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CERN httpd
Early web server

CERN httpd (later also known as W3C httpd) is an early, now discontinued, web server (HTTP) daemon originally developed at CERN from 1990 onwards by Tim Berners-Lee, Ari Luotonen and Henrik Frystyk Nielsen. Implemented in C, it was the first web server software.

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History

CERN httpd was originally developed on a NeXT Computer running NeXTSTEP, and was later ported to other Unix-like operating systems, OpenVMS and systems with unix emulation layers, e.g. OS/2 with emx+gcc. It could also be configured as a web proxy server.3 Version 0.1 was released in June 1991.4 In August 1991, Berners-Lee announced in the Usenet newsgroup alt.hypertext the availability of the source code of the server daemon (named WWWDaemon) and other World Wide Web software from the CERN FTP site.56

The server was presented on the Hypertext 91 conference in San Antonio and was part of the CERN Program Library (CERNLIB).78

Later versions of the server are based on the libwww library.9 The development of CERN httpd was later taken over by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), with the last release being version 3.0A of 15 July 1996.10 From 1996 onwards, W3C focused on the development of the Java-based Jigsaw server.11

The initial version was public domain software; the last one was under an MIT License.12

See also

  • Free and open-source software portal

References

  1. Kahan, José (5 August 1999). "Why Libwww?". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 15 June 2010. http://www.w3.org/Library/Activity.html ↩

  2. Official CERN httpd page http://www.w3.org/Daemon/ ↩

  3. Official CERN httpd page http://www.w3.org/Daemon/ ↩

  4. Change History for httpd http://www.w3.org/Daemon/Features.html ↩

  5. Stewart, Bill. "Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and the World Wide Web – Web development". Living Internet. Retrieved 26 July 2010. http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_lee.htm#dev ↩

  6. Tim Berners Lee (20 August 1991). "WorldWideWeb wide-area hypertext app available". CERN. Retrieved 15 November 2021. https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.next.announce/c/avWAjISncfw?pli=1 ↩

  7. Stewart, Bill. "Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and the World Wide Web – Web development". Living Internet. Retrieved 26 July 2010. http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_lee.htm#dev ↩

  8. Robert Cailliau (21 July 2010). "A Short History of the Web". NetValley. Retrieved 21 July 2010. /wiki/Robert_Cailliau ↩

  9. Kahan, José (5 August 1999). "Why Libwww?". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 15 June 2010. http://www.w3.org/Library/Activity.html ↩

  10. Official CERN httpd page http://www.w3.org/Daemon/ ↩

  11. Baird-Smith, Anselm (April 1996). "W3C Activity: The CERN server". World Wide Web Consortium. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20120213113845/http://www.w3.org/Daemon/Activity.html ↩

  12. The birth of the web Licensing the web on cern.ch (2014, archived) https://web.archive.org/web/20140817185526/http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/birth-web/licensing-web ↩