cpython/Doc/library/http.server.rst

:mod:`!http.server` --- HTTP servers
====================================

.. module:: http.server
   :synopsis: HTTP server and request handlers.

**Source code:** :source:`Lib/http/server.py`

.. index::
   pair: WWW; server
   pair: HTTP; protocol
   single: URL
   single: httpd

--------------

This module defines classes for implementing HTTP servers.


.. warning::

    :mod:`http.server` is not recommended for production. It only implements
    :ref:`basic security checks <http.server-security>`.

.. include:: ../includes/wasm-notavail.rst

One class, :class:`HTTPServer`, is a :class:`socketserver.TCPServer` subclass.
It creates and listens at the HTTP socket, dispatching the requests to a
handler.  Code to create and run the server looks like this::

   def run(server_class=HTTPServer, handler_class=BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
       server_address = ('', 8000)
       httpd = server_class(server_address, handler_class)
       httpd.serve_forever()


.. class:: HTTPServer(server_address, RequestHandlerClass)

   This class builds on the :class:`~socketserver.TCPServer` class by storing
   the server address as instance variables named :attr:`server_name` and
   :attr:`server_port`. The server is accessible by the handler, typically
   through the handler's :attr:`server` instance variable.

.. class:: ThreadingHTTPServer(server_address, RequestHandlerClass)

   This class is identical to HTTPServer but uses threads to handle
   requests by using the :class:`~socketserver.ThreadingMixIn`. This
   is useful to handle web browsers pre-opening sockets, on which
   :class:`HTTPServer` would wait indefinitely.

   .. versionadded:: 3.7


The :class:`HTTPServer` and :class:`ThreadingHTTPServer` must be given
a *RequestHandlerClass* on instantiation, of which this module
provides three different variants:

.. class:: BaseHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server)

   This class is used to handle the HTTP requests that arrive at the server.  By
   itself, it cannot respond to any actual HTTP requests; it must be subclassed
   to handle each request method (e.g. GET or POST).
   :class:`BaseHTTPRequestHandler` provides a number of class and instance
   variables, and methods for use by subclasses.

   The handler will parse the request and the headers, then call a method
   specific to the request type. The method name is constructed from the
   request. For example, for the request method ``SPAM``, the :meth:`!do_SPAM`
   method will be called with no arguments. All of the relevant information is
   stored in instance variables of the handler.  Subclasses should not need to
   override or extend the :meth:`!__init__` method.

   :class:`BaseHTTPRequestHandler` has the following instance variables:

   .. attribute:: client_address

      Contains a tuple of the form ``(host, port)`` referring to the client's
      address.

   .. attribute:: server

      Contains the server instance.

   .. attribute:: close_connection

      Boolean that should be set before :meth:`handle_one_request` returns,
      indicating if another request may be expected, or if the connection should
      be shut down.

   .. attribute:: requestline

      Contains the string representation of the HTTP request line. The
      terminating CRLF is stripped. This attribute should be set by
      :meth:`handle_one_request`. If no valid request line was processed, it
      should be set to the empty string.

   .. attribute:: command

      Contains the command (request type). For example, ``'GET'``.

   .. attribute:: path

      Contains the request path. If query component of the URL is present,
      then ``path`` includes the query. Using the terminology of :rfc:`3986`,
      ``path`` here includes ``hier-part`` and the ``query``.

   .. attribute:: request_version

      Contains the version string from the request. For example, ``'HTTP/1.0'``.

   .. attribute:: headers

      Holds an instance of the class specified by the :attr:`MessageClass` class
      variable. This instance parses and manages the headers in the HTTP
      request. The :func:`~http.client.parse_headers` function from
      :mod:`http.client` is used to parse the headers and it requires that the
      HTTP request provide a valid :rfc:`2822` style header.

   .. attribute:: rfile

      An :class:`io.BufferedIOBase` input stream, ready to read from
      the start of the optional input data.

   .. attribute:: wfile

      Contains the output stream for writing a response back to the
      client. Proper adherence to the HTTP protocol must be used when writing to
      this stream in order to achieve successful interoperation with HTTP
      clients.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.6
         This is an :class:`io.BufferedIOBase` stream.

   :class:`BaseHTTPRequestHandler` has the following attributes:

   .. attribute:: server_version

      Specifies the server software version.  You may want to override this. The
      format is multiple whitespace-separated strings, where each string is of
      the form name[/version]. For example, ``'BaseHTTP/0.2'``.

