:mod:`BaseHTTPServer` --- Basic HTTP server

This module defines two classes for implementing HTTP servers (Web servers). Usually, this module isn't used directly, but is used as a basis for building functioning Web servers. See the :mod:`SimpleHTTPServer` and :mod:`CGIHTTPServer` modules.

The first class, :class:`HTTPServer`, is a :class:`SocketServer.TCPServer` subclass, and therefore implements the :class:`SocketServer.BaseServer` interface. 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=BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer,
        handler_class=BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
    server_address = ('', 8000)
    httpd = server_class(server_address, handler_class)
    httpd.serve_forever()

This class builds on the :class:`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.

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:

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

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

More examples

To create a server that doesn't run forever, but until some condition is fulfilled:

def run_while_true(server_class=BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer,
                   handler_class=BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
    """
    This assumes that keep_running() is a function of no arguments which
    is tested initially and after each request.  If its return value
    is true, the server continues.
    """
    server_address = ('', 8000)
    httpd = server_class(server_address, handler_class)
    while keep_running():
        httpd.handle_request()