serve 14.2.1

Serve is a handy npm package designed to assist in serving static files, single page applications, or any static file whether on your device or on a local network. Its usability extends to providing a neat interface for listing directory contents. Serve is ideal for both personal device usage and for trying out your projects in a local network environment. However, for production stages, deploying your site using platforms like Vercel is recommended.

Using serve is straightforward and uncomplicated. For first time users, you can quickly get a feel of it by running npx serve in your project's directory. For those who favor global packages, serve can also be installed globally using the command npm install --global serve. After installation, serve can be executed within a project's directory by simply running the command serve.

Here's a simple example:

> npm install --global serve
> serve

You can also specify the folder you want to serve by including the folder name in the command. Like so:

> serve folder-name/

To explore more about the different options available in serve, just run serve --help.

For serve's documentation, you can consult the serve-handler page on Github at https://github.com/vercel/serve-handler#options to customize serve's behavior. You can create a serve.json file and insert any of the properties listed on the page.

In terms of API usage, serve-handler can be incorporated as middleware in pre-existing HTTP servers. For instance:

const handler = require('serve-handler');
const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer((request, response) => {
  // You pass two more arguments for config and middleware
  // More details here: https://github.com/vercel/serve-handler#options
  return handler(request, response);
});

server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Running at http://localhost:3000');
});

In-depth information about serve's features, command syntax, and more can be found with the aforementioned resources.