lighttpd

lighttpd is a simple, lightweight HTTP server that became popular for its low resource usage.

Instant WebDAV server (handy for accessing a remote machine’s filesystem behind a firewall):

cat lighttpd.conf
$HTTP["url"] =~ "/.*" {
  webdav.activate = "enable"
  webdav.is-readonly = "disable"
}
server.bind = 127.0.0.1
server.port = 8090
server.document-root = "/tmp"
server.modules = ( "mod_auth", "mod_access", "mod_webdav", "mod_accesslog" )
accesslog.filename = "/tmp/access_log"

Fire it up, forward a local port to the remote machine (SSH tunneling with compression is recommended), and connect to the endpoint in the Finder.

Related pages: see the entries on launchd and MacPorts.

Launch daemon (installed by MacPorts):

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.lighttpd.plist