What is the Python 3 equivalent of "python -m SimpleHTTPServer"

Question

What is the Python 3 equivalent of python -m SimpleHTTPServer?

Motorcar

python -m http.server 8000 , it will start the server on port 8000 – Swiercz

Answer 1

From the docs:

The SimpleHTTPServer module has been merged into http.server in Python 3.0. The 2to3 tool will automatically adapt imports when converting your sources to 3.0.

So, your command is python -m http.server, or depending on your installation, it can be:

python3 -m http.server

Kiley

In Python 3.3, the replacement for python -m CGIHTTPServer is python3 -m http.server --cgi. – Suzette

Can you bind a different IP/Port with that command? How would I do that? – Musgrave

Sure, just tack it on the end of the command line. Read python3 -m http.server --help for all the args & options. – Kiley

python -m http.server worked for me. I had to remove the 3 – Cleat

@nueverest It depends on how your Python installation is 'named'. Usually Python2 is available as python and Python3 as python3 but some prefer to install Python3 simply as python. – Straightway

AFAIK, on Windows, it'll install as just python by default. But, the question is for python3 :) – Kiley

@Musgrave python -m http.server --bind 192.168.1.14 8000 >>> Serving HTTP on 192.168.1.14 port 8000 ... – Basenji

python3 is now named 'python' for homebrew-managed installs on OSX. – Howe

@Musgrave more examples at the end of this section: docs.python.org/3/library/… – Firkin

is it possible to call this in a py2x and py3x compatible way? I tried using the six library but it doesnt seem to work with: 'python -m six.moves.SimpleHTTPServer' – Dosser

just installed python 3.7.1 on windows, neither python nor python3 worked, just py worked! – Mallett

@ParamvirSinghKarwal py is a wrapper on windows because Linux has a feature where if a script is marked executable and starts with a "shebang" (as in #! /bin/python3) executing it as a command (as in ./yourscript.py) will run it with that program so you can chose which version to run your script under, unless someone manually does python2 yourscript.py. Windows uses just the files extension to decide which program to use so py is set to open .py files and looks for a shebang and then executes it under the correct python version. – Borodino

And on Arch I have python (Python 3), python2, python2.7, python3, and python3.7. If a had 2.6 for example, I'd also have a python2.6. – Borodino

another big fan of the " . " where people don't want one for copy & paste reasons. Must have been put there on purpose. <--- HERE a dot / full stop does belong, since there is no bash code involved, you see. – Turncoat

@dotbit: That was an unfortunate result of an edit which turned an inline code example (like the python -m http.server) into a paragraph that had only code in it – but left the trailing comma. I've now turned it into a real code block. Please feel free to edit (or suggest edits) yourself when you see a mistake. Or just alert others if you see something that can be improved. There's no need for negativity :) – Kiley

@PetrViktorin what is the default --bind if I don't specify it? I looked into the docs but I cannot find it. – Undermanned

@Kuzeko, the default is to listen on all interfaces (''). – Kiley

Answer 2

The equivalent is:

python3 -m http.server

Hebetude

And python3 -m http.server 8080 if You need to bind to a port. Read more at the end of the section: docs.python.org/3/library/… – Firkin

By default, it will bind to port 8000. See python3 -m http.server --help for details. – Jubilation

Answer 3

Using 2to3 utility.

$ cat try.py
import SimpleHTTPServer

$ 2to3 try.py
RefactoringTool: Skipping implicit fixer: buffer
RefactoringTool: Skipping implicit fixer: idioms
RefactoringTool: Skipping implicit fixer: set_literal
RefactoringTool: Skipping implicit fixer: ws_comma
RefactoringTool: Refactored try.py
--- try.py  (original)
+++ try.py  (refactored)
@@ -1 +1 @@
-import SimpleHTTPServer
+import http.server
RefactoringTool: Files that need to be modified:
RefactoringTool: try.py

Like many *nix utils, 2to3 accepts stdin if the argument passed is -. Therefore, you can test without creating any files like so:

$ 2to3 - <<< "import SimpleHTTPServer"

Clarey

Answer 4

In addition to Petr's answer, if you want to bind to a specific interface instead of all the interfaces you can use -b or --bind flag.

python -m http.server 8000 --bind 127.0.0.1

The above snippet should do the trick. 8000 is the port number. 80 is used as the standard port for HTTP communications.

Affined

python -m http.server 8081 --bind 127.0.0.1 If your 8000 is being used by another program. – Moua

If you are not in a virtual environment where you are running Python3 , please use python3 -m http.server 8081 --bind 127.0.0.1, otherwise you will get an error that /usr/bin/python: No module named http – Moua

Answer 5

As everyone has mentioned http.server module is equivalent to python -m SimpleHTTPServer.
But as a warning from https://docs.python.org/3/library/http.server.html#module-http.server

Warning: http.server is not recommended for production. It only implements basic security checks.

Usage

http.server can also be invoked directly using the -m switch of the interpreter.

python -m http.server

The above command will run a server by default on port number 8000. You can also give the port number explicitly while running the server

python -m http.server 9000

The above command will run an HTTP server on port 9000 instead of 8000.

By default, server binds itself to all interfaces. The option -b/--bind specifies a specific address to which it should bind. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported. For example, the following command causes the server to bind to localhost only:

python -m http.server 8000 --bind 127.0.0.1

or

python -m http.server 8000 -b 127.0.0.1

Python 3.8 version also supports IPv6 in the bind argument.

Directory Binding

By default, server uses the current directory. The option -d/--directory specifies a directory to which it should serve the files. For example, the following command uses a specific directory:

python -m http.server --directory /tmp/

Directory binding is introduced in python 3.7

Volkan

Everyone mentions "Warning: http.server is not recommended for production. It only implements basic security checks." but do you have any suggestions for easy to use file servers as alternatives. I have a docker app and I would like to run something like this server in a separate container behind nginx. Any suggestions? – Cardenas

Answer 6

In one of my projects I run tests against Python 2 and 3. For that I wrote a small script which starts a local server independently:

$ python -m $(python -c 'import sys; print("http.server" if sys.version_info[:2] > (2,7) else "SimpleHTTPServer")')
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...

As an alias:

$ alias serve="python -m $(python -c 'import sys; print("http.server" if sys.version_info[:2] > (2,7) else "SimpleHTTPServer")')"
$ serve
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...

Please note that I control my Python version via conda environments, because of that I can use python instead of python3 for using Python 3.

Micronucleus

Answer 7

Just wanted to add what worked for me: python3 -m http.server 8000 (you can use any port number here except the ones which are currently in use)

Orthogenetic