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3 min read * 595 words

 1. /joexbayer
 2. /RetrOS-32
 3. /Getting a Web Server...

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Getting a Web Server running on my hobby OS

November 27, 2025joexbayerkernel, networking, tcp, http, web

Demo


After a long break from working on my hobby operating system, I
finally got back into it and finished a very important milestone: a
working web server.

Full Github repo: https://github.com/joexbayer/RetrOS-32

[retros_web] Web browser accessing HTTP server on my OS

Networking was always integral to my hobby project. The first goal
was getting the basic networking stack working: Ethernet, IP, ARP,
UDP, TCP, DHCP and DNS. Besides TCP this was rather straightforward,
but when moving onto HTTP things broke.

[Screenshot] First time getting TCP to work.
Networking stack code

This led to my first break from the project, but also left a nagging
thought in my mind, wanting to make it work. I finally sat down and
started debugging. 

I eventually found the culprit after hours of dissecting my own code,
the problem was a broken implementation of the terminal buffer,
overwriting a lock in another process... fun. Additionally, the E1000
network driver did not correctly handle incoming packets, which I
finally got working by handling bursts of packets.


Performance and hardening


After getting an HTML page returned from the web engine I started
noticing lots of performance errors and hangs from TCP, mainly
because quickly refreshing the browser led to a spam of RST packets
which were not handled correctly.

After a few hours of tinkering I finally got the RST packets working
and the network stack is now able to handle a packet spam from the
browser.


The HTTP Engine


Next step was actually implementing a HTTP engine, parsing the
requests from the user. Before this engine I simply returned a static
HTTP response no matter the actual request.

Keeping with the spirit of this hobby OS I want to write everything
from scratch, luckily I already had implemented a pretty complete
HTTP parser for my other project c-web-modules. So I extracted the
HTTP parser as a standalone library and ported it to my OS.


The Web Engine.


After the HTTP engine was done I moved onto the web engine, focusing
on something small, rather than big and fancy. Mainly routing was
important and adding route handlers. Allowing the user to specify a
route, method and lambda function handler.


/* Simple routing */
engine.get("/", [](const http::Request& req, http::Response& res) {
    (void)req;
    res.setBody("hello world!");
    ....
});


It's a tiny example, but it mirrors how a lot of modern C++ and web
frameworks think about routing: match a path + method, call a
handler, build a response.


#lang:plaintext
[ Browser ]
    |
    v
[ Web Server (userspace):
  WebEngine | HTTPEngine | FileRepository ]
    |
    v
[ Network stack:
  TCP/UDP | IP | ARP | DHCP | DNS | Ethernet(E1000) ]


The Web Server. 


The last step was updating the userspace program with the new HTTP
and Web engine. Finally I added a way to serve files using a
FileRepository which supports caching. Now I can edit the files
inside the operating system and then serve them with the web server.


#lang:cpp
WebEngine webEngine(80, 16);
web::FileRepository fileRepo;

/* Simple static pages */
webEngine.get("/home", [&fileRepo](const http::Request& req, http::Response& res) {
    (void)req;
    res.sendFile(fileRepo, "/web/index.htm");
});

webEngine.get("/about", [&fileRepo](const http::Request& req, http::Response& res) {
    (void)req;
    res.sendFile(fileRepo, "/web/about.htm");
});

webEngine.get("/status", [&fileRepo](const http::Request& req, http::Response& res) {
    (void)req;
    res.sendFile(fileRepo, "/web/status.htm");
});

webEngine.run();

https://github.com/joexbayer/RetrOS-32/tree/development/apps/
webserver


Next steps


The next thing on the TODO list will be to add a more fancy UI for
the webserver and a way to close it gracefully.
(Graceful shutdown is one of those "boring" features you don't miss...
until the first time you corrupt something on exit.)

When this is finished, the biggest task so far will begin... the web
browser.

Comments

2.77k views
Anonymousabout 2 hours ago

I'm a hacker hahahahahahaah

[I'm a hacker hahahah]
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Anonymous39 minutes ago
 
Anonymousabout 2 hours ago

I'm a hacker hahahahahahaah

This dude clearly is a hacker, I don't know what you're on about.

[This dude clearly is]
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Anonymous13 minutes ago

2.68k views

[2.68k views         ]
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Anonymous5 minutes ago

afsdfgsh

[afsdfgsh            ]
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joexbayer
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Hobby operating system enthusiast.
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Comments4
PublishedNov 27, 2025

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