Because I don't want to spend time and energy configuring CPAN, accounting for the company proxy, downloading a module, finding somewhere to put it, worrying about accidentally installing files in the wrong place, making the perl command refer to that location, etc. for every temporary webserver I want to make.

While you may think all that is "easy", you can't honestly think it's as easy, fast and convenient as typing "python -m SimpleHTTPServer" or any other built-in one-liner?

How about this approach:

• Create a text file in a directory in your shell's PATH named SimpleHTTPServer.pl
• Paste the following code into the SimpleHTTPServer.pl text file

  #!/usr/bin/env perl
  use HTTP::Daemon;
  my $port = $ARGV[0] || 8000;
  my $d = HTTP::Daemon->new(LocalPort => $port) or die $!;
  print "SimpleHTTPServer.pl listening at: ", $d->url, "\n";
  while (my $c = $d->accept) { 
      while (my $r = $c->get_request) {
          $c->send_file_response(".".$r->url->path);
      }
  }
  [download]

  If on a UNIX/Linux platform make sure to chmod +x SimpleHTTPServer.pl
• cd to the directory of your HTML content
• execute SimpleHTTPServer.pl to create a webserver on port 8000
  or
  execute SimpleHTTPServer.pl PORTNUMBER to create a webserver on port number of your choice
  

The implementation (a perl script) is not a one liner, but the execution (calling the perl script) is...

The implementation (a perl script) is not a one liner, but the execution (calling the perl script) is.

If the OP insists, (s)he could make it a one-liner:

perl -MHTTP::Daemon -E '$d=HTTP::Daemon->new(LocalPort=>$ARGV[0]||8000
+);say$d->url;while(my$c=$d->accept){while(my$r=$c->get_request){$c->s
+end_file_response(".",$r->url->path)}}'
[download]

Yes, this is hard to read, hard to remember, and generally a stupid idea. (And yes, I'm kind of violating my own rule.) The clean way is to use a script.

Also, writing a module optimized for using in a one-liner isn't that hard:

package HTTP::here;

use strict;
use warnings
use Exporter qw( import );
use Whatever::Webserver::you::like;

our @EXPORT=qw( serve );

sub serve
{
    my $port=shift;
    $port||=8080;
    Whatever::Webserver::you::like->new(port => $port)->run();
}

1;
[download]

Using it is as easy:

perl -MHTTP::here -e serve

For a non-default port:

perl -MHTTP::here -e 'serve(8000)'

Alexander

--
Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)

Perl does not have a simple HTTP server as part of its core modules. You will always have to download something from CPAN, which will always involve a bit more effort than your Python one-liner.

So what is your point exactly? ... or are you just venting?

If you want to use Perl to its fullest potential, you really should take the time to get to know how to use CPAN properly, and then yes, it will become relatively "easy".