Why my fileServer handler doesn't work? - http

Question

I've a simple folder :
Test/
main.go
Images/
image1.png
image2.png
index.html
In main main.go I just put :
package main
import (
"net/http"
)
func main(){
fs := http.FileServer(http.Dir("./Images"))
http.Handle("/Images/*", fs)
http.ListenAndServe(":3003", nil)
}
But when I curl on http://localhost:3003/Images/ or even I add to path file's name, it doesn't work.
I don't understand because it's the same as the reply given on
this subject
Can you tell me so that this does not work ?

Answer 1

You need to remove * and add extra sub-folder Images:
This works fine:
Test/
main.go
Images/
Images/
image1.png
image2.png
index.html
Code:
package main
import (
"net/http"
)
func main() {
fs := http.FileServer(http.Dir("./Images"))
http.Handle("/Images/", fs)
http.ListenAndServe(":3003", nil)
}
Then go run main.go
And:
http://localhost:3003/Images/
Or simply use:
package main
import (
"net/http"
)
func main() {
fs := http.FileServer(http.Dir("./Images"))
http.Handle("/", fs)
http.ListenAndServe(":3003", nil)
}
with:
http://localhost:3003/

Answer 2

The reason the request failed to return what you expected is because they did not match the pattern defined in the http.Handle(pattern string, handler Handler) call. The ServeMux documentation provides a description of how to compose patterns. Any request is prefixed matched from most specific to least specific. It appears as though you have assumed a glob pattern can be used. Your handler would have been invoked with requests to /Images/*<file system path>. You need to define a directory path like so, Images/.
On a side note, it is worth considering how your program gets the directory path to serve files from. Hard coding a relative means your program will only function within a specific location within the filesystem which incredibly brittle. You could use a command line argument to allow users to specify a path or use a configuration file parsed at runtime. These considerations make your program easy to modularize and test.

Answer 3

Dot in ./Images refer cwd current working directory, not you project root. For your server to work you must run it from Test/ directory, or address Images with absolute rooted path.