hg-serve

Start a web server instance

$ hg serve

$ hg serve [[-p|--port]] [port]

$ hg serve [[-a|--address]] [address]

$ hg serve [[-n|--name]] [name]

$ hg serve --style [style]

$ hg serve --certificate [path/to/certificate]

hg serve [options]

-6, --ipv6
    use IPv6 instead of IPv4

-A, --accesslog FILE
    access log file location

-p, --port PORT
    port to listen on (default: 8000)

-n, --name NAME
    hostname to use in canonical URL (default: localhost)

--certificate CERT
    SSL certificate file path

--daemon
    run server in background

--errorlog FILE
    error log file location

--pid-file FILE
    file to store process ID

--prefix PREFIX
    URL prefix for repository

--print-url
    print the served repository URL

--stdio
    use stdin/stdout for requests (CGI)

--templates PATH
    directory for web templates

--web-conf FILE
    web server configuration file

--web-dir DIR
    root directory for repositories

--web-name NAME
    name for the web interface

The hg serve command starts a built-in HTTP server that exposes the current Mercurial repository for sharing with other users. It allows clients to clone, pull, and push changesets via HTTP without needing a dedicated web server like Apache. Ideal for quick sharing during development or ad-hoc collaboration.

By default, it listens on port 8000 and serves from the current directory as the repository root. The server supports basic authentication if configured in .hg/hgrc, and can be customized with templates, access logs, and virtual hosting. It handles multiple repositories under --web-dir and supports subrepositories with --subrepos.

Use cases include temporary team shares, code reviews, or serving as a poor man's CI. However, it's not production-ready due to lack of HTTPS by default, limited scalability, and potential security risks from unauthenticated access. Run with --daemon for background operation or --stdio for CGI-like integration.

Not suitable for production due to unencrypted HTTP by default, no rate limiting, and single-threaded operation. Exposes repository publicly unless firewalled or password-protected. Use hg serve --web-conf for auth.

Always configure [web] permissions in .hg/hgrc to restrict push/pull access.
Use --certificate for HTTPS.

Interrupt with Ctrl+C or kill the PID from --pid-file. No graceful shutdown option.

Introduced in Mercurial 0.9b (2006) by Matt Mackall as a simple sharing tool. Evolved with SSL support in 1.0 (2008) and subrepo handling in later versions. Remains lightweight alternative to hgweb.cgi.

hg(1), git daemon(1)