https://github.com/danfuzz/lactoserv

The milkiest webserver ever.
https://github.com/danfuzz/lactoserv

app-backend javascript nodejs webserver

Last synced: about 1 year ago
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The milkiest webserver ever.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/danfuzz/lactoserv
• Owner: danfuzz
• License: other
• Created: 2022-08-08T19:57:23.000Z (almost 4 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-04-18T18:46:31.000Z (about 1 year ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-04-28T17:19:32.528Z (about 1 year ago)
• Topics: app-backend, javascript, nodejs, webserver
• Language: JavaScript
• Homepage: https://postham.org
• Size: 8.06 MB
• Stars: 19
• Watchers: 6
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 11
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
  • Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
  • License: LICENSE.md
  • Authors: AUTHORS.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

          
`lactoserv` Web Application Server

==================================

[![Build](https://github.com/danfuzz/lactoserv/actions/workflows/main.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/danfuzz/lactoserv/actions/workflows/main.yml)

See also:

* Documentation:

  * [`doc` directory](./doc), notably:

    * [Configuration Guide](./doc/configuration/README.md)

    * [Deployment Guide](./doc/deployment.md)

    * [Development Guide](./doc/development.md)

    * [**Quick Start Guide**](./doc/quick-start.md)

* [Recent Changes](./CHANGELOG.md)

* [Stable Releases](./RELEASES.md)

- - - - - - - - - -

**Lactoserv is a standalone "batteries included" web application server written

in JavaScript using Node, and first published in 2023. It serves requests based

on configured components (applications and services), a bunch of which are

bundled with it in order to cover many common use cases. It also includes a

toolkit for defining new components. Because of the rich set of bundled

components, it can be used productively "out of the box" without any programming

beyond defining a configuration file.**

Lactoserv is also intended as a foundation for prototyping high-level operating

system services. Watch this space!

And, though not the main point of it, Lactoserv is a deployable experiment to

see just how far one can go in terms of directly serving network traffic

(specifically HTTP-ish protocols) in Node, with minimal intermediation. It is

actively run in production on a small number of public-facing websites.

### Features

* Networking:

  * Can run multiple network endpoints, each serving a different application or

    set thereof.

  * Can serve all of HTTP, HTTPS, and HTTP2. (HTTP2 will automatically downgrade

    to HTTPS for clients that can't do HTTP2.)

  * Optional rate limiting — for connections, requests, and sent data

    (bytes / bandwidth) — based on the classic "token bucket" / "leaky

    bucket" strategy.

* JS-based configuration file format, which isn't actually that awful!

* Several built-in applications, including:

  * A bunch of request routing and filtering applications, to cover the most

    common needs.

  * Three "leaf" applications, for regular content responses and redirection.

  * More to come!

* Several built-in services, including:

  * Access logging (that is, network request "access logs" in the usual sense),

    in a recognizable standard-ish form.

  * Detailed system activity logging, in a couple of different formats.

* The ability to define custom applications and services, using a modern

  promise-based application framework. Instead of directly dealing with the

  quirky core Node request and response objects, this framework exposes a

  friendlier and more approachable API. Maximum ergonomics: Very straightforward

  application logic bottoms out at a well-tested low-level implementation.

### Implementation features

* Written in pure JavaScript (per se), running on Node. (The only platform

  native code is from Node, not from this codebase nor from any imported

  modules.)

  * Uses Node's standard library for low-level networking and protocol

    implementation (TCP, TLS, HTTP*).

  * Only sparingly uses external module dependencies (via `npm`).

  * Notably, does _not_ depend on any other web application framework (Express,

    Fastify, etc.).

* Designed to be installed straightforwardly as a normal POSIX-ish service or

  via `systemd` (though _without_ Node bundled into the installation).

* Developed using automated unit and integration tests. (As of this writing,

  test coverage stats indicate _decent_ but not _outstanding_ coverage.)

### Requirements

To build:

* Standard-ish POSIX command-line environment. (It is known to build on recent

  versions of macOS and at least one flavor of Linux. It _might_ build on

  Windows, but if it does nobody has told anyone on the project.)

* Recent-ish version of Bash (works with what macOS ships, which is about as

  old a version as you'll find on any up-to-date OS).

* Node v20 or later (tested regularly on v20 and v23).

* Recent version of `jq` (v1.6 or later).

To run (versions as above):

* Standard-ish POSIX operating environment.

* Recent-ish version of Bash.

* Node v20 or later. This is required because the project uses:

  * The relatively new `/v` flag on regular expressions, which became available

    as of v20.

  * The module `inspector/promises` (for heap dumps), which became available as

    of v19.

### Organization

Lactoserv is a project of the [Postham](https://postham.org/) organization.

- - - - - - - - - -

```

Copyright 2022-2025 the Lactoserv Authors (Dan Bornstein et alia).

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

```