HOWTO: Serve htags generated website (CGI, AJAX and all) using just Python. No scripting required.

[Alain Kalker]

Perhaps not all of you know this, but it is possible (and very 
convenient :-) to serve the website generated by for example:

$ htags --suggest2

using nothing more than a Python installation. No need to edit daunting 
configuration files, change (or ask for) permissions, etcetera.

Here's how:

First, setup GTAGSROOT
In the root of your source directory, where the tags files and HTML 
directory are, do:
$ pwd > GTAGSROOT # This is needed so that global.cgi can find the tags 
files

Next, start Python's built-in HTTP/CGI server.

If you're using Python 3.x, do:
$ (cd HTML; python -m http.server --cgi)

If you're using Python 2.x, do:
$ (cd HTML; python -m CGIHTTPServer)

Now, you can surf to: http://localhost:8000/index.html
and browse and search your source code, with all the AJAX goodness like 
symbol completion, dynamic cross-references, etc.

Well, almost.

Currently, there is a small problem, when a search for a symbol returns 
only 1 result, you will get a blank page instead of being taken to the 
source file with the symbol.
I have sent a patch to address this problem to the bug-global mailing 
list (look for "[PATCH][Feature request] global.cgi: Add a fallback 
redirect method for webservers which do not support CGI redirects". I 
hope this issue gets fixed soon.

Have fun :-)

Alain