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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I need an http server to serve up static content on localhost.

It needs to meet the following conditions:

  • easy to install, minimal configuration, just fire up from a directory and that's it
  • supports OSX
  • small memory footprint
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Doesn't OSX have Apache built-in? – Brad Jul 26 '11 at 18:51
Maybe, I didn't check. But I wouldn't call it lightweight and very easy to configure – Ovesh Jul 26 '11 at 18:52
It can certainly be lightweight. Easy to configure is another matter, but if it is already running, your configuration is done. macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/07/apache.html – Brad Jul 26 '11 at 18:53
fair enough. That was easy. If you want to write up a small answer I'll give you the credit. – Ovesh Jul 26 '11 at 19:10

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Apache is built into OSX an can easily be enabled.

See http://macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/07/apache.html for some basic instructions.

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I didn't read it through. All I did was go to "Sharing" in System Preferences, enable "Web Sharing", and I'm using my local ~/Sites as the directory. Pretty simple. – Ovesh Jul 26 '11 at 19:39
It'd be great to provide the instructions here rather than just linking somewhere! But as @Ovesh said, it can be condensed quite easily. – slhck♦ Jul 26 '11 at 21:35
up vote 5 down vote

You can use Python to run a simple http server. From the directory that you want to serve, run the following...

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

See this Linux Jornal article for more info.

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What a great solution. It just works! – Ovesh Jul 27 '11 at 6:52
up vote 2 down vote

You can use MAMP.

It comes with Apache, PHP and MySQL, and sets it all up with a few clicks. Note that you should never use MAMP in a production environment; PHP & MySQL settings are optimal for development but there are some security vulnerabilities.

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