# miniserve - a CLI tool to serve files and dirs over HTTP [](https://github.com/svenstaro/miniserve/actions) [](https://cloud.docker.com/repository/docker/svenstaro/miniserve/) [](https://crates.io/crates/miniserve) [](https://github.com/svenstaro/miniserve/blob/master/LICENSE) [](https://github.com/svenstaro/miniserve/stargazers) [](https://github.com/svenstaro/miniserve/releases) [](https://github.com/svenstaro/miniserve) **For when you really just want to serve some files over HTTP right now!** **miniserve** is a small, self-contained cross-platform CLI tool that allows you to just grab the binary and serve some file(s) via HTTP. Sometimes this is just a more practical and quick way than doing things properly. ## Screenshot  ## How to use ### Serve a directory: miniserve linux-distro-collection/ ### Serve a single file: miniserve linux-distro.iso ### Set a custom index file to serve instead of a file listing: miniserve --index test.html ### Serve an SPA (Single Page Application) so that non-existent paths are forwarded to the SPA's router instead miniserve --spa --index index.html ### Require username/password: miniserve --auth joe:123 unreleased-linux-distros/ ### Require username/password as hash: pw=$(echo -n "123" | sha256sum | cut -f 1 -d ' ') miniserve --auth joe:sha256:$pw unreleased-linux-distros/ ### Generate random 6-hexdigit URL: miniserve -i 192.168.0.1 --random-route /tmp # Serving path /private/tmp at http://192.168.0.1/c789b6 ### Bind to multiple interfaces: miniserve -i 192.168.0.1 -i 10.13.37.10 -i ::1 /tmp/myshare ### Start with TLS: miniserve --tls-cert my.cert --tls-key my.key /tmp/myshare ### Upload a file using `curl`: # in one terminal miniserve -u -- . # in another terminal curl -F "path=@$FILE" http://localhost:8080/upload\?path\=/ (where `$FILE` is the path to the file. This uses miniserve's default port of 8080) Note that for uploading, we have to use `--` to disambiguate the argument to `-u`. This is because `-u` can also take a path (or multiple). If a path argument to `-u` is given, uploading will only be possible to the provided paths as opposed to every path. Another effect of this is that you can't just combine flags like this `-uv` when `-u` is used. In this example, you'd need to use `-u -v`. ### Create a directory using `curl`: # in one terminal miniserve --upload-files --mkdir . # in another terminal curl -F "mkdir=$DIR_NAME" http://localhost:8080/upload\?path=\/ (where `$DIR_NAME` is the name of the directory. This uses miniserve's default port of 8080.) ### Take pictures and upload them from smartphones: miniserve -u -m image -q This uses the `--media-type` option, which sends a hint for the expected media type to the browser. Some mobile browsers like Firefox on Android will offer to open the camera app when seeing this. ## Features - Easy to use - Just works: Correct MIME types handling out of the box - Single binary drop-in with no extra dependencies required - Authentication support with username and password (and hashed password) - Mega fast and highly parallel (thanks to [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/) and [Actix](https://actix.rs/)) - Folder download (compressed on the fly as `.tar.gz` or `.zip`) - File uploading - Directory creation - Pretty themes (with light and dark theme support) - Scan QR code for quick access - Shell completions - Sane and secure defaults - TLS (for supported architectures) - Supports README.md rendering like on GitHub ## Usage For when you really just want to serve some files over HTTP right now! Usage: miniserve [OPTIONS] [PATH] Arguments: [PATH] Which path to serve Options: -v, --verbose Be verbose, includes emitting access logs --index The name of a directory index file to serve, like "index.html" Normally, when miniserve serves a directory, it creates a listing for that directory. However, if a directory contains this file, miniserve will serve that file instead. --spa Activate SPA (Single Page Application) mode This will cause the file given by --index to be served for all non-existing file paths. In effect, this will serve the index file whenever a 404 would otherwise occur in order to allow the SPA router to handle the request instead. -p, --port Port to use [default: 8080] -i, --interfaces ... Interface to listen on -a, --auth ... Set authentication. Currently supported formats: username:password, username:sha256:hash, username:sha512:hash (e.g. joe:123, joe:sha256:a665a45920422f9d417e4867efdc4fb8a04a1f3fff1fa07e998e86f7f7a27ae3) --route-prefix Use a specific route prefix --random-route Generate a random 6-hexdigit route -P, --no-symlinks Hide symlinks in listing and prevent them from being followed -H, --hidden Show hidden files -c, --color-scheme Default color scheme [default: squirrel] [possible values: squirrel, archlinux, zenburn, monokai] -d, --color-scheme-dark Default color scheme [default: archlinux] [possible values: squirrel, archlinux, zenburn, monokai] -q, --qrcode Enable QR code display -u, --upload-files [] Enable file uploading (and optionally specify for which directory) -U, --mkdir Enable creating directories -m, --media-type Specify uploadable media types [possible values: image, audio, video] -M, --raw-media-type Directly specify the uploadable media type expression -o, --overwrite-files Enable overriding existing files during file upload -r, --enable-tar Enable uncompressed tar archive generation -g, --enable-tar-gz Enable gz-compressed tar archive generation -z, --enable-zip Enable zip archive generation WARNING: Zipping large directories can result in out-of-memory exception because zip generation is done in memory and cannot be sent on the fly -D, --dirs-first List directories first -t, --title