Hiawatha

Hiawatha provides a general use web server that is focused on security and performance. It is easy to configure and comes with support for any type of CGI or FastCGI application, as well as an optimized platform for PHP frameworks and content management system applications.

Hiawatha features support for various web and HTTP-specific functions, including CGI/FastCGI, HTTP authentication, virtual hosts, URL rewriting, keep alive connections, and more.

The Hiawatha package comes with installation instructions for the web server, as well as comprehensive documentation containing all the options and features available to you. To run the server, you simply have to launch the "Hiawatha.bat" file. Closing the server is done by using the CTRL-C key combination, which sends the SIGTERM signal to the application. Alternatively, Hiawatha can also be installed as a Windows service. By default the Hiawatha service is associated to the SYSTEM user.

To use PHP with Hiawatha, you must first install PHP on your computer and then run the PHP7-FastCGI.bat, which allows PHP to be started as a FastCGI daemon.

The configuration files of the Hiawatha web server are found in the dedicated directory. It is recommended that you take the time to read the documentation before making any changes to the config files. Nevertheless, keep in mind that Hiawatha features a configuration checking tool that will notify you about any error in the server's configuration.