BaseHTTPServer

You can use this to make a simple HTTP web server.

Official Documentation

[http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.4/lib/module-BaseHTTPServer.html BaseHTTPServer module documentation] - what we use directly
[http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.4/lib/module-SocketServer.html SocketServer module documentation] - behind the BaseHttpServer

Example Code

Responding with an HTML Page

   1 import time
   2 import BaseHTTPServer
   3 
   4 
   5 HOST_NAME = 'something.somewhere.net' # !!!REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS!!!
   6 PORT_NUMBER = 80 # Maybe set this to 9000.
   7 
   8 
   9 class MyHandler( BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler ):
  10     def do_HEAD(s):
  11         s.send_response(200)
  12         s.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
  13         s.end_headers()
  14     def do_GET(s):
  15         """Respond to a GET request."""
  16         s.send_response(200)
  17         s.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
  18         s.end_headers()
  19         s.wfile.write( "<html><head><title>Title goes here.</title></head>" )
  20         s.wfile.write( "<body><p>This is a test.</p>" )
  21         # If someone went to "http://something.somewhere.net/foo/bar/",
  22         # then s.path equals "/foo/bar/".
  23         s.wfile.write( "<p>You accessed path: %s</p>" % s.path )
  24         s.wfile.write( "</body></html>" )
  25 
  26 if __name__ == '__main__':
  27     server_class = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer
  28     httpd = server_class( (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER),
  29                           MyHandler )
  30     print time.asctime(), "Server Starts - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)
  31     try:
  32         httpd.serve_forever()
  33     except KeyboardInterrupt:
  34         pass
  35     httpd.close()
  36     print time.asctime(), "Server Stops - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)

Responding with URL Redirection

This code demonstrates simple URL redirection:

Toggle line numbers

   1 """
   2 URL redirection example.
   3 """
   4 
   5 import BaseHTTPServer
   6 import time
   7 import sys
   8 
   9 
  10 HOST_NAME = 'something.somewhere.net' # !!!REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS!!!
  11 PORT_NUMBER = 80 # Maybe set this to 9000.
  12 REDIRECTIONS = {
  13     "/slashdot/" : "http://slashdot.org/",
  14     "/freshmeat/" : "http://freshmeat.net/",
  15     }
  16 REDIRECTION_OF_LAST_RESORT = "http://google.com/"
  17 
  18 class RedirectHandler( BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler ):
  19     def do_HEAD(s):
  20         s.send_response( 301 )
  21         s.send_header( "Location", REDIRECTIONS.get( s.path, REDIRECTION_OF_LAST_RESORT ) )
  22         s.end_headers()
  23     def do_GET(s):
  24         s.do_HEAD()
  25 
  26 if __name__ == '__main__':
  27     server_class = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer
  28     httpd = server_class( (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER),
  29                           RedirectHandler )
  30     print time.asctime(), "Server Starts - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)
  31     try:
  32         httpd.serve_forever()
  33     except KeyboardInterrupt:
  34         pass
  35     httpd.close()
  36     print time.asctime(), "Server Stops - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)

Discussion

I'd ultimately like to see a BaseHttpServer here that can both handle XML-RPC requests (with that request handler,) and normal web requests (with a custom handler.)

Yes- I know and love TwistedPython. But I want to make something that works in a single install. -- LionKimbro DateTime(2004-05-31T01:13:16Z)

I'd also like to add code here showing how to service a POST request.

-- LionKimbro DateTime(2004-07-03T23:07:53Z)

There exist tools like CherryPy which will create a single-file Python HTTP server (based on BaseHTTPServer). This is a fair amount easier to work with than the raw BaseHTTPServer. For most cases, using a more complete framework will be preferable (see WebProgramming). -- IanBicking

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