Lighttpd Web Server

beginner

Lightweight, high-performance web server for static content.

Overview

Lighttpd (pronounced 'lighty') is an open-source web server designed specifically for high-performance environments where memory usage and CPU efficiency are critical. Originally developed by Jan Kneschke in 2003, lighttpd was created to address the C10k problem—serving thousands of concurrent connections on a single server with minimal resource consumption. Unlike heavyweight servers like Apache, lighttpd uses an event-driven architecture with a single-threaded design that excels at serving static content while consuming significantly less memory, typically using only 1-2MB of RAM for basic operations. This Docker stack leverages the sebp/lighttpd image to provide an instantly deployable web server that mounts your local htdocs directory directly into the container's document root at /var/www/localhost/htdocs. The configuration automatically exposes port 80 and creates an isolated bridge network, making it perfect for serving static websites, documentation sites, or acting as a frontend for single-page applications. The container's restart policy ensures continuous availability while maintaining lighttpd's signature low resource footprint. This setup is ideal for developers building static sites, system administrators managing resource-constrained environments, or anyone running web services on Raspberry Pi devices, VPS instances with limited RAM, or edge computing scenarios. The combination of lighttpd's minimal overhead and Docker's portability makes it particularly valuable for IoT projects, development environments, and production deployments where every megabyte of memory matters.

Key Features

Event-driven architecture handling thousands of concurrent connections with minimal memory usage
Native FastCGI support enabling PHP integration through external spawn-fcgi containers
Built-in URL rewriting and redirection capabilities for modern web application routing
Automatic MIME type detection and customizable content-type headers for static assets
Conditional configuration system allowing environment-specific server behavior
HTTP/1.1 keep-alive connections reducing connection overhead for multiple requests
Built-in access logging and error reporting with customizable log formats
SSL/TLS termination support with configurable cipher suites and certificate management

Common Use Cases

1Serving static documentation sites generated by Jekyll, Hugo, or Gatsby with minimal server resources
2Hosting single-page applications built with React, Vue, or Angular that only need static file delivery
3Running lightweight web services on Raspberry Pi clusters or IoT edge devices with memory constraints
4Providing high-performance static asset delivery for microservice architectures requiring fast content serving
5Creating development environments for frontend projects that need realistic HTTP serving behavior
6Deploying landing pages or marketing sites on budget VPS instances with limited RAM allocations
7Setting up reverse proxy frontends that serve static content while forwarding dynamic requests to backend services

Prerequisites

Docker Engine 20.10+ and Docker Compose V2 for container orchestration support
Minimum 512MB available RAM (lighttpd uses 1-2MB but container overhead requires additional memory)
Port 80 available on host system or modify port mapping to use alternative ports like 8080
Local htdocs directory with appropriate file permissions for volume mounting
Basic understanding of HTTP server concepts and static file serving principles
Familiarity with lighttpd configuration syntax if planning to customize /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  lighttpd: 
3    image: sebp/lighttpd
4    container_name: lighttpd
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    volumes: 
7      - ./htdocs:/var/www/localhost/htdocs
8    ports: 
9      - "80:80"
10    networks: 
11      - lighttpd-network
12
13networks: 
14  lighttpd-network: 
15    driver: bridge

.env Template

.env

1# No environment variables required

Usage Notes

1Docs: https://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki
2Place static files in ./htdocs - served at http://localhost:80
3Very low memory footprint - ideal for Raspberry Pi/embedded
4Config in /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf (mount for customization)
5FastCGI support for PHP - add spawn-fcgi container
6Perfect for serving static sites with minimal resources

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  lighttpd:
5    image: sebp/lighttpd
6    container_name: lighttpd
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    volumes:
9      - ./htdocs:/var/www/localhost/htdocs
10    ports:
11      - "80:80"
12    networks:
13      - lighttpd-network
14
15networks:
16  lighttpd-network:
17    driver: bridge
18EOF
19
20# 2. Create the .env file
21cat > .env << 'EOF'
22# No environment variables required
23EOF
24
25# 3. Start the services
26docker compose up -d
27
28# 4. View logs
29docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/lighttpd/run | bash

Troubleshooting

403 Forbidden errors when accessing files: Check file permissions in htdocs directory and ensure files are readable by container user (UID 1000)
Container fails to start with 'bind: address already in use': Another service is using port 80, either stop the conflicting service or change port mapping to '8080:80'
Static files not updating after changes: Browser caching issue, force refresh with Ctrl+F5 or disable cache in browser developer tools
Connection refused when accessing localhost:80: Verify container is running with 'docker ps' and check Docker daemon is started
Empty or missing htdocs directory causing 404 errors: Create ./htdocs directory in same location as docker-compose.yml and add index.html file
High CPU usage with many concurrent connections: Lighttpd's single-threaded design may bottleneck under extreme load, consider adding multiple lighttpd instances behind a load balancer

Community Notes

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