Node.JS static file web server. Put it in your path to fire up servers in any directory, takes an optional port argument.

static_server.js

var http = require("http"),
    url = require("url"),
    path = require("path"),
    fs = require("fs")
    port = process.argv[2] || 8888;

http.createServer(function(request, response) {

  var uri = url.parse(request.url).pathname
    , filename = path.join(process.cwd(), uri);
  
  path.exists(filename, function(exists) {
    if(!exists) {
      response.writeHead(404, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
      response.write("404 Not Found\n");
      response.end();
      return;
    }

    if (fs.statSync(filename).isDirectory()) filename += '/index.html';

    fs.readFile(filename, "binary", function(err, file) {
      if(err) {        
        response.writeHead(500, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
        response.write(err + "\n");
        response.end();
        return;
      }

      response.writeHead(200);
      response.write(file, "binary");
      response.end();
    });
  });
}).listen(parseInt(port, 10));

console.log("Static file server running at\n  => http://localhost:" + port + "/\nCTRL + C to shutdown");

Thanks a lot :)

Thanks a lot, but it can be hijacked

This is insecure, someone can request /../../../etc/shadow or similar to read any file they want.

thanks ...it's great, that why I'm looking for it

path.exists is now called fs.exists

This is insecure, someone can request /../../../etc/shadow or similar to read any file they want.

I guess you're not familiar with how path.join works, because as coded here it won't resolve to a directory outside of cwd directory branch.

fs.exists is deprecated. fs.statSync can be used to check if file path exists, as in dkebler's code above.

Thank you for this!

Incredible article, thanks for sharing it! I think this article will also be useful for you - Node js vs Python.