CERN httpd

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title: "CERN httpd" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["free-web-server-software", "discontinued-software", "history-of-the-internet", "software-using-the-mit-license", "public-domain-software-with-source-code", "cern-software"] description: "Early web server" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_httpd" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Early web server ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

Field	Value
name	CERN httpd
logo	Httpd48x.gif
author	Tim Berners-Lee,
Ari Luotonen,
Henrik Frystyk Nielsen
developer	CERN / World Wide Web Consortium
released
latest release version	3.0A
latest release date
operating system	Unix, Unix-like
language	C
discontinued	yes
genre	Web server, proxy server
license	MIT Copyright Statement with acknowledgement to CERN
website
::

| name = CERN httpd | logo = Httpd48x.gif | screenshot = | caption = | author = Tim Berners-Lee, Ari Luotonen, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen | developer = CERN / World Wide Web Consortium | released = | latest release version = 3.0A | latest release date = | operating system = Unix, Unix-like | platform = | language = C | discontinued = yes | genre = Web server, proxy server | license = MIT Copyright Statement with acknowledgement to CERN | website = CERN httpd (later also known as W3C httpd) is an early, now discontinued, web server (HTTP) daemon originally developed at CERN from 1990 onwards by Tim Berners-Lee, Ari Luotonen and Henrik Frystyk Nielsen. Implemented in C, it was the first web server software.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/At_Geneva_2024_444.jpg" caption="This [[NeXT Computer]] used by [[Tim Berners-Lee]] at CERN became the world's first web server"] ::

CERN httpd was originally developed on a NeXT Computer running NeXTSTEP, and was later ported to other Unix-like operating systems, OpenVMS and systems with unix emulation layers, e.g. OS/2 with emx+gcc. It could also be configured as a web proxy server. Version 0.1 was released in June 1991. In August 1991, Berners-Lee announced in the Usenet newsgroup alt.hypertext the availability of the source code of the server daemon (named WWWDaemon) and other World Wide Web software from the CERN FTP site.

::quote

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The server was presented on the Hypertext 91 conference in San Antonio and was part of the CERN Program Library (CERNLIB).

Later versions of the server are based on the libwww library. The development of CERN httpd was later taken over by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), with the last release being version 3.0A of 15 July 1996. From 1996 onwards, W3C focused on the development of the Java-based Jigsaw server.

The initial version was public domain software; the last one was under an MIT License.

Java rewrite

| title = Jigsaw | logo = | screenshot = | author = Yves Lafon | developer = Jigsaw Team | discontinued = yes | latest release version = 2.2.6 (April 10, 2007) | programming language = Java | platform = Java | replaces = CERN httpd | standard = HTTP/1.1 | genre = Web server | website =

Jigsaw is a web server software written in Java. It is the successor to CERN httpd, the first web server software ever, and was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium.

Jigsaw supports HTTP/1.1 and is a reference implementation for the W3C and an experimental platform for the Internet community. The server is configurable via HTML forms, and new Java classes can be added during operation.

The first released version was 1.0alpha1 and appeared in June 1996. Version 2.0.0 was completed on December 24, 1998. The last released version is 2.2.6 from April 10, 2007.

References

References

1. [http://www.w3.org/Daemon/ Official CERN httpd page]
2. [http://www.w3.org/Daemon/Features.html Change History for httpd]
3. Stewart, Bill. "Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and the World Wide Web – Web development". Living Internet.
4. Tim Berners Lee. (1991-08-20). "WorldWideWeb wide-area hypertext app available". CERN.
5. "W3C Open Source Software – CERN Server". World Wide Web Consortium.
6. [[Robert Cailliau]]. (21 July 2010). "A Short History of the Web". [[NetValley]].
7. Kahan, José. (5 August 1999). "Why Libwww?". World Wide Web Consortium.
8. Baird-Smith, Anselm. (April 1996). "W3C Activity: The CERN server". World Wide Web Consortium.
9. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140817185526/http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/birth-web/licensing-web The birth of the web Licensing the web] on cern.ch (2014, archived)
10. "Jigsaw Activity Statement".
11. (17 August 1996). "Puzzle in 14 Minuten".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::