How do I shut down a python simpleHTTPserver?

Question

So I'm trying to learn d3, and the wiki suggested that

To view the examples locally, you must have a local web server. Any web server will work; for example you can run Python's built-in server:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888 &

Great... only now I have a server running... but at some point I think I should probably shut that down again.

Is there a better way of shutting it down than using kill <pid>? That seems like kind of a big hammer for a little job.

(I'm running Mac OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard))

FWIW: ctrl+c gives about 10 lines of traceback, complaining about being interrupted.

kill -3 <pid> gives a Finder warning in a separate window 'Python quit unexpectedly'.

The default kill <pid> and kill -15 <pid> are relatively clean (and simple).

@JoranBeasley is right. I use `SimpleHTTPServer` quite often (even added alias `p` for it). To stop the server, I just press Ctrl+C. Joran, why did you not post that as an answer? — Rob W, Sep 28 '12 at 20:51
keyboard interrupt == similarly ugly, besides then it's sitting there in a window. I can do that, I was just hoping there was a slightly more elegant way. — Suz, Sep 28 '12 at 20:52
^ thats why i didnt post it as an answer ... its not really different than the way she's doing it now — Joran Beasley, Sep 28 '12 at 20:54
If you're using bash or similar shell, you can all do `fg` then a control-C (if this is the last process put in background). Or you can do `kill %%` (again, if this is the last process put in background). You can also specify a number n `kill %n` if you know which job number. Run `jobs` to list the jobs in background. Read more about this in the shell man-page. — user650654, Sep 28 '12 at 21:10
from python http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19570591/how-do-i-kill-simplehttpserver-from-within-a-python-script — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Aug 04 '16 at 13:03
check out this solution http://stackoverflow.com/a/38943044/2248627 — Levon, Aug 14 '16 at 14:13

xbello · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-11T08:33:06.193

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You are simply sending signals to the processes. kill is a command to send those signals.

The keyboard command Ctrl+C sends a SIGINT, kill -9 sends a SIGKILL, and kill -15 sends a SIGTERM.

What signal do you want to send to your server to end it?

edited Jun 11 '20 at 08:33

answered Sep 28 '12 at 20:56

xbello

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I'd like to send it whichever signal is appropriate to exit it gracefully without leaving garbage in the system or on my screen. In the case of `ctrl+c`, I get about 10 lines of a traceback complaining that it was interrupted. That looks like pulling the plug without shutting down the system. – Suz Sep 28 '12 at 21:01
Then you have to catch and manage the reception of that signals, clean the house and exit the program (or not, the python interpreter doesn't close on Ctrl+C). The standard module `signal` might be useful. – xbello Sep 28 '12 at 21:07
This [answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/1112350/1688590) shows how to implement a simple catcher for SIGINT (Ctrl+C) and exit without "traceback". – xbello Sep 28 '12 at 21:12
just to add/clarify, `kill` isn't overkill. it just sends a signal, defaulting to "hey, shut down". your app can treat the different signals differently. `SIGTERM`, `SIGKILL`, `SIGHUP`, `SIGQUIT` etc can all be sent with `kill`. you should read up on `kill` and the different types of processes. – Jonathan Vanasco Sep 28 '12 at 21:35
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@Jonathan yes, I have just read the man pages. However, I was kinda thinking that python would have something like 'bye' or 'q' for shutting down a running module. Apparently, I can use the `signals` module to catch one of these and shutdown gracefully, but that doesn't come already packaged with the `SimpleHTTPServer`. So I will probably do as the 99% do. – Suz Sep 28 '12 at 21:43
`Signal` and `SimpleHTTPServer` are both part of the Python standard library, they come within Python. killing with `ctl-c` is totally fine , but I personally just send a kill signal because i like using `&`. – Jonathan Vanasco Sep 28 '12 at 22:44

codersaif · Answer 2 · 2015-07-10T06:57:30.953

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if you have started the server with

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888

then you can press ctrl + c to down the server.

But if you have started the server with

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888 &

or

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888 & disown

you have to see the list first to kill the process,

run command

ps

or

ps aux | less

it will show you some running process like this ..

PID TTY          TIME CMD
7247 pts/3     00:00:00 python
7360 pts/3     00:00:00 ps
23606 pts/3    00:00:00 bash

you can get the PID from here. and kill that process by running this command..

kill -9 7247

here 7247 is the python id.

Also for some reason if the port still open you can shut down the port with this command

fuser -k 8888/tcp

here 8888 is the tcp port opened by python.

