Running Python Scripts via Web URLs with httpout

httpout allows you to execute Python scripts from a web URL, sending the output to the browser. It works like a classic method of deploying scripts to the web but is more lightweight than CGI because it does not spawn a new process for each request.

Installation

<code>python3 -m pip install --upgrade httpout</code>

Example script (hello.py)

<code>import time
print('&lt;pre&gt;Hello...')
time.sleep(1)
print('and')
time.sleep(2)
print('Bye!&lt;/pre&gt;')</code>

Place the file in a folder and start the httpout server:

<code>python3 -m httpout --port 8000 example/</code>

You can then access the script at http://localhost:8000/hello.py . If you prefer URLs without the file suffix, create an internal folder to serve the script.

Features

Mixes asynchronous and synchronous execution, allowing both worlds to coexist in your script.

More lightweight than running CGI scripts.

Outputs characters line‑by‑line without waiting for the script to finish (e.g., using print() ).

No template engine required; scripts are portable between CLI and web.

Additional conveniences.

Mixed async and sync

The httpout server runs each module in a separate thread, enabling blocking code to run without interrupting the server loop, and also supports running coroutine functions using the existing event loop.

<code># ...
time.sleep(1)
async def main():
    await asyncio.sleep(1)
wait(main())
print('Done!')</code>

Utility functions such as wait() run a coroutine and wait for its completion.

Built‑in objects

You can access several objects without any imports, following the semantics of the __main__ module:

print()

run() – runs a coroutine and returns a concurrent.futures.Future object.

wait() – runs a coroutine and waits for it to finish.

__main__ – reference to the main route, usable in sub‑module imports.

__server__ – a dict containing basic HTTP request information.

Project repository: https://github.com/nggit/httpout