[Python-Dev] [isssue 2001] Pydoc enhancement patch questions

[Alexander Belopolsky]

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 6:37 AM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
..
> For the "-b" option, if the server is already running (and hence the
> port is in use), catch the exception, print a message and start the
> webbrowser anyway.

I was going to make a similar suggestion, but then realized that there
it may not be easy or desirable for pydoc to figure out whether the
service running on the used port is in fact pydoc.  Any query that
pydoc would send may be disruptive depending on what program is
listening on the port.  It may also get easily confused by a pydoc
service from a different version of python.   It may be better to
search for an unused port in the error case and pass it to the
browser.