A Python HTTP server for serving static content
Python has a built-in HTTP server which can be used to serve static content on the local machine or in the local network. It is just a plain web server. Obviously, it does not support server-side scripting.
It turns out that even such a primitive tool can be useful sometimes. When did I use it?
When I had documentation in the form of a web page and wanted to share it conveniently with someone who was connected to my home network without bothering to find a web hosting. After all, I needed it only for a few minutes.
It was also helpful when I had a script to build a static web page and wanted to test the result.
How to run it?
1
python -m http.server <port number>
for example:
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python -m http.server 8080
It will serve the content from the current directory.
Important note: it must not be used in production or when the machine is connected to public networks because it is not very secure.
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Bartosz Mikulski
- MLOps engineer by day
- AI and data engineering consultant by night
- Python and data engineering trainer
- Conference speaker
- Contributed a chapter to the book "97 Things Every Data Engineer Should Know"
- Twitter: @mikulskibartosz
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