miniserve - For when you really just want to serve some files over HTTP right now!

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS VERSION AUTHORS

NAME

miniserve − For when you really just want to serve some files over HTTP right now!

DESCRIPTION

For when you really just want to serve some files over HTTP right now!

OPTIONS

−v, −−verbose

Be verbose, includes emitting access logs
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_VERBOSE environment variable.

−−temp−directory <TEMP_UPLOAD_DIRECTORY>

The path to where file uploads will be written to before being moved to their correct location. It's wise to make sure that this directory will be written to disk and not into memory.

This value will only be used **IF** file uploading is enabled. If this option is not set, the operating system default temporary directory will be used.
May also be specified with the MINISERVER_TEMP_UPLOAD_DIRECTORY environment variable.

−−index <INDEX>

The name of a directory index file to serve, like "index.html"

Normally, when miniserve serves a directory, it creates a listing for that directory. However, if a directory contains this file, miniserve will serve that file instead.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_INDEX environment variable.

−−spa

Activate SPA (Single Page Application) mode

This will cause the file given by −−index to be served for all non−existing file paths. In effect, this will serve the index file whenever a 404 would otherwise occur in order to allow the SPA router to handle the request instead.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_SPA environment variable.

−−pretty−urls

Activate Pretty URLs mode

This will cause the server to serve the equivalent ‘.html‘ file indicated by the path.

‘/about‘ will try to find ‘about.html‘ and serve it.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_PRETTY_URLS environment variable.

−p, −−port <PORT> [default: 8080]

Port to use
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_PORT environment variable.

−i, −−interfaces <INTERFACES>

Interface to listen on
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_INTERFACE environment variable.

−a, −−auth <AUTH>

Set authentication

Currently supported formats: username:password, username:sha256:hash, username:sha512:hash (e.g. joe:123, joe:sha256:a665a45920422f9d417e4867efdc4fb8a04a1f3fff1fa07e998e86f7f7a27ae3)
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_AUTH environment variable.

−−auth−file <AUTH_FILE>

Read authentication values from a file

Example file content:

joe:123 bob:sha256:a665a45920422f9d417e4867efdc4fb8a04a1f3fff1fa07e998e86f7f7a27ae3 bill:
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_AUTH_FILE environment variable.

−−route−prefix <ROUTE_PREFIX>

Use a specific route prefix
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ROUTE_PREFIX environment variable.

−−random−route

Generate a random 6−hexdigit route
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_RANDOM_ROUTE environment variable.

−P, −−no−symlinks

Hide symlinks in listing and prevent them from being followed
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_NO_SYMLINKS environment variable.

−H, −−hidden

Show hidden files
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_HIDDEN environment variable.

−S, −−default−sorting−method <DEFAULT_SORTING_METHOD> [default: name]

Default sorting method for file list

Possible values:

	•		name: Sort by name
	•		size: Sort by size
	•		date: Sort by last modification date (natural sort: follows alphanumerical order)

May also be specified with the MINISERVE_DEFAULT_SORTING_METHOD environment variable.

−O, −−default−sorting−order <DEFAULT_SORTING_ORDER> [default: desc]

Default sorting order for file list

Possible values:

	•		asc: Ascending order
	•		desc: Descending order

May also be specified with the MINISERVE_DEFAULT_SORTING_ORDER environment variable.

−c, −−color−scheme <COLOR_SCHEME> [default: squirrel]

Default color scheme

[possible values: squirrel, archlinux, zenburn, monokai]
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_COLOR_SCHEME environment variable.

−d, −−color−scheme−dark <COLOR_SCHEME_DARK> [default: archlinux]

Default color scheme

[possible values: squirrel, archlinux, zenburn, monokai]
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_COLOR_SCHEME_DARK environment variable.

−q, −−qrcode

Enable QR code display
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_QRCODE environment variable.

−u, −−upload−files [<ALLOWED_UPLOAD_DIR>]

Enable file uploading (and optionally specify for which directory)

The provided path is not a physical file system path. Instead, it's relative to the serve dir. For instance, if the serve dir is '/home/hello', set this to '/upload' to allow uploading to '/home/hello/upload'. When specified via environment variable, a path always needs to be specified.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ALLOWED_UPLOAD_DIR environment variable.

−−web−upload−files−concurrency <WEB_UPLOAD_CONCURRENCY> [default: 0]

Configure amount of concurrent uploads when visiting the website. Must have upload−files option enabled for this setting to matter.

For example, a value of 4 would mean that the web browser will only upload 4 files at a time to the web server when using the web browser interface.

When the value is kept at 0, it attempts to resolve all the uploads at once in the web browser.

NOTE: Web pages have a limit of how many active HTTP connections that they can make at one time, so even though you might set a concurrency limit of 100, the browser might only make progress on the max amount of connections it allows the web page to have open.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_WEB_UPLOAD_CONCURRENCY environment variable.

