nws
nws is a simple tool designed to launch a simple static web server in your current working directory.
Installation
In order to install nws you will need Node.js and npm. Simply execute the following:
npm install -g nws
Usage
In any directory where you are working on a static web project, simply execute the following:
nws
This will launch a server on port 3030
for you to visit in your web browser
at http://localhost:3030
.
You can also specify a port:
nws -p 8080
This will launch a server on port 8080
.
Add the -o flag to open the site in your default browser (http://localhost:3030):
nws -o
You can also specify the directory to use as the document root:
nws -d relative/path/to/other/directory
Using colons you can specify multiple directories to use as roots (like
$PATH
in *nix):
nws -d dir1:dir2
The directories are searched in order and the first matching file is returned. You can achieve the same thing using quotes and semi-colons if that's more your style:
nws -d 'dir1;dir2'
If you want all requests to resolve to a base path (i.e.
http://localhost:3030/basepath
) without having to place all files into a
src/basepath
sub-directory, use the -b
flag:
nws -b basepath
You can enable gzip
/ deflate
compression with the -z
flag:
nws -z
The final option is used to control verbosity. With the -v
flag the server
will log all requested files to the console:
nws -v
The options can of course be combined:
nws -v -z -p 8080 -d public
You can use -h
to display help:
nws -h
All of these flags are available in long form as well:
nws --help --verbose --compress --port 8080 --directory public