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Big list of http static server one-liners

Each of these commands will run an ad hoc http static server in your current (or specified) directory, available at http://localhost:8000. Use this power wisely.

Discussion on reddit.

Python 2.x

$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Python 3.x

$ python -m http.server 8000

Twisted (Python)

$ twistd -n web -p 8000 --path .

Or:

$ python -c 'from twisted.web.server import Site; from twisted.web.static import File; from twisted.internet import reactor; reactor.listenTCP(8000, Site(File("."))); reactor.run()'

Depends on Twisted.

Ruby

$ ruby -rwebrick -e'WEBrick::HTTPServer.new(:Port => 8000, :DocumentRoot => Dir.pwd).start'

Credit: Barking Iguana

Ruby 1.9.2+

$ ruby -run -ehttpd . -p8000

Credit: nobu

adsf (Ruby)

$ gem install adsf   # install dependency
$ adsf -p 8000

Credit: twome

No directory listings.

Sinatra (Ruby)

$ gem install sinatra   # install dependency
$ ruby -rsinatra -e'set :public_folder, "."; set :port, 8000'

No directory listings.

Perl

$ cpan HTTP::Server::Brick   # install dependency
$ perl -MHTTP::Server::Brick -e '$s=HTTP::Server::Brick->new(port=>8000); $s->mount("/"=>{path=>"."}); $s->start'

Credit: Anonymous Monk

Plack (Perl)

$ cpan Plack   # install dependency
$ plackup -MPlack::App::Directory -e 'Plack::App::Directory->new(root=>".");' -p 8000

Credit: miyagawa

Mojolicious (Perl)

$ cpan Mojolicious::Lite   # install dependency
$ perl -MMojolicious::Lite -MCwd -e 'app->static->paths->[0]=getcwd; app->start' daemon -l http://*:8000

No directory listings.

http-server (Node.js)

$ npm install -g http-server   # install dependency
$ http-server -p 8000

Note: This server does funky things with relative paths. For example, if you have a file /tests/index.html, it will load index.html if you go to /test, but will treat relative paths as if they were coming from /.

node-static (Node.js)

$ npm install -g node-static   # install dependency
$ static -p 8000

No directory listings.

PHP (>= 5.4)

$ php -S 127.0.0.1:8000

Credit: /u/prawnsalad and MattLicense

No directory listings.

Erlang

$ erl -s inets -eval 'inets:start(httpd,[{server_name,"NAME"},{document_root, "."},{server_root, "."},{port, 8000},{mime_types,[{"html","text/html"},{"htm","text/html"},{"js","text/javascript"},{"css","text/css"},{"gif","image/gif"},{"jpg","image/jpeg"},{"jpeg","image/jpeg"},{"png","image/png"}]}]).'

Credit: nivertech (with the addition of some basic mime types)

No directory listings.

busybox httpd

$ busybox httpd -f -p 8000

Credit: lvm

webfs

$ webfsd -F -p 8000

Depends on webfs.

IIS Express

C:\> "C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe" /path:C:\MyWeb /port:8000

Depends on IIS Express.

Credit: /u/fjantomen

No directory listings. /path must be an absolute path.

Meta

If you have any suggestions, drop them in the comments below or on the reddit discussion. To get on this list, a solution must:

  1. serve static files using your current directory (or a specified directory) as the server root,
  2. be able to be run with a single, one line command (dependencies are fine if they're a one-time thing),
  3. serve basic file types (html, css, js, images) with proper mime types,
  4. require no configuration (from files or otherwise) beyond the command itself (no framework-specific servers, etc)
  5. must run, or have a mode where it can run, in the foreground (i.e. no daemons)
@lukeaus
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lukeaus commented Jul 2, 2019

Checkout Lama.sh

curl lama.sh | sh

@asterite3
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asterite3 commented Jul 26, 2019

Pure Nginx, without root or docker: https://gist.github.com/asterite3/4b9159b8bfcdf9ad8def88168d28b60e

T=`mktemp` P=`mktemp` && bash -e -c "exec 3<$T && exec 4>$P && rm $P && echo -e 'daemon off;worker_processes auto;pid /dev/null;error_log /dev/stderr;events {} http {  access_log /dev/stdout; include /etc/nginx/mime.types; server { listen 127.0.0.1:8000; location / { autoindex on; autoindex_exact_size off; root .;} }}' > $T && rm $T && exec nginx -p . -c /dev/fd/3"

@natemcmaster
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Consider adding dotnet-serve for .NET Core users (all platforms, not just Windows).

