HTTPD for MVS 3.8j
User's Guide

Document Number ML07-0001-0

October 2026

Mike Großmann

First Edition (October 2026)

This edition applies to Version 4 Release 5 of HTTPD, the HTTP server for MVS 3.8j (httpd 4.5.1), and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions.

Draft. This is a draft edition, as the last digit of the number says. The console sessions in the chapters on configuring and running HTTPD that show a start of the server or its version were captured on an MVS/CE system, a throwaway container, with a package build of HTTPD 4.5.1 that was made from the source of the release branch, with the version in the project file changed from 4.5.1-dev to 4.5.1. Two sessions come from development builds, which show the version 4.5.1-DEV or 4.5.0-DEV: the start on a system without a user table in the chapter on security and the banner in the chapter on removing HTTPD. The other console and client sessions may come from earlier development builds of HTTPD 4.5.0 and 4.5.1. The sessions in the chapters on installing and upgrading HTTPD were captured on a TK5 system with the same package build: the install on a system without HTTPD and the upgrade from 4.5.0 to 4.5.1. A first install of the package build on an MVS/CE system showed the same start. A start of the published package of 4.5.1 was not measured. The sessions in the chapter on removing HTTPD were captured on release 4.4.0 on a TK5 system, except the section on a development build, which comes from development builds of 4.5.0. The removal job for 4.5.0 was run on a TK5 system as well. The removal job for 4.5.1 was run on an MVS/CE system that held the released 4.5.0 and on a TK5 system that held 4.5.1. The chapters name what they measured.

Comments on this book may be addressed to the issue tracker of the mvslovers/httpd repository on GitHub.

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About This Book

This book shows how to install, configure and run HTTPD (httpd), the HTTP server for MVS 3.8j: how to put it on a system, how to describe routes and server modules in the configuration member, how HTTPD authenticates a client with the security system, how it serves files, how an operator starts, queries and stops it, how to write a server module of one’s own, and how to upgrade and remove it. Every configuration keyword, console command, interface function, record layout and message in full is the subject of the companion volume, the HTTPD Reference.

The book describes HTTPD 4.5, as it comes with the release. HTTPREXX and HTTPLUA, the server modules for REXX Server Pages and for Lua, have their own books.

The Examples in This Book

The console screens and the client sessions in this book are output that was recorded from a running HTTPD. None of them was typed by hand. Before they were printed, some values were replaced: passwords by asterisks, session tokens by <token>, the digits of job and task numbers by n, the build stamp after the version by nnnnnnn, the names and addresses of the test systems by localhost, mvs.example.org and the address 192.0.2.17 of the documentation range, and the home directory of the user by $HOME. The addresses in the examples are therefore not real addresses.

How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1: “Introducing HTTPD”.
Chapter 2: “Installing HTTPD”.
Chapter 3: “A First Request”.
Chapter 4: “Configuring HTTPD”.
Chapter 5: “Routes and Server Modules”.
Chapter 6: “Authentication and Security”.
Chapter 7: “Serving Files”.
Chapter 8: “Operating HTTPD”.
Chapter 9: “Writing a Server Module”.
Chapter 10: “Upgrading HTTPD”.
Chapter 11: “Removing HTTPD”.
Chapter 12: “Troubleshooting”.
Appendix A: “Glossary”.

Related Publications

ML07-0002: HTTPD Reference: the Parmlib keywords, the route syntax, the console commands, the started task, the HTTP behaviour and limits, the server module interface, the display modules, the SMF records and the messages of HTTPD.
ML05-0001: UFSD User’s Guide: the file system server that holds the document tree HTTPD serves.
ML02-0001: MBT User’s Guide: the build tool that builds HTTPD and packages its releases.

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