   .. attribute:: sys_version

      Contains the Python system version, in a form usable by the
      :attr:`version_string` method and the :attr:`server_version` class
      variable. For example, ``'Python/1.4'``.

   .. attribute:: error_message_format

      Specifies a format string that should be used by :meth:`send_error` method
      for building an error response to the client. The string is filled by
      default with variables from :attr:`responses` based on the status code
      that passed to :meth:`send_error`.

   .. attribute:: error_content_type

      Specifies the Content-Type HTTP header of error responses sent to the
      client.  The default value is ``'text/html'``.

   .. attribute:: protocol_version

      Specifies the HTTP version to which the server is conformant. It is sent
      in responses to let the client know the server's communication
      capabilities for future requests. If set to
      ``'HTTP/1.1'``, the server will permit HTTP persistent connections;
      however, your server *must* then include an accurate ``Content-Length``
      header (using :meth:`send_header`) in all of its responses to clients.
      For backwards compatibility, the setting defaults to ``'HTTP/1.0'``.

   .. attribute:: MessageClass

      Specifies an :class:`email.message.Message`\ -like class to parse HTTP
      headers.  Typically, this is not overridden, and it defaults to
      :class:`http.client.HTTPMessage`.

   .. attribute:: responses

      This attribute contains a mapping of error code integers to two-element tuples
      containing a short and long message. For example, ``{code: (shortmessage,
      longmessage)}``. The *shortmessage* is usually used as the *message* key in an
      error response, and *longmessage* as the *explain* key.  It is used by
      :meth:`send_response_only` and :meth:`send_error` methods.

   A :class:`BaseHTTPRequestHandler` instance has the following methods:

   .. method:: handle()

      Calls :meth:`handle_one_request` once (or, if persistent connections are
      enabled, multiple times) to handle incoming HTTP requests. You should
      never need to override it; instead, implement appropriate :meth:`!do_\*`
      methods.

   .. method:: handle_one_request()

      This method will parse and dispatch the request to the appropriate
      :meth:`!do_\*` method.  You should never need to override it.

   .. method:: handle_expect_100()

      When an HTTP/1.1 conformant server receives an ``Expect: 100-continue``
      request header it responds back with a ``100 Continue`` followed by ``200
      OK`` headers.
      This method can be overridden to raise an error if the server does not
      want the client to continue.  For e.g. server can choose to send ``417
      Expectation Failed`` as a response header and ``return False``.

      .. versionadded:: 3.2

   .. method:: send_error(code, message=None, explain=None)

      Sends and logs a complete error reply to the client. The numeric *code*
      specifies the HTTP error code, with *message* as an optional, short, human
      readable description of the error.  The *explain* argument can be used to
      provide more detailed information about the error; it will be formatted
      using the :attr:`error_message_format` attribute and emitted, after
      a complete set of headers, as the response body.  The :attr:`responses`
      attribute holds the default values for *message* and *explain* that
      will be used if no value is provided; for unknown codes the default value
      for both is the string ``???``. The body will be empty if the method is
      HEAD or the response code is one of the following: :samp:`1{xx}`,
      ``204 No Content``, ``205 Reset Content``, ``304 Not Modified``.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.4
         The error response includes a Content-Length header.
         Added the *explain* argument.

   .. method:: send_response(code, message=None)

      Adds a response header to the headers buffer and logs the accepted
      request. The HTTP response line is written to the internal buffer,
      followed by *Server* and *Date* headers. The values for these two headers
      are picked up from the :meth:`version_string` and
      :meth:`date_time_string` methods, respectively. If the server does not
      intend to send any other headers using the :meth:`send_header` method,
      then :meth:`send_response` should be followed by an :meth:`end_headers`
      call.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.3
         Headers are stored to an internal buffer and :meth:`end_headers`
         needs to be called explicitly.

   .. method:: send_header(keyword, value)

      Adds the HTTP header to an internal buffer which will be written to the
      output stream when either :meth:`end_headers` or :meth:`flush_headers` is
      invoked. *keyword* should specify the header keyword, with *value*
      specifying its value. Note that, after the send_header calls are done,
      :meth:`end_headers` MUST BE called in order to complete the operation.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.2
         Headers are stored in an internal buffer.

   .. method:: send_response_only(code, message=None)

      Sends the response header only, used for the purposes when ``100
      Continue`` response is sent by the server to the client. The headers not
      buffered and sent directly the output stream.If the *message* is not
      specified, the HTTP message corresponding the response *code*  is sent.

