python-dhttpd

An HTTP server that serves local files and act as a proxy for another HTTP server.

Overview

python-dhttpd is a simple HTTP server, implemented on top of BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer that serves files from a local directory (like SimpleHTTPServer) or by forwarding HTTP request to a delegate HTTP server.

For every GET or HEAD request, python-dhttpd first looks for a local file to serve. If a file is found, it is returned. If not, the request is forwarded to the delegate HTTP server.

Other types of HTTP requests are systematically forwarded.

Usage

usage: dhttpd.py [-h] [--dserver HOST:PORT] [-p PORT] [-l DIR]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --dserver HOST:PORT   Delegate HTTP server (default: localhost:8080)
  -p PORT, --port PORT  Port to listen (default: 8081)
  -l DIR, --localdir DIR
                        Local directory to serve

Using with App Engine devserver and Maven

The Maven App Engine archetypes include a development server that allows to run the App Engine application locally. This development server is automatically updated when Java classe files are modified. However, it is not updated when static files (like HTML or JavaScript files) are updated.

You can use python-dhttpd to work around this problem as follows:

cd <root-path-of-your-maven-project>
# Start the devserver
mvn appengine:devserver
# Start dhttpd
dhttpd.py --localdir=src/main/webapp

Then, access the App Engine application running on the devserver on the port 8081 (instead of the default port 8080) by entering the following address in your web browser:

http://localhost:8081/

License

This software is distributed under the terms of the Apache Software License, version 2.0.

© Vincent Simonet, 2015.