Quickly share a folder using HTTP on a linux host

Working on a mixed environment, with Windows and Linux boxes, you might want to share some stuff from a linux machine with a user that doesn’t have an SSH client with file tranfer support or even installed. Or even send some files to download to a non-techie team mate. Something everybody is used to is downloading files from the browser, why not use that?

On your linux box, go to the directory where the files are stored and run the following command:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

For example, I shared a folder called “vmware-tools-distrib”:

Afterwards, the target user only has to open the browser and navigate to the address of the linux box on port 8000.

Easy and handy.