# modal.web_server | Modal Docs

- **URL:** https://modal.com/docs/sdk/py/latest/modal.web_server
- **Summary:** Decorator that registers an HTTP web server inside the container.

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modal.web_server
=================

    web_server(port, *, startup_timeout=5.0, label=None, custom_domains=None,
        requires_proxy_auth=False)

Decorator that registers an HTTP web server inside the container.

This is similar to `@modal.asgi_app` and `@modal.wsgi_app`, but it allows you to expose a full HTTP server listening on a container port. This is useful for servers written in other languages like Rust, as well as integrating with non-ASGI frameworks like aiohttp and Tornado.

The above example starts a simple file server, displaying the contents of the root directory. Here, requests to the URL will go to external port 8000 on the container. The `http.server` module is included with Python, but you could run anything here.

Internally, the web server is transparently converted into a Web Function by Modal, so it has the same serverless autoscaling behavior as other Web Functions.

For more info, see the [guide on Web Functions](https://modal.com/docs/guide/webhooks)
.

**Usage**

    import subprocess
    
    @app.function()
    @modal.web_server(8000)
    def my_file_server():
        subprocess.Popen("python -m http.server -d / 8000", shell=True)

[modal.web_server](https://modal.com/docs/sdk/py/latest/modal.web_server#modalweb_server)