Python SimpleHTTPServer doesn't work - A server error occurred

python http localhost simplehttpserver
shrewdbeans picture shrewdbeans · Dec 29, 2013 · Viewed 8.1k times · Source

I've just tried to run python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000 in a directory where I have some basic web files. It seems to run fine at first, on the command line it prints:

Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...

However, when I try to view my page on http://127.0.0.1:8000 in browser, I get this error message:

A server error occurred. Please contact the administrator.

Sorry if this seems vague, but I'm not a Python developer so I have no idea why it's not working. Do you have any ideas why or how to start debugging this issue?

Answer

Paulo Bu picture Paulo Bu · Dec 29, 2013

If you aren't seeing anything on the command line, then the server is not getting any input. You must have some other process listening on that port. Try a different port just to be sure:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 12345

Just a tip, to check what applications you have listening on which port, netstat command can be very useful :)

Hope this helps!

Related questions

How do I download a file over HTTP using Python?

I have a small utility that I use to download an MP3 file from a website on a schedule and then builds/updates a podcast XML file which I've added to iTunes. The text processing that creates/updates the XML …

Read More
What is the quickest way to HTTP GET in Python?

What is the quickest way to HTTP GET in Python if I know the content will be a string? I am searching the documentation for a quick one-liner like: contents = url.get("http://example.com/foo/bar") But all I …

Read More
How do I send a POST request as a JSON?

data = { 'ids': [12, 3, 4, 5, 6 , ...] } urllib2.urlopen("http://abc.com/api/posts/create",urllib.urlencode(data)) I want to send a POST request, but one of the fields should be a list of numbers. How can I do that ? (JSON?)

Read More