      .. versionadded:: 3.2

   .. method:: end_headers()

      Adds a blank line
      (indicating the end of the HTTP headers in the response)
      to the headers buffer and calls :meth:`flush_headers`.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.2
         The buffered headers are written to the output stream.

   .. method:: flush_headers()

      Finally send the headers to the output stream and flush the internal
      headers buffer.

      .. versionadded:: 3.3

   .. method:: log_request(code='-', size='-')

      Logs an accepted (successful) request. *code* should specify the numeric
      HTTP code associated with the response. If a size of the response is
      available, then it should be passed as the *size* parameter.

   .. method:: log_error(...)

      Logs an error when a request cannot be fulfilled. By default, it passes
      the message to :meth:`log_message`, so it takes the same arguments
      (*format* and additional values).


   .. method:: log_message(format, ...)

      Logs an arbitrary message to ``sys.stderr``. This is typically overridden
      to create custom error logging mechanisms. The *format* argument is a
      standard printf-style format string, where the additional arguments to
      :meth:`log_message` are applied as inputs to the formatting. The client
      ip address and current date and time are prefixed to every message logged.

   .. method:: version_string()

      Returns the server software's version string. This is a combination of the
      :attr:`server_version` and :attr:`sys_version` attributes.

   .. method:: date_time_string(timestamp=None)

      Returns the date and time given by *timestamp* (which must be ``None`` or in
      the format returned by :func:`time.time`), formatted for a message
      header. If *timestamp* is omitted, it uses the current date and time.

      The result looks like ``'Sun, 06 Nov 1994 08:49:37 GMT'``.

   .. method:: log_date_time_string()

      Returns the current date and time, formatted for logging.

   .. method:: address_string()

      Returns the client address.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.3
         Previously, a name lookup was performed. To avoid name resolution
         delays, it now always returns the IP address.


.. class:: SimpleHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server, directory=None)

   This class serves files from the directory *directory* and below,
   or the current directory if *directory* is not provided, directly
   mapping the directory structure to HTTP requests.

   .. versionchanged:: 3.7
      Added the *directory* parameter.

   .. versionchanged:: 3.9
      The *directory* parameter accepts a :term:`path-like object`.

   A lot of the work, such as parsing the request, is done by the base class
   :class:`BaseHTTPRequestHandler`.  This class implements the :func:`do_GET`
   and :func:`do_HEAD` functions.

   The following are defined as class-level attributes of
   :class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler`:

   .. attribute:: server_version

      This will be ``"SimpleHTTP/" + __version__``, where ``__version__`` is
      defined at the module level.

   .. attribute:: extensions_map

      A dictionary mapping suffixes into MIME types, contains custom overrides
      for the default system mappings. The mapping is used case-insensitively,
      and so should contain only lower-cased keys.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.9
         This dictionary is no longer filled with the default system mappings,
         but only contains overrides.

   The :class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler` class defines the following methods:

   .. method:: do_HEAD()

      This method serves the ``'HEAD'`` request type: it sends the headers it
      would send for the equivalent ``GET`` request. See the :meth:`do_GET`
      method for a more complete explanation of the possible headers.

   .. method:: do_GET()

      The request is mapped to a local file by interpreting the request as a
      path relative to the current working directory.

      If the request was mapped to a directory, the directory is checked for a
      file named ``index.html`` or ``index.htm`` (in that order). If found, the
      file's contents are returned; otherwise a directory listing is generated
      by calling the :meth:`list_directory` method. This method uses
      :func:`os.listdir` to scan the directory, and returns a ``404`` error
      response if the :func:`~os.listdir` fails.

      If the request was mapped to a file, it is opened. Any :exc:`OSError`
      exception in opening the requested file is mapped to a ``404``,
      ``'File not found'`` error. If there was an ``'If-Modified-Since'``
      header in the request, and the file was not modified after this time,
      a ``304``, ``'Not Modified'`` response is sent. Otherwise, the content
      type is guessed by calling the :meth:`guess_type` method, which in turn
      uses the *extensions_map* variable, and the file contents are returned.

      A ``'Content-type:'`` header with the guessed content type is output,
      followed by a ``'Content-Length:'`` header with the file's size and a
      ``'Last-Modified:'`` header with the file's modification time.

      Then follows a blank line signifying the end of the headers, and then the
      contents of the file are output. If the file's MIME type starts with
      ``text/`` the file is opened in text mode; otherwise binary mode is used.

