Python: Simple HTTP Server With CGI Scripts Enabled
This article takes us through how to get Python code running as a CGI script on a web server. Check it out!
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Join For FreeIf you want to experiment some python code as CGI script to serve by a HTTP server, you can get started by these steps:
- Create a
cgi-bindirectory. - Ready!
No, really, it's that simple! Try these CGI scripts out.
Example 1: cgi-bin/hello.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
localvars_table = '<table>'
for x in dir():
localvars_table += '<tr><td>%s</td></tr>' % x
localvars_table += '</table>'
print("Content-type: text/html")
print("")
print("""<html><body>
<p>Hello World! Your custom CGI script is working. Here are your current Python local variables.</p>
%s
<p>NOTE: If you want to write useful CGI script, try the Python 'cgi' module. See cgitest.py script.</p>
</body></html>""" % (localvars_table))To test and run this, you simply invoke these couple commands:
bash> chmod a+x cgi-bin/hello.py
bash> python3 -m http.server --cgiYou may now test it on your browser with http://localhost:8000/cgi-bin/hello.py. Hit CTRL+C to stop the server.
If you want to do more with fancy CGI scripts, try the Python's cgi module. Here is another example.
Example 2: cgi-bin/cgitest.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import cgi
cgi.test()
Again chmod your cgitest.py script and visit http://localhost:8000/cgi-bin/cgitest.py. You will see all the HTTP related data as expected when working with a CGI script. See https://docs.python.org/3/library/cgi.html for more details.
Published at DZone with permission of Zemian Deng, DZone MVB. See the original article here.
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