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