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Description:

Rheostatic 0.0.2

A Static File Server with options.

Features

A dedicated static file server.
Emulates common behaviors of various popular servers (index files,
extensionless files, index directories, etc.) See options for specifics.
Serves custom error pages.
Does not require the server root to be the current working directory.

Table of Contents

Features
Installation

Dependencies

Use as a Command Line Tool
Use as a Python Library
Preparing your Files
Options

root
index_file
default_type
encoding
directory_template
default_extension

Infrequently Asked Questions

Why Does this Exist?
Why is it called “Rheostatic”?
Could you add my pet feature?

License
Change Log

Version 0.0.2 (2020-10-27)
Version 0.0.1 (2016-11-03)

Installation
To install Rheostatic run the following command:
pip install rheostatic

Dependencies
Rheostatic is a pure Python library with no external dependencies. It should run
without issue on CPython versions 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, and 3.9 as well as PyPy3.

Use as a Command Line Tool
From the root directory of your site, run the command rheostatic:
$ cd /var/www
$ rheostatic
Starting server at http://localhost:8000/...
Serving files from /var/www
Press ctrl+c to stop.
Alternatively, pass the root directory to the rheostatic command:
$ rheostatic path/to/root
Starting server at http://localhost:8000/...
Serving files from /absolute/path/to/root
Press ctrl+c to stop.
For detailed usage instructions and options, run rheostatic --help.
If the rheostatic command cannot be found, try running
python -m rheostatic instead.

Use as a Python Library
For basic usage, import the rheostatic.serve function, which accepts any and
all options as keywords:
from rheostatic import serve

serve(address=('0.0.0.0', 80), root='/some/path', default_type='text/plain')
Note that address expects a tuple of the host and port. The host
must be a string and the port an integer. All other keywords correspond to
the available options.
Under the hood, the serve function creates an instance of the class
rheostatic.base.Rheostatic and passes it to a simple wsgi server as a wsgi
application. For lower level usage, an instance of the class may be created and
passed to any wsgi server. When initializing the class, you may pass in any
options as keywords:
from rheostatic.base import Rheostatic

app = Rheostatic(root='/some/path', index_file='README.html')
Rheostatic accepts keywords which correspond to any of the available
options. All options are also stored as attributes on the class instance:
print app.root

Preparing your Files
Before running the server, you need some files to serve. All files must be in
the root directory and its sub-directories. In fact, an error will occur if a
file is requested outside of the root directory. The root directory can
exist anywhere on your filesystem as long as Rheostatic has permission to read
the files.
Ensure that all files are saved using the same encoding and that that encoding
is being used by Rheostatic. See encoding for details.
A file’s ContentType is determined by its file extension. For best results, use
common file extensions for your files. A list of known file extensions and the
ContentType used for each can be found in rheostatic/utils.py.
If you would like a file to be served when the client requests a directory (for
example /, or /path/to/some/dir/), then that directory needs to contain an
index file. Be sure to use the file name for the index file set by the
index_file option. The default for most servers (including Rheostatic) is
index.html.
If a directory does not contain an index file, then Rheostatic will return a
directory listing of all the files in that directory (excluding files with names
that start with a dot).
For custom error pages, include files in the “root” directory named
<code>.html where <code> is the HTTP error code which the error page
corresponds to. For example, a file named 404.html would be returned for
404 (Not Found) errors. Supported error codes include 404 (Not Found),
and 405 (Method Not Allowed). If a custom error page is not found, then
Rheostatic serves a simple plain-text error page.

Options
Rheostatic currently supports the following options:

root
The local file system directory which the server should use as its “root”
directory. Usually represented by / in the URL (for example
http://example.com/). When root is set to a relative path, the local
filesystem path is resolved as an absolute path relative to the current working
directory. Absolute paths are used as-is.

index_file
The name of the file returned when a directory is requested (a URL ending with a
/). A file by that name must be present in the requested directory. Defaults
to index.html.
For example, a request to / would return the file at /index.html without
redirecting the client.

default_type
The ContentType returned for a file when the type is unknown. Defaults to
application/octet-stream.

encoding
The encoding used to read and serve the files. Be sure all your files are saved
using the same encoding. Defaults to utf-8.

directory_template
An HTML template used to display a directory listing when no index file is
available for the requested directory. Defaults to the string defined at
utils.directory_template.

default_extension
The extension to use for extensionless URLs. The requested URL must not end in
an extension or a slash (/). This feature is disabled by default. To enable
the feature, set the option to a string which contains both a dot and the
desired extension. For example, with the option set to .html, a request to
/foo would return the file /foo.html without redirecting the client.

Infrequently Asked Questions

Why Does this Exist?
The existing solutions have different goals and do not offer the specific set of
features that I needed. While some libraries could be subclassed to alter the
behavior, attempts to provide patches upstream always result in rejection as the
libraries generally where intended to serve static support files (images, CSS
files, JavaScript, etc), specifically to support dynamic content (cgi, wsgi,
Django, etc.). However, I needed to serve a static site; specifically static
HTML files along with their supporting media files (generated from a static site
generator). I can’t trust that the existing solutions will continue to work, as
their goals do not align with my needs.
On the other hand, other simple servers often don’t offer enough features to
emulate a real server. Thus, Rheostatic was created to offer the flexibility and
features to meet all of the needs of static site generators.

Why is it called “Rheostatic”?
I wanted something that accurately conveyed the purpose and function of the
library/tool. Note that the similar word, “rheostat” comes from the Greek
“rheos” (stream) and is defined as “[a]n electrical instrument used to
control a current by varying the resistance.” Rheostatic doesn’t control
current, but it does control a stream of static files served to a client,
which can be varied by adjusting the settings. I also liked the name and it
doesn’t appear to have been used by anyone else.

Could you add my pet feature?
Maybe. If the feature does not add support for dynamic content and it can be
easily replicated by popular web servers, I may consider it. Naturally, if you
do the work it’s more likely to get added, than if you wait for me to work on
something I don’t care about and/or need.

License
Rheostatic is licensed under the MIT License as defined in LICENSE.

Change Log

Version 0.0.2 (2020-10-27)

Added support for text/cache-manifest content type.
Dropped support for Python versions less that 3.6.

Version 0.0.1 (2016-11-03)
The initial release.