Simple Http Server

Christian Külker

0.1.2

2023-01-18

Introduction

Sometimes it is handy to just have simple local web server that serves a web directory in a non complex way. To be used in a web framework development, in a web site development, or just for validating the HTML part of the project documentation.

(Simple) Http Server

Python 3

As with python3 the module has changed from python2: http.server.

python3 -m http.server 8000

Point your web browser to http://127.0.0.1:8000 or http://localhost:8000.

If you want to be more explicit: py-server-http

import os
from http.server import HTTPServer, CGIHTTPRequestHandler
os.chdir('.') # Current directory, change it if needed
server_object = HTTPServer(server_address=('', 8000),
    RequestHandlerClass=CGIHTTPRequestHandler)
server_object.serve_forever()

In case SSL support is important:

  1. Create key
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /path/to/key.pem \
-out /path/to/cert.pem -days 365
  1. The SSL HTTP (HTTPS) server
import os
from http.server import HTTPServer, BaseHTTPRequestHandler
import ssl

os.chdir('.') # Current directory, change it if needed

httpd = HTTPServer(('localhost', 4443), BaseHTTPRequestHandler)

httpd.socket = ssl.wrap_socket (httpd.socket,
    keyfile="/path/to/key.pem",
    certfile='/path/to/cert.pem', server_side=True)

httpd.serve_forever()

Point your web browser to https://127.0.0.1:4443 or https://localhost:4443.

Python 3.9.2 with Docker

A simple web server can be used with Docker to expose html pages to the outside world for testing purposes.

FROM python:3.9.2

VOLUME ["/code"]
ADD . /code
WORKDIR /code

EXPOSE 5123
CMD ["python", "-m", "http.server", "5123"]

Point your web browser to http://127.0.0.1:5123 or http://localhost:5123.

Python 2

Go into the web directory you want to serve and execute python2 with SimpleHTTPServer.

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Point your web browser to http://127.0.0.1:8000 or http://localhost:8000.

History

Version Date Notes
0.1.2 2023-01-18 Improve writing, add SSL and Docker examples
0.1.1 2022-07-13 Format for quick guide, update for python3
0.1.0 2016-07-19 Initial release (as 0.1)
  • Simple Http Server