Running `Tiny_httpd.run_exn` as a background task.

[zoj613]

Hi, I am trying to programmically create and serve a local directory via http using this library as a way to unit test an http client. However when I call Tiny_httpd.run_exn dune runtest freezes. Is there a way I can call run_exn as background task so that the program can continue to use the http server to perform unit tests? Here is what I wrote:

         let dir_behavior = Tiny_httpd.Dir.Lists
         and download = true and delete = true and upload = true in
         let config = Tiny_httpd.Dir.config ~dir_behavior ~delete ~upload ~download ()
         and addr = "127.0.0.1" and port = 8080 and timeout = 30000. in
         let server = Tiny_httpd.create ~max_connections:4 ~addr ~port ~timeout () in
         and suffix = (string_of_int @@ Random.int 5000) ^ ".zarr" in
		 let dir = Filename.(concat (get_temp_dir_name ()) (rand_num ^ ".zarr")) in
         Tiny_httpd_unix.Dir.add_dir_path ~config ~dir ~prefix:"" server;
         Tiny_httpd.run_exn ~after_init:(fun () ->
            perform_unit_tests_for_client;
            Tiny_httpd.stop server) server

If I use http_of_dir <dir_name> -p 8080 in another shell session the client unit tests run just fine. Am I using this library's serving capabilities incorrectly? How can I achieve what i'm looking for?

As an aside it appears POST/PUT methods don't actually create a resource under the directory even after the client (it uses Ezcurl internally) returns a 200/201 status code.

[c-cube]

I think you might want to start a thread to run Tiny_httpd.run_exn in the background.

About the upload, I find this a bit surprising, there are some tests for that. At least with http_of_dir . -p 8085 --upload alongside curl -X PUT -vv http://localhost:8085/foo --upload-file foo I do get a 201 and the file is uploaded properly?

[zoj613]

Using Thread.create Tiny_httpd.run_exn server seems to do the job, thanks alot!

Regarding the http_of_dir call, I mistakenly forgot to add the --upload flag so I'm happy to confirm it works as expected. However solving this let me to discover that the HEAD method returns a 404 Not found response for the same object I successfully uploaded using PUT. Is HEAD not supported or must I do something extra to make it work?

[c-cube]

ah yes, I don't think the directory module supports HEAD at all. It'd be a welcome addition!

[zoj613]

ah yes, I don't think the directory module supports HEAD at all. It'd be a welcome addition!

I was able to bolt-on a HEAD router handler which works as expected. I then discovered a bug in the Virtual File System's create function. When a resource path contains a directory name, the function raises a Sys_error "<resource path inside the VFS>: No such file or directory which then causes the PUT or POST methods to fail with a 403 error code. See:

tiny_httpd/src/unix/dir.ml

Lines 106 to 110 in b80c5f9

	let create f =
	let oc = open_out_bin (top // f) in
	let write = output oc in
	let close () = close_out oc in
	write, close

. I believe the create function needs to include a way to create intermediate directories if they exist when creating a resource.

Do you want this to be a seperate issue or are you fine discussing it here?

[c-cube]

A separate issue, or even PR, would be welcome!