A bare-metal i386 Gopher server for Linux.

gasm is a dependency-free Gopher server written in pure x86 Assembly. It is designed to run on the most resource-constrained hardware imaginable—from a rusty 1990s 386DX to a modern potato.

No libc. No runtime. No dynamic allocation. Just pure int 0x80 syscalls.

Download the binary..

• Zero Runtime: Runs natively on the bare metal of the OS.
• Static Memory: Uses global buffers and page-aligned memory. No heap, no malloc, no leaks.
• Legacy Networking: Uses the socketcall (syscall 102) interface for maximum compatibility with older Linux kernels (2.4+).
• Security:
  • Strict input size limiting (Buffer Overflow protection).
  • Sanitizes path traversal (..).
  • Runs as an unprivileged user (Port 7890).
• Protocol Support:
  • Dynamic Directory Listings (Type 1)
  • Text Files (Type 0)
  • Binaries / Images (Type 9)

GASM targets the i386 (IA-32) instruction set.

• Minimum: Intel 80386DX, 4MB RAM, Linux 2.4.
• Maximum: Any modern x86_64 CPU (runs natively via legacy mode).

Why Linux 2.4? It introduced getdents64, allowing us to list directories efficiently in a single syscall. This prevents I/O thrashing on ancient, slow hard drives.

Prerequisites: nasm and ld (binutils).

# 1. Build (Cross-compiles 32-bit ELF on 64-bit systems)
make

# 2. Setup content
mkdir content
echo "Hello from Assembly" > content/hello.txt

# 3. Run
./gasm content

Test:

curl gopher://localhost:7890