tcp - http.createserver vs net.createserver in node.js

Question

I am having trouble understanding the difference between net.createserver and http.createserver in node.js.

I have read the documentation for both methods located at these two urls https://nodejs.org/api/net.html#/net_net, https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#/http_class_http_server.

I understand that http.createserver creates an http server. However, the documentation says that net.createserver creates a tcp server. I understand that tcp is the transmission protocol that http is on top of and that http servers are set up to read http request headers. I also understand the concept of even emitters in node.js pretty well. However, I don't understand this notion of a tcp server and why one would be made in node.js. The context is I am coding a chat application example in the "node.js in action" book.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29869999/http-createserver-vs-net-createserver-in-node-js

Answer 1

http.createServer() sets up a server that handles the HTTP protocol, which is indeed transmitted over tcp. net.createServer() creates a server that simply understands when a TCP connection has happened, and data has been transmitted, and so on, but doesn't know anything about whether a valid HTTP request has been received, etc.

If you are writing a web server, favor http.createServer() over net.createServer() as it will save you a lot of work. If you are writing some other kind of server, do not use http.createServer().