Is it possible to have SimpleHTTPServer serve files from two different directories?

Question

If I do python -m SimpleHTTPServer it serves the files in the current directory.

My directory structure looks like this:

/protected/public
/protected/private
/test

I want to start the server in my /test directory and I want it to serve files in the /test directory. But I want all requests to the server starting with '/public' to be pulled from the /protected/public directory.

e.g.a request to http://localhost:8000/public/index.html would serve the file at /protected/public/index.html

Is this possible with the built in server or will I have to write a custom one?

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 05 '13 at 19:43

I think it is absolutely possible to do that. You can start the server inside /test directory and override translate_path method of SimpleHTTPRequestHandler as follows:

import BaseHTTPServer
import SimpleHTTPServer
server_address = ("", 8888)
PUBLIC_RESOURCE_PREFIX = '/public'
PUBLIC_DIRECTORY = '/path/to/protected/public'

class MyRequestHandler(SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
    def translate_path(self, path):
        if self.path.startswith(PUBLIC_RESOURCE_PREFIX):
            if self.path == PUBLIC_RESOURCE_PREFIX or self.path == PUBLIC_RESOURCE_PREFIX + '/':
                return PUBLIC_DIRECTORY + '/index.html'
            else:
                return PUBLIC_DIRECTORY + path[len(PUBLIC_RESOURCE_PREFIX):]
        else:
            return SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.translate_path(self, path)

httpd = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer(server_address, MyRequestHandler)
httpd.serve_forever()

Hope this helps.

Still works excellently, thanks! In my case, I used (referring to your code) `'public'` as the prefix, prepended `"/" +` before the prefix when checking the path, and added `+ 1` to the `len()` when returning. That made it a little more versatile, especially because I didn't want to mix the mandatory URL `/`'s with file paths that were otherwise all \'s. Also, Python auto-generated `return super().translate_path(path)` for me, instead of your last return. Oh and I should mention that I used `CGIHTTP...` and it still worked. — Andrew, Jul 06 '23 at 22:21

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 19 '16 at 16:39

I think I have found the answer to this, basically it involves changing the current working directory, starting the server and then returning back to your original working directory.

This is how I achieved it, I've commented out two sets of options for you, as the solution for me was just moving to a folder within my app directory and then back up one level to the original app directory. But, you might want to go to an entire other directory in your file system and then return someplace else or not at all.

#Setup file server
import SimpleHTTPServer
import SocketServer
import os

PORT = 5002

#  -- OPTION 1 --
#os.chdir(os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.curdir),'PATH_TO_FOLDER_IN_APP_DIR'))
#  -- OPTION 2 --
#os.chdir('PATH_TO_ROOT_DIRECTORY')

Handler = SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler

httpd = SocketServer.TCPServer(("", PORT), Handler)

print "serving at port", PORT
httpd.serve_forever()

#  -- OPTION 1 --
#os.chdir(os.path.abspath('..'))
#  -- OPTION 2 --
#os.chdir('PATH_TO_ORIGINAL_WORKING_DIR')

Let me know how it works out!

how would you get back to the folder if the script is "serving forever"?, i.e., it will not pass the line `httpd.serve_forever()` — Miguel Vazq, Sep 24 '15 at 08:51

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 22 '11 at 21:49

5

I do not believe SimpleHTTPServer has this feature, however if you use a symbolic link inside of /test that points to /protected/public, that should effectively do the same thing.

answered Nov 22 '11 at 21:49

Michael

701
4
15

As of Python 2.7, it doesn't seem to follow symlinks. – Mark Wang Jun 21 '13 at 17:50
Never mind, it does handle symlinks -- it just doesn't autogenerate directory indexes for them. – Mark Wang Jun 21 '13 at 17:51
1

Even more so, since you can actually write the code for the do_GET method, you can fetch any file from anywhere - or even generate your own contents. – Tony Suffolk 66 Jul 22 '14 at 07:13

Is it possible to have SimpleHTTPServer serve files from two different directories?

3 Answers3