simple twisted web server on windows

twisted_web_windows

# This is needed because SimpleHTTPServer in the standard python distribution isn't good enough for my use case of
# serving large mp4 files. Pretty much every request fails with a broken pipe.

# Start with the 'babun' package to provide the cli environment, based on cygwin. Python is included.
# http://babun.github.io

# Install virtualenv
pip install virtualenv

# Create and activate virtualenv
virtualenv web_env
cd web_env
source Scripts/activate

# install additional packages
pip install Twisted pypiwin32

# Start the web server, specifying the path to the document root
twistd -n web --path 'D:\shadowplay\Overwatch'

# That's it! Web service should be listening on 8080.

# NB: do not be fooled by cygwin's ability to access other volumes with posix path semantics.
# While this does work sometimes...
{ ~ }  » python -c 'import os ; print os.listdir("/d/shadowplay");'
['.DS_Store', 'Call of Duty  Ghosts', 'Desktop', 'Overwatch', 'shadow_tmp', 'TitanFall', 'World Of Warcraft']

# ... once inside the venv with the pypiwin32 module loaded (which is required because I don't know, I don't do windows :),
# the posix path semantics stop working:
{ ~ }  » cd web_env
{ web_env }  » source Scripts/activate
(web_env) { web_env }  » python -c 'import os ; print os.listdir("/d/shadowplay");'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
WindowsError: [Error 3] The system cannot find the path specified: '/d/shadowplay/*.*'

# move into the dir on the other volume, then ask python for the path of the current dir
(web_env) { web_env }  » cd /d/shadowplay
(web_env) { shadowplay }  » python -c 'import os ; print os.path.abspath(os.getcwd());'
D:\shadowplay

# using paths in this style works with pypiwin32 loaded...
(web_env) { shadowplay }  » python -c 'import os ; print os.listdir("D:\shadowplay");'
['.DS_Store', 'Call of Duty  Ghosts', 'Desktop', 'Overwatch', 'shadow_tmp', 'TitanFall', 'World Of Warcraft']

# ... and also without the pypiwin32 module loaded
{ ~ }  » [ -n "${VIRTUAL_ENV}" ] || echo "not in a venv"
not in a venv
{ ~ }  » python -c 'import os ; print os.listdir("D:\shadowplay");'
['.DS_Store', 'Call of Duty  Ghosts', 'Desktop', 'Overwatch', 'shadow_tmp', 'TitanFall', 'World Of Warcraft']