Node.js quick file server (static files over HTTP)

Question

Is there Node.js ready-to-use tool (installed with npm), that would help me expose folder content as file server over HTTP.

Example, if I have

Answer 1

For dev work you can use (express 4) https://github.com/appsmatics/simple-httpserver.git

Answer 2

A good "ready-to-use tool" option could be http-server:

npm install http-server -g

To use it:

cd D:\Folder
http-server

Or, like this:

http-server D:\Folder

Check it out: https://github.com/nodeapps/http-server

Answer 3

I use Houston at work and for personal projects, it works well for me.

https://github.com/alejandro/Houston

Answer 4

For the benefit of searchers, I liked Jakub g's answer, but wanted a little error handling. Obviously it's best to handle errors properly, but this should help prevent a site stopping if an error occurs. Code below:

var http = require('http');
var express = require('express');

process.on('uncaughtException', function(err) {
  console.log(err);
});

var server = express();

server.use(express.static(__dirname));

var port = 10001;
server.listen(port, function() { 
    console.log('listening on port ' + port);     
    //var err = new Error('This error won't break the application...')
    //throw err
});

Answer 5

From npm@5.2.0, npm started installing a new binary alongside the usual npm called npx. So now, one liners to create static http server from current directory:

npx serve

or

npx http-server

Answer 6

A simple Static-Server using connect

var connect = require('connect'),
  directory = __dirname,
  port = 3000;

connect()
  .use(connect.logger('dev'))
  .use(connect.static(directory))
  .listen(port);

console.log('Listening on port ' + port);

See also Using node.js as a simple web server