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-serve
dotnet serve -p 8000

@ykmnkmi
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ykmnkmi commented Aug 9, 2019

For dartlang:

pub global activate dhttpd
[if not in PATH: pub global run] dhttpd

@mamantoha
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For Crystal

crystal eval 'require "http/server"; HTTP::Server.new([HTTP::StaticFileHandler.new(".")]).listen(8000)'

@informvisu
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informvisu commented Oct 4, 2019

All you need is JAVA 1.6+

./httpServer.sh

/opt/java_1.6/bin/javac HTTPServer.java
/opt/java_1.6/bin/java HTTPServer $1

HTTPServer.java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
import java.util.Date;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpExchange;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpHandler;
import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer;

public class HTTPServer {
	static int port = 8000;
	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
		if(args.length > 0) try {
			port = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
		} catch (Exception e) {System.out.println("Invalid port number "+args[0]);}
		HttpServer server = HttpServer.create(new InetSocketAddress(InetAddress.getLocalHost(), port), 5);
		System.out.println("Server is listening at "+server.getAddress());
		server.createContext("/", new MyHandler());
		server.setExecutor(null); // creates a default executor
		server.start();
	}
	static class MyHandler implements HttpHandler {
		@Override
		public void handle(HttpExchange t) throws IOException {
			String response = "This is the response"; //TODO construct your own response
			t.sendResponseHeaders(200, response.length());
			OutputStream os = t.getResponseBody();
			os.write(response.getBytes());
			os.close();
		}
	}
}

@tvw
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tvw commented Oct 9, 2019

Apache Webserver:

port="${1:-8080}"

apache2 -DFOREGROUND -d. -f/dev/null \
    -C"PidFile `mktemp -u`" \
    -C"ServerName localhost" \
    -C"LoadModule authz_core_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_core.so" \
    -C"LoadModule mpm_event_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mpm_event.so" \
    -C"LoadModule dir_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_dir.so" \
    -C"Listen $port" \
    -C"TransferLog /dev/stdout" \
    -C"ErrorLog /dev/stdout" \
    -C"DirectoryIndex index.html" \
    -C"DocumentRoot `pwd`" \
    -e debug

@tvw
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tvw commented Oct 9, 2019

Phusion Passenger (Nginx based):

port="${1:-8080}"
passenger start --static-files-dir . -p $port

@tvw
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tvw commented Oct 9, 2019

A script, which just starts the first solution available on the machine:

#!/bin/bash
port="${1:-8080}"

if [ "$(command -v apache2)" != "" ]; then
  apache2 -DFOREGROUND -d. -f/dev/null \
    -C"PidFile `mktemp -u`" \
    -C"ServerName localhost" \
    -C"LoadModule authz_core_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_core.so" \
    -C"LoadModule mpm_event_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mpm_event.so" \
    -C"LoadModule dir_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_dir.so" \
    -C"Listen $port" \
    -C"TransferLog /dev/stdout" \
    -C"ErrorLog /dev/stdout" \
    -C"DirectoryIndex index.html" \
    -C"DocumentRoot `pwd`" \
    -e debug
elif [ "$(command -v passenger)" != "" ]; then
  passenger start --static-files-dir .  -p $port
elif [ "$(command -v ruby)" != "" ]; then
  ruby -run -e httpd . -p $port
elif [ "$(command -v php)" != "" ]; then
  php -S localhost:$port
elif [ "$(command -v ~/.pub-cache/bin/dhttpd)" != "" ]; then
  ~/.pub-cache/bin/dhttpd -p $port
elif [ "$(command -v python)" != "" ]; then
  python -m SimpleHTTPServer $port
elif [ "$(command -v python3)" != "" ]; then
  python3 -m http.server $port
elif [ "$(command -v busybox)" != "" ]; then
  echo "Serving HTTP (Busybox) on 0.0.0.0 port $port"
  busybox httpd -f -p $port
else
  echo "No http-server available on this machine"
fi

@itsho
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itsho commented Oct 29, 2019

Notice that starting in Python 3.8, only on some machines - the default binding is to IPv6.

So, to force IPv4, use the following:

$ python -m http.server 8000 -b 0.0.0.0
or
$ python -m http.server 8000 --bind 0.0.0.0

Documentation source:
https://docs.python.org/3/library/http.server.html

@ribtoks
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ribtoks commented Nov 3, 2019

go get -u github.com/ribtoks/servedir

Just servedir will serve current directory on http://localhost:8080 but you can specify directory, http path and port.

@prestancedesign
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Clojure (without leiningen tool)

clj -Sdeps '{:deps {nasus {:mvn/version "0.1.5"}}}' -m http.server

Specify custom port:
clj -Sdeps '{:deps {nasus {:mvn/version "0.1.5"}}}' -m http.server 8001

It's recommended to add an alias in clojure config file after that the command will be shorter:
clj -A:http.server

@libert-xyz
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libert-xyz commented Dec 4, 2019

A star for you

@gianpaolof
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@isurfer21
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A blazing fast lightweight command-line based micro webserver https://isurfer21.github.io/Suxm/

@jasonrobot
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crystal eval 'require "http/server"; HTTP::Server.new(8000, HTTP::StaticFileHandler.new(".")).listen'

Update to the Crystal version - the Server constructor changed, and needs to be bound to a TCP port separately. For 0.32.0:
crystal eval 'require "http/server"; server = HTTP::Server.new(HTTP::StaticFileHandler.new(".")); server.bind_tcp(8080); server.listen'

@travispaul
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travispaul commented Jan 18, 2020

Bozohttpd is an minimalist webserver with no config file, its main feature is the lack of features.

