HTTP Server from Scratch

"Imagine not using AI in the Lord's year 2025..." — ThePrimeagen

The Objective

To build a fully functional HTTP/1.1 server without touching Actix, Axum, or Tokio. We are going raw std::net::TcpListener to understand the magic behind the frameworks.

This project follows The Codeholic / ThePrimeagen's "From TCP to HTTP" course, but translated from Go to Rust.

Specs:

• Lang: Rust 🦀
• Crates Allowed: std only (maybe anyhow if I get lazy)
• Protocol: HTTP/1.1 (RFC 9110 / 9112)

Implementation Roadmap

Phase 1: Setup

Before we speak HTTP, we must master the socket.

• Ch 1: HTTP Streams
  • Goal: Create a continuous read loop that doesn't panic on empty bytes.
• Ch 2: TCP
  • Goal: Bind std::net::TcpListener to port 4221 and handle the 3-way handshake.

Phase 2: Parsing Inbound (Request)

Turning raw bytes into a strongly typed Rust struct.

• Ch 3: Requests
  • Goal: Define the Request struct and basic lifecycle.
• Ch 4: Request Lines
  • Goal: Parse the "start-line": METHOD URI VERSION (e.g., GET /index.html HTTP/1.1).
• Ch 5: HTTP Headers
  • Goal: Parse Key: Value pairs into a HashMap, handling the \r\n delimiters.
• Ch 6: HTTP Body
  • Goal: Read the payload based on Content-Length (avoiding the infinite hang).

Phase 3: Parsing Outbound (Response)

Sending data back without breaking the client.

• Ch 7: HTTP Responses
  • Goal: Implement a Response builder that formats the status line and headers correctly.

Phase 4: Advanced Delivery

The complex stuff that makes the internet work.

• Ch 8: Chunked Encoding
  • Goal: Implement Transfer-Encoding: chunked for streaming data of unknown length.
• Ch 9: Binary Data
  • Goal: Serving images and files (handling raw [u8] vs String).

Resources

• The Video (ThePrimeagen)