Launch an HTTP server serving the current directory using Python

The Python SimpleHTTPServer module makes it easy to launch a simple web server using a current working directory as the "docroot".

With Python 2:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

or with Python 3:

python3 -m http.server

By default, each will bind to port 8080, hence http://localhost:8080/ will serve the top level of the working directory tree. Hit Ctrl-c to stop.

Both accept an optional port number:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 3001

or

python3 -m http.server 3001

if you want to bind to something other than port 8080.