Question

I run python CGIHTTPServer with (server.py)

#!/usr/bin/env python
import CGIHTTPServer

def main():
    server_address = ('', 8000)
    handler = CGIHTTPServer.CGIHTTPRequestHandler
    handler.cgi_directories = ['/cgi']
    server = CGIHTTPServer.BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer(server_address, handler)
    try:
        server.serve_forever()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        server.socket.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

I try to make a linux service with

#!/bin/sh

case $1 in
start) 
./server.py
;;
stop) # code to stop the service
esac

QUESTION 1: When I start the service, it will live in the terminal; not returning to the next bash command line. Thus, the service will stopped upon closing the terminal. How can I keep the web server active even after closing the terminal?

QUESTION 2: How can I stop this service? (after keeping it on by Question 1)

Answer 1

Start your program in background with:

nohup ./server.py &

The preferred way to stop your service is to issue a kill command with your service’s PID as argument.

#!/bin/sh
case $1 in
start) 
nohup ./server.py &
echo $! > ./server.pid
;;
stop) # code to stop the service
kill `cat ./server.pid`
esac

P.S.
start-stop-daemon metioned in comments is better but slightly more complex.