docker-static-website

A very small Docker image (~80KB) to run any static website, based on the BusyBox httpd static file server.

For more details, check out my article.

Check the Releases page for new versions and breaking changes.

Usage

The image is hosted on Docker Hub and comes with linux/amd64, linux/arm64 and linux/arm/v7 builds:

FROM lipanski/docker-static-website:latest

# Copy your static files
COPY . .

Build the image:

docker build -t my-static-website .

Run the image:

docker run -it --rm -p 3000:3000 my-static-website

Browse to http://localhost:3000.

If you need to configure the server in a different way, you can override the CMD line:

FROM lipanski/docker-static-website:latest

# Copy your static files
COPY . .

CMD ["/busybox-httpd", "-f", "-v", "-p", "3000", "-c", "httpd.conf"]

NOTE: Sending a TERM signal to your TTY running the container won't get propagated due to how busybox is built. Instead you can call docker stop (or docker kill if can't wait 15 seconds). Alternatively you can run the container with docker run -it --rm --init which will propagate signals to the process correctly.

FAQ

How can I serve gzipped files?

For every file that should be served gzipped, add a matching [FILENAME].gz to your image.

How can I use httpd as a reverse proxy?

Add a httpd.conf file and use the P directive:

P:/some/old/path:[http://]hostname[:port]/some/new/path

How can I overwrite the default error pages?

Add a httpd.conf file and use the E404 directive:

E404:e404.html

...where e404.html is your custom 404 page.

Note that the error page directive is only processed for your main httpd.conf file. It will raise an error if you use it in httpd.conf files added to subdirectories.

How can I implement allow/deny rules?

Add a httpd.conf file and use the A and D directives:

A:172.20.         # Allow address from 172.20.0.0/16
A:10.0.0.0/25     # Allow any address from 10.0.0.0-10.0.0.127
A:127.0.0.1       # Allow local loopback connections
D:*               # Deny from other IP connections

You can also allow all requests with some exceptions:

D:1.2.3.4
D:5.6.7.8
A:* # This line is optional

How can I use basic auth for some of my paths?

Add a httpd.conf file, listing the paths that should be protected and the corresponding credentials:

/admin:my-user:my-password # Require user my-user with password my-password whenever calling /admin

Where can I find the documentation for BusyBox httpd?

Read the source code comments.

How can I run this in Docker Compose?

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

---
version: "3.9"
services:
  webserver:
    image: lipanski/docker-static-website:latest
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - /some/local/path:/home/static
      - ./httpd.conf:/home/static/httpd.conf:ro

Make sure to change /some/local/path to the path to your static files. Include an empty or valid httpd.conf file.

If you use Podman, consider appending the Z option to volumes for SELinux labels to apply.

Development

Clone the busybox repo and create a blank config:

make allnoconfig

Copy the resulting .config to this project, diff it against the old one and re-enable everything that seems reasonable (mostly the HTTPD features).

Uncomment the COPY . . line in the Dockerfile, add a dummy index.html and build a test image:

docker build -t docker-static-website-test .

Then run it:

docker run -it --rm --init -p 3000:3000 docker-static-website-test

Browse to http://localhost:3000 and check that the contents of the index.html file were rendered correctly.

Release

Images are build automatically by Github Actions whenever a new tag is pushed:

git tag 1.2.3
git push --tags

Manual process

Build the image:

docker build -t lipanski/docker-static-website:1.2.3 -t lipanski/docker-static-website:latest .

Push the image to Docker Hub:

docker push lipanski/docker-static-website:1.2.3
docker push lipanski/docker-static-website:latest