Mongoose: Free Easy Web Server

I've always been an IIS fan but the move to Windows 7 and IIS7 has shown me that I'm getting old. I can't get IIS to do anything right and so I've decided: let's re-rethink this. Back to basics. KISS!

I googled "simple http server" and discovered mongoose.

It's Simple™. It Works™. I Like It™.

Download the mongoose.exe and run it and you've just started your webserver.

By default, mongoose serves from C:\ so if you browse to http://localhost/ you should see a directory listing.

Mongoose is configurable via the command line or via a configuration file.

Example: Server on Port 81

C:\>mongoose.exe -p 81

or, via config file you create a mongoose.conf file with the following content:

p 81

You'll probably do something wrong at some stage so you need to tell mongoose where to log errors. This is done via the e parameter:

C:\>mongoose.exe -e error.log -p 81

or

e error.log

Check out the full manual explaining all commands.

This thing can even run PHP! Just tell it which file extensions you want to be processed via CGI:

c .php

Next, tell it where your php executable lies:

I c:\\php\\php-cgi.exe

(The double backslashes are required for windows PCs like mine)

Here is my sample/example mongoose.conf:

# Error Log
e error.log

# Ports (csv)
p 80

# Root directory
r c:\\mywebsite\\html

# Default documents
# (disabled with # comment)
#i index.htm,index.html

# Add your special mime types here
m .manifest=text/cache-manifest,.asp=text/html

# CGI File extensions (csb)
c .php

# Location of CGI interpreter (e.g. PHP)
I c:\\php\\php-cgi.exe

Happy serving!