−−chmod <CHMOD>

Set unix file permissions of uploaded files

This takes an octal number, for example 0600. By default 0666 & ˜umask is used to simulate the system's default behavior.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_CHMOD environment variable.

−−directory−size

Enable recursive directory size calculation

This is disabled by default because it is a potentially fairly IO intensive operation.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_DIRECTORY_SIZE environment variable.

−U, −−mkdir

Enable creating directories
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_MKDIR_ENABLED environment variable.

−m, −−media−type <MEDIA_TYPE>

Specify uploadable media types

[possible values: image, audio, video]
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_MEDIA_TYPE environment variable.

−M, −−raw−media−type <MEDIA_TYPE_RAW>

Directly specify the uploadable media type expression
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_RAW_MEDIA_TYPE environment variable.

−o, −−on−duplicate−files <ON_DUPLICATE_FILES> [default: error]

What to do if existing files with same name is present during file upload

If you enable renaming files, the renaming will occur by adding a numerical suffix to the filename before the final extension. For example file.txt will be uploaded as file−1.txt, the number will be increased until an available filename is found.

[possible values: error, overwrite, rename]
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ON_DUPLICATE_FILES environment variable.

−R, −−rm−files [<ALLOWED_RM_DIR>]

Enable file and directory deletion (and optionally specify for which directory)
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ALLOWED_RM_DIR environment variable.

−r, −−enable−tar

Enable uncompressed tar archive generation
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ENABLE_TAR environment variable.

−g, −−enable−tar−gz

Enable gz−compressed tar archive generation
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ENABLE_TAR_GZ environment variable.

−z, −−enable−zip

Enable zip archive generation

WARNING: Zipping large directories can result in out−of−memory exception because zip generation is done in memory and cannot be sent on the fly
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ENABLE_ZIP environment variable.

−C, −−compress−response

Compress response

WARNING: Enabling this option may slow down transfers due to CPU overhead, so it is disabled by default.

Only enable this option if you know that your users have slow connections or if you want to minimize your server's bandwidth usage.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_COMPRESS_RESPONSE environment variable.

−D, −−dirs−first

List directories first
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_DIRS_FIRST environment variable.

−t, −−title <TITLE>

Shown instead of host in page title and heading
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_TITLE environment variable.

−−header <HEADER>

Inserts custom headers into the responses. Specify each header as a 'Header:Value' pair. This parameter can be used multiple times to add multiple headers.

Example: −−header "Header1:Value1" −−header "Header2:Value2" (If a header is already set or previously inserted, it will not be overwritten.)
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_HEADER environment variable.

−l, −−show−symlink−info

Visualize symlinks in directory listing
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_SHOW_SYMLINK_INFO environment variable.

−F, −−hide−version−footer

Hide version footer
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_HIDE_VERSION_FOOTER environment variable.

−−hide−theme−selector

Hide theme selector
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_HIDE_THEME_SELECTOR environment variable.

−W, −−show−wget−footer

If enabled, display a wget command to recursively download the current directory
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_SHOW_WGET_FOOTER environment variable.

−−print−completions <shell>

Generate completion file for a shell

[possible values: bash, elvish, fish, powershell, zsh]

−−print−manpage

Generate man page

−−tls−cert <TLS_CERT>

TLS certificate to use
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_TLS_CERT environment variable.

−−tls−key <TLS_KEY>

TLS private key to use
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_TLS_KEY environment variable.

−−readme

Enable README.md rendering in directories
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_README environment variable.

−I, −−disable−indexing

Disable indexing

This will prevent directory listings from being generated and return an error instead.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_DISABLE_INDEXING environment variable.

−−enable−webdav

Enable read−only WebDAV support (PROPFIND requests)
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_ENABLE_WEBDAV environment variable.

−−size−display <SIZE_DISPLAY> [default: human]

Show served file size in exact bytes

[possible values: human, exact]
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_SIZE_DISPLAY environment variable.

−−file−external−url <FILE_EXTERNAL_URL>

Optional external URL (e.g., 'http://external.example.com:8081') prepended to file links in listings.

Allows serving files from a different URL than the browsing instance. Useful for setups like: one authenticated instance for browsing, linking files (via this option) to a second, non−indexed (−I) instance for direct downloads. This obscures the full file list on the download server, while users can still copy direct file URLs for sharing. The external URL is put verbatim in front of the relative location of the file, including the protocol. The user should take care this results in a valid URL, no further checks are being done.
May also be specified with the MINISERVE_FILE_EXTERNAL_URL environment variable.

−h, −−help

Print help (see a summary with '−h')

−V, −−version

Print version

[PATH]

Which path to serve

May also be specified with the MINISERVE_PATH environment variable.

VERSION

v0.32.0

AUTHORS

Sven−Hendrik Haase <[email protected]>, Boastful Squirrel <[email protected]>

Updated 2026-06-01 - jenkler.se | uex.se