python -m SimpleHTTPServer 9000

python -m http.server 9000

Running this command serves the files of the current directory at port 9000.

If no argument is provided as port number then server will run on default port 8000.

The -m flag will search sys.path for the corresponding .py file to run as a module.

If you want to only serve on localhost you’ll need to write a custom Python program such as:

import sys
import BaseHTTPServer
from SimpleHTTPServer import SimpleHTTPRequestHandler

HandlerClass = SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
ServerClass  = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer
Protocol     = "HTTP/1.0"

if sys.argv[1:]:
   port = int(sys.argv[1])
else:
   port = 8000
server_address = ('127.0.0.1', port)

HandlerClass.protocol_version = Protocol
httpd = ServerClass(server_address, HandlerClass)

sa = httpd.socket.getsockname()
print "Serving HTTP on", sa[0], "port", sa[1], "..."
httpd.serve_forever()