fix an issue: single file path wouldn't be served

a single filepath can now be passed in and served. BUT, it is currently served
with its entire enclosing directory. While the other user *might* be ignorant
of how the file is served, the system should really serve *only* that file
that the user wishes to serve.

The current fix is only to keep functionality. It should be fixed soon
fix unicode problem in test
flake8/cleanup