Then get or generate some text or HTML code and return it. >>> def my_url_handler(url, content_type): ... text = 'the URL sent was: (%s, %s)' % (url, content_type) ... return text Start server thread on port 0. If you use port 0, the server will pick a random port number. You can then use serverthread.port to get the port number. >>> port = 0 >>> serverthread = pydoc._start_server(my_url_handler, port) Check that the server is really started. If it is, open browser and get first page. Use serverthread.url as the starting page. >>> if serverthread.serving: ... import webbrowser The next two lines are commented out so a browser doesn't open if doctest is run on this module. #... webbrowser.open(serverthread.url) #True Let the server do its thing. We just need to monitor its status. Use time.sleep so the loop doesn't hog the CPU. >>> starttime = time.monotonic() >>> timeout = 1 #seconds This is a short timeout for testing purposes. >>> while serverthread.serving: ... time.sleep(.01) ... if serverthread.serving and time.monotonic() - starttime > timeout: ... serverthread.stop() ... break Print any errors that may have occurred. >>> print(serverthread.error) None r