nghttp2

nghttp2
Original author	Tatsuhiro Tsujikawa
Release	2013
Stable release	1.70.0  / 29 July 2026 (29 July 2026)
Written in	C
Platform	macOS, Windows, POSIX
Type	HTTP/2 implementation
License	MIT License
Website	nghttp2.org
Repository	github.com/nghttp2/nghttp2

nghttp2 is a C library. It is an implementation of HTTP/2.

History

nghttp2 was created by Tatsuhiro Tsujikawa as a derivative of spdylay, an implementation of SPDY, a communications protocol created by Google in 2009, in C.

Several well-known projects use nghttp2 to implement HTTP/2, including Apache and cURL.

Features

HTTP/2 implementation

nghttp2 will send a WINDOW_UPDATE frame upon consuming more than half of the flow control window. For instance, if the sender specifies the SETTINGS_INITIAL_WINDOW_SIZE [sic] as 65,535 octets in the SETTINGS frame, nghttp2 will send a WINDOW_UPDATE frame upon exceeding 32,768 octets. The initial window size may be changed using the -w and -W flags.

Tools

nghttp2 offers multiple tools. nghttp is a command-line tool that uses nghttp2 to output HTTP/2 messages from a URL. nghttp's dependency-based priority is based on Firefox; when a connection is established, nghttp sends five PRIORITY frames. Other tools provided include nghttpd, an HTTP/2 server, nghttpx, an HTTP/2 proxy, h2load, an HTTP/2 load testing tool, and inflatehd and deflatehd, tools to decompress and compress using the HPACK header compression algorithm.

nghttp3

nghttp3 is an implementation of HTTP/3 in C and authored by Tsujikawa. nghttp3 uses the QUIC network protocol designed by Jim Roskind at Google.

References

Bibliography

• Ludin, Stephen; Garza, Javier (2017). Learning HTTP/2: A Practical Guide for Beginners. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media. ISBN 9781491962619.
• Pollard, Barry (2019). HTTP/2 in Action. Shelter Island: Manning Publications. ISBN 9781638352334.