lighttpd is a small and fast HTTP server that does not need much system resources. So it is ideal to be our Raspberry PI HTTP server.

To install lighttpd run this command:

sudo apt-get install lighttpd

To check that lighttpd is running, type your Raspberry PI IP-address or hostname into an internet browser. That will show the lighttpd default page:

The document root can be changed with this config parameter:

server.document-root = "/var/www"

More details can be found here.

Directory listing can be used to have fast access to files on the Raspberry PI for testing purposes.

dir-listing.activate = "enable"

lighttpd offers many configuration possibilities for directory listing. More details can be found here.