.3 HTTPS server and client

The HTTPS server and client API is almost identical to the HTTP API, so pretty much everything said above applies to them. In fact, the client API is the same, and the HTTPS server only differs in that it needs a certificate file.

The HTTPS server library allows you to serve files over SSL/TLS. To get started, you need to have a SSL certificate from a certificate authority or you need to generate one yourself. Of course, self-generated certificates will generally trigger warnings in the browser.

10.3.1 Configuration: generating your own certificate

Here is how you can generate a self-signed certificate:

openssl genrsa -out privatekey.pem 1024
openssl req -new -key privatekey.pem -out certrequest.csr
openssl x509 -req -in certrequest.csr -signkey privatekey.pem -out certificate.pem

Note that this certificate will trigger warnings in your browser, since it is self-signed.

10.3.2 Starting the server

To start the HTTPS server, you need to read the private key and certificate. Note that readFileSync is used in this case, since blocking to read the certificates when the server starts is acceptable:

var https = require('https');
// read in the private key and certificate
var pk = fs.readFileSync('./privatekey.pem');
var pc = fs.readFileSync('./certificate.pem');
var opts = { key: pk, cert: pc };
// create the secure server
var serv = https.createServer(opts, function(req, res) {
// listen on port 443
serv.listen(443, '');

Note that on Linux, you may need to run the server with higher privileges to bind to port 443. Other than needing to read a private key and certificate, the HTTPS server works like the HTTP server.