Althttpd

This document describes how to build a completely self-contained, statically linked "althttpd" binary for Linux (or similar unix-like operating systems).

What You Need

1. The althttpd.c source code file from this website.
2. A tarball of the latest OpenSSL release.
3. The usual unix build tools, "make", "gcc", and friends.
4. The OpenSSL build requires Perl.

Build Steps

1. Compiling a static OpenSSL library.
   • Unpack the OpenSSL tarball. Rename the top-level directory to "openssl".
   • CD into the openssl directory.
   • Run these commands:

     ./config no-ssl3 no-weak-ssl-ciphers no-shared no-threads no-tls-deprecated-ec --openssldir=/usr/lib/ssl
     make CFLAGS=-Os
     

   • Fix a cup of tea while OpenSSL builds.... Note that the no-tls-deprecated-ec option is only available with OpenSSL-3.5.0 and later, so omit that option for earlier versions.

2. Compiling althttpd
   • CD back up into the top-level directory where the althttpd.c source file lives.
   • Run:

     make VERSION.h
     gcc -I./openssl/include -Os -Wall -Wextra -DENABLE_TLS \
       -o althttpd althttpd.c -L./openssl -lssl -lcrypto -ldl
     

   • The commands in the previous bullet builds a binary that is statically linked against OpenSSL, but is still dynamically linked against system libraries.
   • To make the binary completely static, add the -static option. This might be necessary, for example, when compiling on one flavor of Linux (ex: Ubuntu) for use on a different distro (ex: Alpine).
   • The "make VERSION.h" step above constructs a generated file named "VERSION.h" that contains the specific version number of althttpd that you are building.

Using The Binary

The above is all you need to do. After compiling, simply move the resulting binary into the /usr/bin directory of your server.