texhttpd

A persistent pdfTeX process that speaks HTTP/1.1. The C parent binds 127.0.0.1 TCP and splices accepted connections onto named FIFOs — not a second HTTP implementation.

client  →  TCP  →  splice  →  FIFOs  →  pdftex

The listen socket stays bound. Extra connections wait in the accept queue. One pdfTeX handles them one at a time.

Routing, methods, MIME types, status phrases, and the calendar are tables. The parser turns bytes into a Request record (ok | bad | end); handlers never look at the wire.

Routes

method	path	handler
GET, HEAD	/	www/index.html
GET, HEAD	/about	generated
GET, HEAD	/status	hit count, uptime
GET, HEAD	/health	ok
GET, HEAD	/teapot	418
POST	/echo	form/query keys
GET, HEAD	other	www/ if the extension is in the MIME table

Requirements

• cc (POSIX)
• pdftex (TeX Live)

Run

make
./bin/texhttpd
# http://127.0.0.1:8080/

Optional port (0 asks the kernel for a free one; the bound port is printed):

./bin/texhttpd 8080

make test builds the server and tests/smoke, then plays tests/cases.tsv.

Limits

• One request in flight. The listen socket stays up; browsers may queue.
• One pdfTeX child. No keep-alive, TLS, or prefork. A second process on the same port gets EADDRINUSE.
• Static files are disk bytes. The MIME table is the allow-list (html css js json txt svg xml png gif jpeg jpg ico webp woff woff2 wasm bin). Missing row is 404.
• pdfTeX is started with -8bit so \write emits bytes 0–255. \write's extra LF is not in Content-Length; clients stop at the entity.
• A static file larger than 100000 bytes is 500 (buf_size is 200000; dump hex is 2× the file).
• Date is \pdfcreationdate plus \pdfelapsedtime (no shell, no bash date). Elapsed time wraps after about nine hours.
• Header lines end with LF. TeX \write cannot emit a raw CR, so CRLF is unrepresentable without leaving TeX.
• TeX buf_size caps a line; URIs longer than 2048 are 414.

License

0BSD. See LICENSE.