what

• a tiny static file server, binary is 2.3MB
• serves index.html over HTTP or HTTPS + custom 404.html if needed
• opt-in folder listing, large files + resume downloads
• /pulse answers with the name and version, for health checks

install - binary + systemd

• use this systemd simple-http-fileserver.service

# linux amd64 version (check version)
sudo bash -c 'VERSION=2026.04.13; ARCH=x86_64; curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/simple-http-fileserver "https://github.com/codemodify/simple-http-fileserver/releases/download/${VERSION}/simple-http-fileserver_linux-${ARCH}"'

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/simple-http-fileserver
/usr/local/bin/simple-http-fileserver -version
sudo cp sysadmin/simple-http-fileserver.service /etc/systemd/system/simple-http-fileserver.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable simple-http-fileserver && sudo systemctl start simple-http-fileserver

install - docker

• use this Dockerfile

docker build -f sysadmin/Dockerfile -t simple-http-fileserver .
docker run --rm -p 64080:64080 -v /path/to/your/folder:/var/www:ro simple-http-fileserver

config

flag	description	default
--folder	folder to serve	current working directory
--enable-http	enable the HTTP listener	true
--http-on	HTTP bind address	127.0.0.1:64080
--enable-https	enable the HTTPS listener	false
--https-on	HTTPS bind address	127.0.0.1:64043
--https-cert	TLS certificate path
--https-key	TLS private key path
--enable-dir-listing	enable directory listing	false
--enable-file-not-found	enable file-not-found error	true
--file-not-found-file	set custom file-not-found file	404.html

local dev

• go run . --folder . --enable-http --http-on :64080
• go run . --folder . --enable-https --https-on :64043 --https-cert ./server.crt --https-key ./server.key

design considerations

• has to be dead simple to use and configure

design considerations continued

• personal intent is to make this part of an eco-system, but fully usable independently
• this is designed to be used in combination with a frontend like github.com/codemodify/simple-http-router
  • ex: Gzip/brotli compression
  • ex: Cache-Control / ETag headers

where it stands