Status Code Server

Task

Implement an HTTP server that returns different status codes based on the request path.

• Parse the HTTP request to extract the path
• If the path is /home, return 200 OK with message “Welcome home!”
• For any other path, return 404 Not Found with message “Not found”

Function Signature

void handle_request(char *request, int client_socket);

Request Format

An HTTP request line looks like:

GET /home HTTP/1.1

The path is between GET and the space before HTTP/1.1 (or before ? if there are query parameters).

HTTP Response Format

For /home (200 OK):

HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n
Content-Type: text/plain\r\n
\r\n
Welcome home!

For other paths (404 Not Found):

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n
Content-Type: text/plain\r\n
\r\n
Not found

Notes

• Use strstr() to find "GET " in the request
• Use strncmp() to check if the path matches /home
• The path must be exactly /home (not /home/page or /homepage)
• Use send() to send responses
• Include <string.h> for string functions

---

Example

Request Path	Status Code	Response Body
GET /home HTTP/1.1	200 OK	Welcome home!
GET /hello HTTP/1.1	404 Not Found	Not found
GET /test HTTP/1.1	404 Not Found	Not found
GET / HTTP/1.1	404 Not Found	Not found

Test Locally

$ gcc -o status_server status_server.c http-server.c
$ ./status_server
Server started on port 8000
 
# In another terminal:
$ curl "http://localhost:8000/home"
Welcome home!
 
$ curl "http://localhost:8000/hello"
Not found
 
$ curl -i "http://localhost:8000/home"
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain
 
Welcome home!
 
$ curl -i "http://localhost:8000/hello"
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Content-Type: text/plain
 
Not found

---

Code

#include "http-server.h"
#include <string.h>
 
void handle_request(char *request, int client_socket){
    char* start = strstr(request, "GET ") + 4;
    char* end = strstr(start, " ");
    if(end == NULL){
        char* end = strstr(start, "?");
    }
    int len = end - start;
    if(strncmp(start, "/home", 5) == 0){
        char* header = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\nWelcome home!";
        send(client_socket, header, strlen(header), 0);
    } else {
        char* header = "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\nContent-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\nNot found";
        send(client_socket, header, strlen(header), 0);
    }
}