One Liner

python -m http.server 8000

Note also that PHP supplies something similar (useful if your source contains php pages).

php -S localhost:8000

Basic Examples

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# Python 3 server example
from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
from subprocess import run, PIPE
import time
import sys
import re
from datetime import datetime
from threading import Thread

hostName = ""
serverPort = 4041

class MyServer(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
  def homepage(self):
    self.homepage_html = open("homepage.html").read()
    self.send_response(200)
    self.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
    self.end_headers()
    self.wfile.write(bytes(self.homepage_html, "utf-8"))

  def do_GET(self):
    if self.path == "/favicon.ico":
      self.send_response(404)
      self.end_headers()
      self.wfile.write(b"No favicon")
      return
    if self.path.strip("/") == "":
      return self.homepage()
    print(datetime.now().strftime("%c:")) 
    print(f"Request path: {self.path}")
    reply = f"You requested: {self.path}"
    self.send_response(200)
    self.end_headers()
    self.wfile.write(reply.encode())
    return

if __name__ == "__main__":    
  webServer = HTTPServer((hostName, serverPort), MyServer)
  print("Server started http://%s:%s" % (hostName, serverPort))

  try:
    webServer.serve_forever()
  except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass

  webServer.server_close()
  print("Server stopped.")

Bobbins Server

This serves an index.html, and all other paths are passed to a shell script. This is useful to make a simple webpage that triggers stuff over the LAN, such as media players. The beauty here is that you can modify the script and the index.html without restarting the server. (This includes using symlinks so that the script that is run, and possibly the index.html is changed dynamically by other scripts.)

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# Python 3 server example
from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
from subprocess import run, PIPE
import time
import sys
import re
import random
import os
import json
from glob import glob
from datetime import datetime
from threading import Thread

hostName = ""
serverPort = 8989
args = sys.argv[1:]
if len(args) == 0:
  bobbins = "./bobbins"
else:
  bobbins = args[0]
if len(args) > 1:
  try:
    p = int(args[1])
    if p >= 1024 and p <= 64000:
      serverPort = p
  except ValueError:
    pass

class MyServer(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
  def homepage(self):
    index_html = open("index.html").read()
    self.send_response(200)
    self.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
    self.end_headers()
    self.wfile.write(bytes(index_html, "utf-8"))
  def do_GET(self):
    if self.path == "/favicon.ico":
      self.send_response(404)
      self.end_headers()
      self.wfile.write(b"No favicon")
    p = self.path.strip("/")
    if p == "":
      return self.homepage()
    elif p == "quit":
      self.send_response(400)
      self.end_headers()
      self.wfile.write(b"Quitting")
      self.server.server_close()
    else:
      run([bobbins,p])
      self.send_response(303)
      self.send_header("Location","/")
      self.end_headers()
      self.wfile.write(b"")

if __name__ == "__main__":    
  print(f"Starting server")
  webServer = HTTPServer((hostName, serverPort), MyServer)
  print("Server started http://%s:%s" % (hostName, serverPort))

  try:
    webServer.serve_forever()
  except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass

  webServer.server_close()
  print("Server stopped.")

Example bobbins script

Note that mp and tvlcmd are scripts I use to control mpd and VLC respectively. I use multiple instances so as to have concurrent playlists in each, so the C and H select between them.

#!/bin/bash
I=1
H=mrhex # vlc host
N=20 # vlc channel on frodo3
C=1 # mpd channel
run() {
  case "$1" in
    start)
      mp %pause
      mp "$C",clear,load mytracks,stop
      tvlcmd "$H" "$N" play "seek 0" "f on" "volume 255"
      mp "$C",random on,consume on,play
      ;;
    restart)
      mp "$C",seek 0,play
      tvlcmd "$H" "$N" "seek 0" 
      ;;
  esac
}
for s; do
  echo "$((I++)): $s"
  run "$s"
done