🧑‍🍳 webchef.py

✨ Features

This section highlights the core capabilities and convenient functionalities that `webchef.py` offers, making it a versatile tool for your local web serving needs.

• 🚀 Instant Serving: Run it in any folder, and it immediately serves all files and subfolders.
• 📄📁 Auto-Index Magic: No `index.html` in a directory? No problem! `webchef.py` will automatically bake a default index page listing all contents, even in subfolders.
• 🌙 Dark Mode Delight: All auto-generated pages come with a cozy dark grey theme.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Concurrency Ready: Handles multiple hungry clients (up to ~20 devices) at once using threading.
• ✨ Clean Kitchen Policy: All `index.html` files generated by `webchef.py` are automatically cleaned up (deleted) when the server stops.
• 🧾 Kitchen Receipt: Get a detailed summary of your server's uptime and dishes served when you close the kitchen.
• 🔥 Error Handling: Serves custom, kitchen-themed error pages for 404 (Not Found) and 403 (Forbidden) requests.

🚀 Getting Started: Setting Up Your Kitchen

This guide provides all the necessary steps to prepare your system and get `webchef.py` installed, ensuring you have all the prerequisites in place before you start serving content.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have these ingredients before you start cooking:

• 🐍 Python 3.6+: `webchef.py` runs on modern Python.
  • Check your version: python3 --version
  • Download Python: https://www.python.org/downloads/ (Remember to check the option to "Add Python to PATH" during installation on Windows!)

Installation

Follow these steps to get `webchef.py` up and running:

1. Download `webchef.py`:

   Grab the `webchef.py` file from this repository. You can clone the repo or simply download the file directly.

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/webchef.py.git # Replace with your actual repo URL
   cd webchef.py

   Or, if you just have the code, simply save it into a file named `webchef.py`.

2. No extra `pip` installs needed for `webchef.py` itself! It uses only standard Python libraries.

👨‍🍳 How to Use webchef.py

This section provides a step-by-step guide on how to operate `webchef.py`, from starting the server to understanding its automatic indexing feature and gracefully shutting it down.

1. Go to Your Serving Directory:

   Open your terminal or command prompt and navigate to the folder you want to serve. This is your "kitchen" for `webchef.py`.

   cd /path/to/your/awesome/project

2. Start the Server:

   Run the `webchef.py` script:

   python3 webchef.py

   (If `python3` doesn't work, try python webchef.py).

   You'll see a friendly message like:

   ✨ webchef.py is cooking! Serving on http://127.0.0.1:8080
   🏡 Your kitchen (root directory): /path/to/your/awesome/project

3. Visit Your Web Page:

   Open your favorite web browser and go to the address shown in the terminal (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8080).

   • If you have an `index.html` in that folder, `webchef.py` will serve it.
   • If not, it will automatically generate a lovely dark-themed index page listing all files and subfolders!

📄 Automatic Index Pages (The Recipe Book Feature!)

`webchef.py` is smart! If you navigate to a directory (like http://127.0.0.1:8080/my_subfolder/) and there's no `index.html` inside, `webchef.py` will temporarily create one for you. This page will list all the files and subdirectories within that specific folder, making navigation a breeze.

Important: These auto-generated `index.html` files are temporary! They are automatically deleted when you stop the `webchef.py` server. Your original files remain untouched.

🛑 Stopping the Server (Closing the Kitchen)

To stop `webchef.py`, simply go back to the terminal where it's running and press Ctrl+C (or Cmd+C on macOS).

You'll then receive your webchef.py Receipt, detailing how long your server was running and how many dishes (requests) it served!