Upload a file to a web server using C++

Programmer Question

Hi,

I want to upload files from a client location to a server. At present, I have a client-server socket program by which I could send/receive files across, but I would like to improvise it.

My idea would be to transfer the file using HTTP PUT/POST from client (most of the coding on client side) to the server. Since I have no idea about HTTP programming, so I need some guidance on how to achieve that. I want to use C++ with BSD sockets in doing that, and no other libraries. My aim is to send the server a form, like as given below with a HTTP POST/PUT request, and get the file "main.cpp" uploaded to the server.

PUT http://localhost/ HTTP/1.0
Host: localhost
Content-type: form-data
Content-length: 90
FileUpload: /Users/SG/files/main.cpp

I was able to write a dummy program that does some PUT from a client, and the web server running Apache returns a HTTP 200. What I am failing to understand currently would be the following two things, which I guess are somewhat connected:

1. How one could specify a file to be uploaded from the client in the form above?




2. If I understand correctly, the file would be read at client site and then the file content would be sent to the server, where a server side script would read the bytes from client and create a copy of the file at the server. Is it correct?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Sayan

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