lighttpd 1.4.65 Released With WebSockets Over HTTP/2

For those making use of the lighttpd lightweight and speedy web server, a new release is now available of this BSD-licensed open-source software. Most notable with lighttpd 1.4.65 is support for WebSockets over HTTP/2.

With the WebSockets protocol on HTTP/1.1 it makes use of the upgrade mechanism to transition a TCP connection from HTTP to a WebSocket. However, due to fundamental HTTP/2 changes like not supporting the upgrade header field, WebSockets with HTTP/2 need to be treated differently. Bootstrapping WebSockets from HTTP/2 allows one TCP connection to be shared by both HTTP and WebSockets protocols and to extend HTTP/2's more efficient use of the network to WebSockets.

All of the HTTP/2 WebSockets intricacies are outlined in IETF RFC 8441. Today's lighttpd 1.4.65 release has that support implemented for WebSockets over HTTP/2.

The new lighttpd 1.4.65 release also adds support for HTTP/2's "PRIORITY_UPDATE", speeds up request body uploads via HTTP/2, various behavioral improvements, preparations for the TLS modules to use stronger and modern ciphers by default, and various other changes and fixes.

Downloads and more details on today's lighttpd 1.4.65 web server release via lighttpd.net.