seekablehttpfile
A lazy-loading, seekable, remote file object using http range requests
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need to work with large remote files and can tolerate the early-stage maturity (version 0.1.0, active but small project). The permissive MIT license and low install friction make it a low-risk experiment. Verify server range-request support and caching behavior for your use case before relying on it in production.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- The remote server must support HTTP range requests (Accept-Ranges header); servers that don't will not work correctly with this package.
- Low install friction with only two runtime dependencies (requests and keke).
- Maintenance is active with recent commits, though the project is small (2 stars) and relatively new, so long-term stability is not yet established.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license is permissive, allowing free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for most commercial and open-source projects.
last release 2024-01-31 (926 days) · last repo commit 2026-05-01 · 2 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 560,585 downloads/mo, #6,002 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install seekablehttpfile
from seekablehttpfile import SeekableHttpFile
from zipfile import ZipFile
f = SeekableHttpFile("https://example.com/large-file.zip")
z = ZipFile(f)
print(len(z.namelist()))
print(f.stats)- Performance characteristics and overhead of range-request caching strategy compared to full downloads
- Behavior and reliability with servers that don't support HTTP range requests
- Thread-safety and concurrent access patterns
What it is and what it does
SeekableHttpFile wraps remote HTTP files in a file-like interface that uses HTTP range requests to fetch only the bytes you actually read. Instead of downloading a 284 MB file to extract metadata from a ZIP archive, you can open it as a seekable file object and read just the parts you need—the package tracks how many requests were made and how many bytes were actually transferred versus optimistically requested.
The package depends on requests for HTTP operations and keke for its internal logic. It supports Python 3.7 and above, though development and type-checking are validated on 3.10+. The implementation is straightforward: pass a URL to SeekableHttpFile, use it like any file object with seek() and read(), and inspect the stats property to see how efficiently you used the remote resource.
Use it for
- Extract metadata from large remote ZIP or TAR archives without downloading the entire file
- Read specific sections of remote CSV or log files for analysis or sampling
- Access remote binary files in scientific workflows where only certain byte ranges are needed
- Stream large remote datasets for machine learning pipelines with minimal bandwidth
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need to work with large remote files and can tolerate the early-stage maturity (version 0.1.0, active but small project).
The permissive MIT license and low install friction make it a low-risk experiment. Verify server range-request support and caching behavior for your use case before relying on it in production.
Install
seekablehttpfile on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with only two runtime dependencies (requests and keke). Maintenance is active with recent commits, though the project is small (2 stars) and relatively new, so long-term stability is not yet established.
The remote server must support HTTP range requests (Accept-Ranges header); servers that don't will not work correctly with this package.
License in practice
MIT license is permissive, allowing free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for most commercial and open-source projects.
Quickstart
pip install seekablehttpfile
from seekablehttpfile import SeekableHttpFile
from zipfile import ZipFile
f = SeekableHttpFile("https://example.com/large-file.zip")
z = ZipFile(f)
print(len(z.namelist()))
print(f.stats)Verify before relying
- Performance characteristics and overhead of range-request caching strategy compared to full downloads
- Behavior and reliability with servers that don't support HTTP range requests
- Thread-safety and concurrent access patterns
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.7 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 2 packagesrequestskeke |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 926 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 560,585 / month, #6,002 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
Evidence: seekablehttpfile-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also remotezip2 · multiurl · stream-unzip · zipp · zipstream-ng · iterable-io · remotezip · baseten-performance-client · scp · pytube