Building a Simple Web Server in Python

Whether to request information or to serve it, in order to access the Internet, we need to create a socket. The syntax for this call is as follows:

<variable> = socket.socket(<family>, <type>)

The recognised socket families are:

• AF_INET: IPv4 protocols (both TCP and UDP)
• AF_INET6: IPv6 protocols (both TCP and UDP)
• AF_UNIX: UNIX domain protocols

The socket type refers to the type of communication used through the socket. The five socket types are as follows:

• SOCK_STREAM: a connection-oriented, TCP byte stream
• SOCK_DGRAM: UDP transferral of datagrams (self-contained IP packets that do not rely on client-server confirmation)
• SOCK_RAW: a raw socket
• SOCK_RDM: for reliable datagrams
• SOCK_SEQPACKET: sequential transfer of records over a connection

So let's create a socket and assign it to a variable.

c = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

Index: Building a Simple Web Server in Python

1. Introduction to socket
2. Running Servers
3. Communicating Via Sockets
4. Hosts and Ports
5. Creating a Socket
6. Setting Socket Options
7. Binding the Port to the Socket
8. Handling a Server Request
9. Sending Data to the Client
10. Final Analysis and Shutting Down