Hope its clear now.

edited Jul 10 '15 at 06:57

answered Jul 10 '15 at 06:52

codersaif

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this approach helps avoid unnecessary steps when running the server in the future. – s2t2 Feb 11 '17 at 02:32
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On MacOS, use `lsof -nti:8888 | xargs kill -9` to free the port, as the `fuser` command does not support the `-k` switch. – Michael Schmid Nov 11 '19 at 12:47

score 19 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 19 '20 at 15:37

19

MYPORT=8888; 
kill -9 `ps -ef |grep SimpleHTTPServer |grep $MYPORT |awk '{print $2}'`

That is it!

Explain command line :

ps -ef : list all process.
grep SimpleHTTPServer : filter process which belong to "SimpleHTTPServer"
grep $MYPORT : filter again process belong to "SimpleHTTPServer" where port is MYPORT (.i.e: MYPORT=8888)
awk '{print $2}' : print second column of result which is the PID (Process ID)
kill -9 <PID> : Force Kill process with the appropriate PID.

edited Oct 19 '20 at 15:37

Ruben Helsloot

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answered May 13 '16 at 15:39

Abdennour TOUMI

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Wow! So simple! – Tony Sep 06 '21 at 01:40
Thank you for answering the question! – Calvin Taylor Apr 20 '22 at 13:35

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 28 '12 at 21:18

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or you can just do kill %1, which will kill the first job put in background

answered Sep 28 '12 at 21:18

Lachezar

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You don't know for sure whether it is the first background job. It doesn't really answer the question, as using 'kill' is already in the question. – Reinout van Rees Nov 14 '12 at 21:40
Thank you, this is the only thing that worked for me – neaumusic Jun 20 '14 at 00:06
This answer is quite effective. @Reinout it you are unsure maybe with the command "jobs" you can see the background jobs lineup, like: [1]+ Running python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000 & – Juan Lanus Oct 15 '15 at 15:48

score 12 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

12

Turns out there is a shutdown, but this must be initiated from another thread.

This solution worked for me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/22533929/573216

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered Jan 17 '15 at 16:06

dirkk0

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Thank you for being the only answer that pointed to a programmatic way of shutting down the server. This should be among the highest voted answers! – David Parks Oct 27 '17 at 18:04

Erk · Answer 6 · 2018-07-27T23:01:39.983

When you run a program as a background process (by adding an & after it), e.g.:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888 &

If the terminal window is still open you can do:

jobs

To get a list of all background jobs within the running shell's process.

It could look like this:

$ jobs
[1]+  Running                 python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888 &

To kill a job, you can either do kill %1 to kill job "[1]", or do fg %1 to put the job in the foreground (fg) and then use ctrl-c to kill it. (Simply entering fg will put the last backgrounded process in the foreground).

With respect to SimpleHTTPServer it seems kill %1 is better than fg + ctrl-c. At least it doesn't protest with the kill command.

The above has been tested in Mac OS, but as far as I can remember it works just the same in Linux.

Update: For this to work, the web server must be started directly from the command line (verbatim the first code snippet). Using a script to start it will put the process out of reach of jobs.

This is the only answer that I can do from the command line with just a few keystrokes, and prevent python spewing tracebacks onto the command line. Thanks! — Anomaly, Feb 23 '19 at 07:01
Also for those who don't know, if you didn't have the foresight to start `python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8888` with &, just do Ctrl-Z first to send it the background, then as before run `jobs` to see its number, then `kill %1` to kill it (if it was job 1). — Anomaly, Feb 23 '19 at 07:03

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 10 '21 at 19:48

3

It seems like overkill but you can use supervisor to start and stop your simpleHttpserver, and completely manage it as a service.

Or just run it in the foreground as suggested and kill it with CtrlC.

edited Apr 10 '21 at 19:48

Serge Stroobandt

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answered Sep 28 '12 at 20:53

dm03514

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That does look like a reasonable solution, though a bit more than I was looking for. – Suz Sep 28 '12 at 21:45

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 10 '21 at 19:47

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Hitting CtrlC once(wait for traceback), then hitting CtrlC again did the trick for me :)

edited Apr 10 '21 at 19:47

Serge Stroobandt

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answered Mar 17 '15 at 16:26

small_data88

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I'm willing to bet you don't have a terminal `&` in your command. ctrl-c does nothing with the ampersand. – Erk Jul 27 '18 at 23:03

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 26 '21 at 07:58

0

Here is another solution.

Suppose You have started the server using this command -

python3 -m http.server 7800

To kill that process use -

pkill -9 -f  'python3 -m http.server 7800

That's it.

answered Apr 26 '21 at 07:58

Amit Ghosh

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How do I shut down a python simpleHTTPserver?

9 Answers9

Explain command line :

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