5 ms·

Nobody seems to have posted this yet: python -m SimpleHTTPServer I'd recommend an alias like "serve". It basically puts the current directory online (bind

by ancarda 13y ago

Nobody seems to have posted this yet: python -m SimpleHTTPServer I'd recommend an alias like "serve". It basically puts the current directory online (binds to 0.0.0.0:8000).

verandaguy 13y ago
Am I wrong to have long dismissed this as little more than an easter egg, or, at best, a toy server to test basic webpage functionality?
- ramses0 13y ago
  Yes. It's like a ghetto SCP for giving files to people on windows who don't have SCP. You can use it for basic web functionality, you can use it (carefully) as a mechanism for testing or serving test results. I wouldn't keep it running for days, but it's an amazingly useful tool.
  - verandaguy 13y ago
    Whoa, never thought of it that way. The makeshift SCP is really a good idea!
- ancarda 13y ago
  I use it quite a lot to move files between my computers, stream content to my phone, test out web designs. I suppose it's like net cat, it's useful for some. I think "toy server" is fairly accurate, I can't see anyone using this in production but I can't see people installing nginx on their laptops either.
  - kalleboo 13y ago
    > I can't see people installing nginx on their laptops either. OS X comes with apache preinstalled though
- thom 13y ago
  The only problem it really solves is if you've got non-relative paths in your HTML/CSS. I've used this a couple of times in those situations.
  - umanwizard 13y ago
    Just because that's the only problem you use it to solve doesn't mean that's the only problem it solves.
    - thom 13y ago
      Sorry, wasn't trying to belittle anything (I've actually written a Mac menu bar app that does this exact thing which a couple of designer friends use).
- tantaman 13y ago
  Depends on what you're developing. If you're doing single page apps that get their data from an external service then this is incredibly useful.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- umanwizard 13y ago
  Our build process automatically generates a directory tree of HTML-formatted unit test coverage reports. Sometimes it's nice to be able to share links to those reports in a code review. I use python SimpleHTTPServer for that.
stiller 13y ago
Or in Ruby: ruby -run -e httpd . -p 8000
MrBuddyCasino 13y ago
Related: python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:25 A makeshift SMTP server that logs all messages to the console.
pi-rat 13y ago
It does not support large files, so sometimes I have to fall back to https://npmjs.org/package/http-server https://npmjs.org/package/http-server (npm -g install http-server .. then just run http-server /path)
skyebook 13y ago
Mind blown. Thanks!
stock_toaster 13y ago
similarly, you can get a janky json pretty printer by doing: curl -s http://some/json/url | python -m json.tool
- wging 13y ago
  When your needs stretch beyond that, try 'jq'. http://stedolan.github.io/jq/ http://stedolan.github.io/jq/ For pretty-printing without modification, cat myjson | jq '.'
p8952 13y ago
Or for Python3: python -m http.server . Or Ruby: ruby -run -e httpd .

by ancarda 13y ago

Nobody seems to have posted this yet: python -m SimpleHTTPServer I'd recommend an alias like "serve". It basically puts the current directory online (binds to 0.0.0.0:8000).

verandaguy 13y ago

Am I wrong to have long dismissed this as little more than an easter egg, or, at best, a toy server to test basic webpage functionality?

ramses0 13y ago
Yes. It's like a ghetto SCP for giving files to people on windows who don't have SCP. You can use it for basic web functionality, you can use it (carefully) as a mechanism for testing or serving test results. I wouldn't keep it running for days, but it's an amazingly useful tool.
- verandaguy 13y ago
  Whoa, never thought of it that way. The makeshift SCP is really a good idea!
ancarda 13y ago
I use it quite a lot to move files between my computers, stream content to my phone, test out web designs. I suppose it's like net cat, it's useful for some. I think "toy server" is fairly accurate, I can't see anyone using this in production but I can't see people installing nginx on their laptops either.
- kalleboo 13y ago
  > I can't see people installing nginx on their laptops either. OS X comes with apache preinstalled though
thom 13y ago
The only problem it really solves is if you've got non-relative paths in your HTML/CSS. I've used this a couple of times in those situations.
- umanwizard 13y ago
  Just because that's the only problem you use it to solve doesn't mean that's the only problem it solves.
  - thom 13y ago
    Sorry, wasn't trying to belittle anything (I've actually written a Mac menu bar app that does this exact thing which a couple of designer friends use).
tantaman 13y ago
Depends on what you're developing. If you're doing single page apps that get their data from an external service then this is incredibly useful.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
umanwizard 13y ago
Our build process automatically generates a directory tree of HTML-formatted unit test coverage reports. Sometimes it's nice to be able to share links to those reports in a code review. I use python SimpleHTTPServer for that.

stiller 13y ago

Or in Ruby: ruby -run -e httpd . -p 8000

MrBuddyCasino 13y ago

Related: python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:25 A makeshift SMTP server that logs all messages to the console.

pi-rat 13y ago

It does not support large files, so sometimes I have to fall back to https://npmjs.org/package/http-server https://npmjs.org/package/http-server (npm -g install http-server .. then just run http-server /path)

skyebook 13y ago

Mind blown. Thanks!

stock_toaster 13y ago

similarly, you can get a janky json pretty printer by doing: curl -s http://some/json/url | python -m json.tool

wging 13y ago
When your needs stretch beyond that, try 'jq'. http://stedolan.github.io/jq/ http://stedolan.github.io/jq/ For pretty-printing without modification, cat myjson | jq '.'

p8952 13y ago

Or for Python3: python -m http.server . Or Ruby: ruby -run -e httpd .