      For example usage, see the implementation of the ``test`` function
      in :source:`Lib/http/server.py`.

      .. versionchanged:: 3.7
         Support of the ``'If-Modified-Since'`` header.

The :class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler` class can be used in the following
manner in order to create a very basic webserver serving files relative to
the current directory::

   import http.server
   import socketserver

   PORT = 8000

   Handler = http.server.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler

   with socketserver.TCPServer(("", PORT), Handler) as httpd:
       print("serving at port", PORT)
       httpd.serve_forever()


:class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler` can also be subclassed to enhance behavior,
such as using different index file names by overriding the class attribute
:attr:`index_pages`.


.. class:: CGIHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server)

   This class is used to serve either files or output of CGI scripts from the
   current directory and below. Note that mapping HTTP hierarchic structure to
   local directory structure is exactly as in :class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler`.

   .. note::

      CGI scripts run by the :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` class cannot execute
      redirects (HTTP code 302), because code 200 (script output follows) is
      sent prior to execution of the CGI script.  This pre-empts the status
      code.

   The class will however, run the CGI script, instead of serving it as a file,
   if it guesses it to be a CGI script.  Only directory-based CGI are used ---
   the other common server configuration is to treat special extensions as
   denoting CGI scripts.

   The :func:`do_GET` and :func:`do_HEAD` functions are modified to run CGI scripts
   and serve the output, instead of serving files, if the request leads to
   somewhere below the ``cgi_directories`` path.

   The :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` defines the following data member:

   .. attribute:: cgi_directories

      This defaults to ``['/cgi-bin', '/htbin']`` and describes directories to
      treat as containing CGI scripts.

   The :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` defines the following method:

   .. method:: do_POST()

      This method serves the ``'POST'`` request type, only allowed for CGI
      scripts.  Error 501, "Can only POST to CGI scripts", is output when trying
      to POST to a non-CGI url.

   Note that CGI scripts will be run with UID of user nobody, for security
   reasons.  Problems with the CGI script will be translated to error 403.

   .. deprecated-removed:: 3.13 3.15

      :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` is being removed in 3.15.  CGI has not
      been considered a good way to do things for well over a decade. This code
      has been unmaintained for a while now and sees very little practical use.
      Retaining it could lead to further :ref:`security considerations
      <http.server-security>`.


.. _http-server-cli:

Command-line interface
----------------------

:mod:`http.server` can also be invoked directly using the :option:`-m`
switch of the interpreter.  The following example illustrates how to serve
files relative to the current directory::

   python -m http.server [OPTIONS] [port]

The following options are accepted:

.. program:: http.server

.. option:: port

   The server listens to port 8000 by default. The default can be overridden
   by passing the desired port number as an argument::

      python -m http.server 9000

.. option:: -b, --bind <address>

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

      python -m http.server --bind 127.0.0.1

   .. versionadded:: 3.4

   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
      Support IPv6 in the ``--bind`` option.

.. option:: -d, --directory <dir>

   Specifies a directory to which it should serve the files. By default,
   the server uses the current directory. For example, the following command
   uses a specific directory::

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

   .. versionadded:: 3.7

.. option:: -p, --protocol <version>

   Specifies the HTTP version to which the server is conformant. By default,
   the server is conformant to HTTP/1.0. For example, the following command
   runs an HTTP/1.1 conformant server::

      python -m http.server --protocol HTTP/1.1

   .. versionadded:: 3.11

.. option:: --cgi

   :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` can be enabled in the command line by passing
   the ``--cgi`` option::

      python -m http.server --cgi

   .. deprecated-removed:: 3.13 3.15

      :mod:`http.server` command line ``--cgi`` support is being removed
      because :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` is being removed.

.. warning::

   :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` and the ``--cgi`` command-line option
   are not intended for use by untrusted clients and may be vulnerable
   to exploitation. Always use within a secure environment.


.. _http.server-security:

Security considerations
-----------------------

.. index:: pair: http.server; security

:class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler` will follow symbolic links when handling
requests, this makes it possible for files outside of the specified directory
to be served.

Earlier versions of Python did not scrub control characters from the
log messages emitted to stderr from ``python -m http.server`` or the
default :class:`BaseHTTPRequestHandler` ``.log_message``
implementation. This could allow remote clients connecting to your
server to send nefarious control codes to your terminal.

.. versionchanged:: 3.12
   Control characters are scrubbed in stderr logs.