SimpleHTTPServer on system boot

Question

I am trying to start the SimpleHTTPServer on system boot. I am using the Raspbian OS which is based on Linux. For this, I have added the following line in crontab file:

@reboot serverfile.sh

Now inside the serverfile.sh, I have put the following:

#!/bin/bash
python -m SimpleHTTPServer

The file execution permissions has been given and it can print an echo command when modified. But the server does not start on boot. The same command,

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

works fine when ran in the terminal. What am I doing wrong here?

The following is my log for CRON

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ grep CRON /var/log/syslog
Oct 16 07:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[17192]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 08:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[17230]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 09:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[17265]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 10:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[17301]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 10:17:03 raspberrypi cron[319]: (CRON) INFO (pidfile fd = 3)
Oct 16 10:17:03 raspberrypi cron[319]: (CRON) INFO (Running @reboot jobs)
Oct 16 10:17:03 raspberrypi cron[298]: (CRON) INFO (pidfile fd = 3)
Oct 16 10:17:03 raspberrypi cron[298]: (CRON) INFO (Running @reboot jobs)
Oct 16 11:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[1718]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 11:51:38 raspberrypi cron[276]: (CRON) INFO (pidfile fd = 3)
Oct 16 11:51:38 raspberrypi cron[276]: (CRON) INFO (Running @reboot jobs)
Oct 16 12:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[1019]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 13:17:02 raspberrypi CRON[1051]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 14:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[1171]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct 16 15:17:01 raspberrypi CRON[1283]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Binary file /var/log/syslog matches

Answer 1

Instead of using cron, could you use something like an init.d script (for older OSes) or systemd (for newer OSes). See here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/236084/how-do-i-create-a-service-for-a-shell-script-so-i-can-start-and-stop-it-like-a-d. I'm not sure what Rasbian uses to start services; maybe something different from either of those. I think reboot scripts would generally used to clean up resources upon boot, rather than to run services.