It ships with NetBSD. To run in the foreground and serve files on port 8080 in the current directory:

/usr/libexec/httpd -I 8080 -f -b -X .

You can also get it from Pkgsrc and possibly other package managers but will need to invoke it as "bozohttpd":
/usr/pkg/libexec/bozohttpd -I 8080 -f -b -X .

@danielbarry
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Java 1.7+

NOTE: Tested in Linux with OpenJDK.

You can use the following in a directory of your choosing:

echo -e 'import java.net.*;import java.nio.file.*;public class M{public static void main(String[] args)throws Exception{byte[]b=new byte[16777215];ServerSocket s=new ServerSocket(3333);for(;;)try{Socket c=s.accept();c.getInputStream().read(b);c.getOutputStream().write(("HTTP/1.1 200 OK\\r\\n\\r\\n"+new String(Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(new String(b).split(" ")[1].substring(1))))).getBytes());c.getOutputStream().flush();c.close();}catch(Exception e){}}}'>M.java;javac M.java;java M

Then use your browser to access 127.0.0.1:3333/<your_file>.

Configuration

  • Port can be changed by editing 3333
  • Max file size can be changed by editing 16777215 (must be larger than the largest expected client header and file to be handled, limited by max size of Java integer)

Known Limitations

  • Only one client at time can serviced
  • Expects a well formed header response
  • Some browsers could get very upset with the malformed response

Likely Limitations

@jsdw
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jsdw commented Jan 18, 2020

Here's a Rust based static file server: https://github.com/jsdw/weave

Basic usage:

weave 8080 to ./path/to/files

To install the single binary on Linux, run:
curl -L https://github.com/jsdw/weave/releases/download/v0.4.1/weave-v0.4.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz | tar -xz

@vwochnik
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For Golang

go get github.com/vwochnik/gost

And then

gost

@michaelmior
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Rust has http:

Also miniserve!

@madacol
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madacol commented Jan 18, 2020

sudo apt-get install servefile
servefile -p 8000 -l .

@pkieltyka
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pkieltyka commented Jan 18, 2020

here's another one..

$ go get github.com/goware/webify
$ webify

output:

================================================================================
Serving:  /home/peter
URL:      http://0.0.0.0:3000
Cache:    off
================================================================================

FYI, -help will show flags like -dir, -port, -host, -cache. The default -dir flag is to serve current working directory

@laurent22
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laurent22 commented Jan 18, 2020

There's two versions for Node but both need an extra dependency.

Here's a one-liner with no dependency:

node --eval "var fs = require('fs'), http = require('http'); http.createServer(function (req, res) { fs.readFile(__dirname + req.url, function (err,data) { if (err) { res.writeHead(404); res.end(JSON.stringify(err)); return;}res.writeHead(200);res.end(data); });}).listen(8000);"

@tyingq
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tyingq commented Jan 18, 2020

One with GNU awk

gawk '@load"filefuncs";@load"readfile";func send(s,e,d,t,b){print"HTTP/1.0 "s" "e|&S;print"Content-Length: "b|&S;print"Content-Type: "t|&S;print d|&S;close(S);}func cf(x){split(x,y,"/");for(z in y){print "FOUND "y[z];if(y[z]==".."){return 0;}}return 1;}func mt(f){c="file -b --mime-type "f;r="";while((c|getline z)>0){r=r z;}close(c);return r;}BEGIN{if(ARGV[1]!=""){if(chdir(ARGV[1])){print "Failed to chdir to "ARGV[1];exit;}ARGC=1;}RS=ORS="\r\n";while(1){S="/inet/tcp/8080/0/0";while((S|&getline l)>0){split(l,f," ");if(f[1]=="GET"){p=substr(f[2],2)}if(p==""){p="index.html"}stat(p,s);if(cf(p)&&s["type"]=="file"){m=mt(p);o=readfile(p);send(200,"OK",o,m,s["size"]);break;}n="<html>Not Found</html>";send(404,"Not Found",n,"text/html"RS,length(n));break;}}}'

@dbushong
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dbushong commented Jan 18, 2020

For the node versions that have dependencies, you can do it without (explicitly) installing the dep:

$ npx node-static -p 8000

that example doesn't require node-static to be installed first - it will download it, install it in a tmpdir, and run it. npx ships with node since.... 8.16.0, maybe?

@3rd
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3rd commented Jan 18, 2020

npx serve - nodejs, with directory listing

@telmich
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telmich commented Jan 18, 2020

You all are aware that the rules above also apply to just using nginx, apache or lighttpd?

@numanturle
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while : ; do ( echo -ne "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n" ; cat index.html; ) | nc -l -p 8080 ; done

lol

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