more stars than Goserve—a little advertising goes a long way) [1] https://github.com/johnsto/goserve https://github.com/johnsto/goserve
- gopowerranger 11y ago
  So 20 or so lines of code is too tough? How much work is involved integrating this server into an app?
  - skywhopper 11y ago
    Not sure why you think this server was written to integrate into apps. If you can't think of a use for it, that's fine. But lots of other people do have uses for simple static web servers. Including people who don't have the knowledge, time, or patience to hand code a 20 line Go program every time they want to use one.
    - gopowerranger 11y ago
      By integrate I meant interacting with your program, whatever that may be. With the go server, you get everything this program has without the concern of the code going stale or dying should the author abandon it.
- biomcgary 11y ago
  Static file serving is a great tutorial project in Go. I wrote mine (https://github.com/biorisk/httpfolder https://github.com/biorisk/httpfolder) to include a file upload option too, but did not add some of the nicer features, e.g., https, in your project.
skywhopper 11y ago
Maybe because you don't have to write it yourself? $ go get github.com/m3ng9i/ran && ran
- gopowerranger 11y ago
  How much work is involved integrating this server into your application versus writing 20 lines of Go code? Or less. Maybe more.
  - conradk 11y ago
    Not necessarily. In addition, this kind of program can be really useful for development. I use "python3 -m http.server" a lot when I'm just testing a bit of HTML/JS and don't want to setup a whole virtual host within Nginx/Apache. It just starts a static file server, on any platform.
    - gopowerranger 11y ago
      So just like go except with benefits.
neurohax 11y ago
As I understand, the point is: a simple and practical bash command to http-serve the current directory (implemented in Go).
- gopowerranger 11y ago
  So everything Go already does but in bash.

I was wandering the same thing. It takes only few lines to set this one up: https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer

beefsack 11y ago

Specifically: https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer https://golang.org/pkg/net/http/#FileServer

ashark 11y ago

It's handy to have a program, easily compiled for multiple platforms, that can be told to simply serve a given directory, with optional HTTPS support, and no config files or dependencies—just cross-compile to the target arch/OS, scp it over, and run. Without, you know, having to write it, even if Go's libraries make it fairly easy to do so. My go-to (haha) for this is Goserve[1]. I'm not sure why I'd switch to this, except that it may now have more eyes on it after today's publicity (it's already got more stars than Goserve—a little advertising goes a long way) [1] https://github.com/johnsto/goserve https://github.com/johnsto/goserve

gopowerranger 11y ago
So 20 or so lines of code is too tough? How much work is involved integrating this server into an app?
- skywhopper 11y ago
  Not sure why you think this server was written to integrate into apps. If you can't think of a use for it, that's fine. But lots of other people do have uses for simple static web servers. Including people who don't have the knowledge, time, or patience to hand code a 20 line Go program every time they want to use one.
  - gopowerranger 11y ago
    By integrate I meant interacting with your program, whatever that may be. With the go server, you get everything this program has without the concern of the code going stale or dying should the author abandon it.
biomcgary 11y ago
Static file serving is a great tutorial project in Go. I wrote mine (https://github.com/biorisk/httpfolder https://github.com/biorisk/httpfolder) to include a file upload option too, but did not add some of the nicer features, e.g., https, in your project.

skywhopper 11y ago

Maybe because you don't have to write it yourself? $ go get github.com/m3ng9i/ran && ran

gopowerranger 11y ago
How much work is involved integrating this server into your application versus writing 20 lines of Go code? Or less. Maybe more.
- conradk 11y ago
  Not necessarily. In addition, this kind of program can be really useful for development. I use "python3 -m http.server" a lot when I'm just testing a bit of HTML/JS and don't want to setup a whole virtual host within Nginx/Apache. It just starts a static file server, on any platform.
  - gopowerranger 11y ago
    So just like go except with benefits.

neurohax 11y ago

As I understand, the point is: a simple and practical bash command to http-serve the current directory (implemented in Go).

gopowerranger 11y ago
So everything Go already does but in bash.