Hosting

Routing

• If you host static files on a normal HTTP server (e.g. Nginx, GitHub Pages, Netlify), the server handles routing automatically by matching URLs to files on disk. You don’t implement routing logic yourself.

• "But what if I want to host my own site?"

  • Then you must provide the routing layer yourself.

  • Options:

  1. Use an existing server

     • e.g. Nginx, Caddy, Apache. Configure it to serve your static files. Routing (path → file) is handled automatically.

  2. Write your own HTTP server

     • Parse the HTTP request.

     • Extract the path.

     • Map it to a file in your directory (e.g. /about  → ./public/about.html ).

     • Send correct status codes and headers.

• .

• Live Server, VSCode.

GitHub Pages

• GitHub Pages .

• 404.html  for a custom 404 page. Useful for SPAs as a client-side fallback. There is a known SPA limitation: direct requests to client-side routes will return 404 unless you implement a 404→index.html redirect script or use a different host that supports rewrites. That workaround can cause an initial 404 status and SEO/UX issues.

• CNAME  file or repository settings if you want a custom domain. Also set DNS records at your registrar.

.nojekyll

• You need to be explicit about not using Jekyll.

• Even if you’re not using Jekyll, GitHub Pages will try to run Jekyll by default.

• Once .nojekyll  is committed and pushed, GitHub Pages will serve _index.html  and any other files or folders starting with _  correctly.