# ⚡zap⚡ - blazingly fast backends in zig Zap is intended to become the [zig](https://ziglang.org) replacement for the kind of REST APIs I used to write in [python](https://python.org) with [Flask](https://flask.palletsprojects.com) and [mongodb](https://www.mongodb.com), etc. It can be considered to be a microframework for web applications. What I need for that is a blazingly fast, robust HTTP server that I can use with zig. While facil.io supports TLS, I don't care about HTTPS support. In production, I use [nginx](https://www.nginx.com) as a reverse proxy anyway. Zap wraps and patches [facil.io - the C web application framework](https://facil.io). **⚡ZAP⚡ IS SUPER ALPHA** _Under the hood, everything is super robust and fast. My zig wrappers are fresh, juicy, and alpha._ Here's what works: - **Super easy build process**: zap's `build.zig` now uses the up-and-coming zig package manager for its C-dependencies, no git submodules anymore. - _tested on Linux and macOS (arm, M1)_ - **[hello](examples/hello/hello.zig)**: welcomes you with some static HTML - **[routes](examples/routes/routes.zig)**: a super easy example dispatching on the HTTP path - **[serve](examples/serve/serve.zig)**: the traditional static web server with optional dynamic request handling - **[hello_json](examples/hello_json/hello_json.zig)**: serves you json dependent on HTTP path - **[endpoint](examples/endpoint/)**: a simple JSON REST API example featuring a `/users` endpoint for PUTting/DELETE-ing/GET-ting/POST-ing and listing users, together with a static HTML and JavaScript frontend to play with. I'll continue wrapping more of facil.io's functionality and adding stuff to zap to a point where I can use it as the JSON REST API backend for real research projects, serving thousands of concurrent clients. ## ⚡blazingly fast⚡ Claiming to be blazingly fast is the new black. At least, zap doesn't slow you down and if your server performs poorly, it's probably not exactly zap's fault. Zap relies on the [facil.io](https://facil.io) framework and so it can't really claim any performance fame for itself. In this initial implementation of zap, I didn't care about optimizations at all. But, how fast is it? Being blazingly fast is relative. When compared with a simple GO HTTP server, a simple zig zap HTTP server performed really good on my machine: - zig zap was nearly 30% faster than GO - zig zap had over 50% more throughput than GO **Update**: I was intrigued comparing to a basic rust HTTP server. Unfortunately, knowing nothing at all about rust, I couldn't find one and hence tried to go for the one in [The Rust Programming Language](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch20-00-final-project-a-web-server.html). Wanting it to be of a somewhat fair comparison, I opted for the multi-threaded example. It didn't work out-of-the-box, but I got it to work and changed it to not read files but outputting a static text just like in the other examples. **maybe someone with rust experience** can have a look at my [wrk/rust/hello](wrk/rust/hello) code and tell me why it's surprisingly slow, as I expected it to be faster than the basic GO example. I'll enable the GitHub discussions for this matter. My suspicion is bad performance of the mutexes. ![](wrk_table_summary.png) ![](wrk_charts_summary.png) So, being somewhere in the ballpark of basic GO performance, zig zap seems to be ... of reasonable performance 😎. See more details in [blazingly-fast.md](blazingly-fast.md). ## Getting started ```shell $ git clone https://github.com/zigzap/zap.git $ cd zap $ zig build run-hello $ # open http://localhost:3000 in your browser ``` ... and open [http://localhost:3000](http://locahhost:3000) in your browser. ## Using ⚡zap⚡ in your own projects If you don't have an existing zig project, create one like this: ```shell $ mkdir zaptest && cd zaptest $ zig init-exe $ git init ## (optional) ``` **Note 1**: Zap is developed with zig master (0.11.0-dev.1602+d976b4e4a at the time of writing). This version of zig has the package management features in place that are used in the following instructions. Nix users are lucky; you can use the existing `flake.nix` and run `nix develop` to get a development shell providing zig, and also all dependencies to build the and run the GO, python, and rust examples for the `wrk` performance tests. With an existing zig project, adding zap to it is easy: 1. Add zap to your `build.zig.zon` 2. Add zap to your `build.zig` To add zap to `build.zig.zon`: ```zig .{ .name = "myapp", .version = "0.0.1", .dependencies = .{ .zap = .{ .url = "https://github.com/zigzap/zap/archive/db6496cd7afc6bac50da563936021ee28f591dc1.tar.gz", .hash = "12203791cdbf4ebc2692bbd2ce790fedbc2e7295eec3efd7812621aa35a5ce83767a", }, .@"facil.io" = .{ .url = "https://github.com/zigzap/facil.io/archive/2c04cd1949328dd62fe5d262b9cc930e54392ab8.tar.gz", .hash = "12209d3b552145f24431e5a2e6a4ad59ceaa9656f7fba8af7a8aa704a8784a79f55d", } } } ``` **Note 2**: change the URLs to the latest commit of `zap` and `facil.io` respectively (my fork). The latter is unlikely to change; but `zap` is likely to change more frequently. Then, in your `build.zig`'s `build` function, add the following before `exe.install()`: ```zig const zap = b.dependency("zap", .{ .target = target, .optimize = optimize, }); exe.addModule("zap", zap.module("zap")); const facil_dep = b.dependency("facil.io", .{ .target = target, .optimize = optimize, }); exe.linkLibrary(facil_dep.artifact("facil.io")); ``` From then on, you can use the zap package in your project. Check out the examples to see how to use zap. ## Contribute to ⚡zap⚡ - blazingly fast At the current time, I can only add to zap what I need for my personal and professional projects. While this happens **blazingly fast**, some if not all nice-to-have additions will have to wait. You are very welcome to help make the world a blazingly fast place by providing patches or pull requests, add documentation or examples, or interesting issues and bug reports - you'll know what to do when you receive your calling 👼. Check out [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details. See also [introducing.md](introducing.md) for more on the state and progress of this project. You can also reach me on [the zig showtime discord server](https://discord.gg/CBzE3VMb) under the handle renerocksai (renerocksai#1894). ## Support ⚡zap⚡ Being blazingly fast requires a constant feed of caffeine. I usually manage to provide that to myself for myself. However, to support keeping the juices flowing and putting a smile on my face and that warm and cozy feeling into my heart, you can always [buy me a coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/renerocksai) ☕. All donations are welcomed 🙏 blazingly fast! That being said, just saying "hi" also works wonders with the smiles, warmth, and coziness 😊. ## Examples You build and run the examples via: ```shell $ zig build [EXAMPLE] $ ./zig-out/bin/[EXAMPLE] ``` ... where `[EXAMPLE]` is one of `hello`, `routes`, or `serve`. Example: building and running the hello example: ```shell $ zig build hello $ ./zig-out/bin/hello ``` To just run an example, like `routes`, without generating an executable, run: ```shell $ zig build run-[EXAMPLE] ``` Example: building and running the routes example: ```shell $ zig build run-routes ``` ### [hello](examples/hello/hello.zig) ```zig const std = @import("std"); const zap = @import("zap"); fn on_request(r: zap.SimpleRequest) void { if (r.path) |the_path| { std.debug.print("PATH: {s}\n", .{the_path}); } if (r.query) |the_query| { std.debug.print("QUERY: {s}\n", .{the_query}); } _ = r.sendBody("

Hello from ZAP!!!

"); } pub fn main() !void { var listener = zap.SimpleHttpListener.init(.{ .port = 3000, .on_request = on_request, .log = true, }); try listener.listen(); std.debug.print("Listening on 0.0.0.0:3000\n", .{}); // start worker threads zap.start(.{ .threads = 2, .workers = 2, }); } ```