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Does anyone actually use it? I’ve never even heard of this thing and I’m a professional Java dev

simiones 4y ago
Given that it was only added in Java 18 and it is a simple static file server (no way to run custom code when serving a URL), I don't think it's in any way widely used at the moment. Edit: or will ever be. It is definitely explicitly not an equivalent of go's net/http. Indeed, there is probably never going to be an equivalent of net/http in the Java stdlib (since they prefer to rely on the user choosing one of the existing server frameworks, such as Jetty).
- philosopher1234 4y ago
  From your description it sounds like it is a completely different beast from net/http
  - simiones 4y ago
    Yes, per the JEP that was linked, it is only intended as a toy server for quick example code, essentially: > Provide a command-line tool to start a minimal web server that serves static files only. No CGI or servlet-like functionality is available. This tool will be useful for prototyping, ad-hoc coding, and testing purposes, particularly in educational contexts. > It is not a goal to provide a feature-rich or commercial-grade server. Far better alternatives exist in the form of server frameworks (e.g., Jetty, Netty, and Grizzly) and production servers (e.g., Apache Tomcat, Apache httpd, and NGINX).
- dmux 4y ago
  The specific web server in the JEP is relatively new, but there has been an http server implementaion since 1.6: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/jre/api/net/httpserver/spec/com/sun/net/httpserver/HttpServer.html https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/jre/api/net/httpserver...
  - simiones 4y ago
    Cool, I had no idea about this. I see it's still available after the modularization effort, and it is: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/18/docs/api/jdk.httpserver/module-summary.html https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/18/docs/api/jdk.https...

Given that it was only added in Java 18 and it is a simple static file server (no way to run custom code when serving a URL), I don't think it's in any way widely used at the moment. Edit: or will ever be. It is definitely explicitly not an equivalent of go's net/http. Indeed, there is probably never going to be an equivalent of net/http in the Java stdlib (since they prefer to rely on the user choosing one of the existing server frameworks, such as Jetty).

philosopher1234 4y ago
From your description it sounds like it is a completely different beast from net/http
- simiones 4y ago
  Yes, per the JEP that was linked, it is only intended as a toy server for quick example code, essentially: > Provide a command-line tool to start a minimal web server that serves static files only. No CGI or servlet-like functionality is available. This tool will be useful for prototyping, ad-hoc coding, and testing purposes, particularly in educational contexts. > It is not a goal to provide a feature-rich or commercial-grade server. Far better alternatives exist in the form of server frameworks (e.g., Jetty, Netty, and Grizzly) and production servers (e.g., Apache Tomcat, Apache httpd, and NGINX).
dmux 4y ago
The specific web server in the JEP is relatively new, but there has been an http server implementaion since 1.6: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/jre/api/net/httpserver/spec/com/sun/net/httpserver/HttpServer.html https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/jre/api/net/httpserver...
- simiones 4y ago
  Cool, I had no idea about this. I see it's still available after the modularization effort, and it is: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/18/docs/api/jdk.httpserver/module-summary.html https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/18/docs/api/jdk.https...