diff -r dca12bc78326 Doc/library/socketserver.rst
--- a/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Sun Jul 17 19:06:03 2011 +0800
+++ b/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Mon Jul 25 21:36:25 2011 +0200
@@ -173,6 +173,11 @@
 
    Tells the :meth:`serve_forever` loop to stop and waits until it does.
 
+.. attribute:: BaseServer.running
+
+   True if the server is running.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.3
 
 .. attribute:: BaseServer.address_family
 
diff -r dca12bc78326 Lib/socketserver.py
--- a/Lib/socketserver.py	Sun Jul 17 19:06:03 2011 +0800
+++ b/Lib/socketserver.py	Mon Jul 25 21:36:25 2011 +0200
@@ -200,6 +200,22 @@
         self.RequestHandlerClass = RequestHandlerClass
         self.__is_shut_down = threading.Event()
         self.__shutdown_request = False
+        self.__running = False
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        info = []
+        name = self.__class__.__module__ + "." + self.__class__.__name__
+        info.append("status=%s" % ("running" if self.running else "stopped"))
+        if self.server_address:
+            info.append("address=%s" % repr(self.server_address))
+        return '<%s %s at %#x>' % (name, ', '.join(info), id(self))
+
+    __str__ = __repr__
+
+    @property
+    def running(self):
+        """Return True if the server is running."""
+        return self.__running
 
     def server_activate(self):
         """Called by constructor to activate the server.
@@ -216,8 +232,11 @@
         self.timeout. If you need to do periodic tasks, do them in
         another thread.
         """
-        self.__is_shut_down.clear()
+        if self.running:
+            raise RuntimeError("the server is already running")
+        self.__is_shut_down.wait()
         try:
+            self.__running = True
             while not self.__shutdown_request:
                 # XXX: Consider using another file descriptor or
                 # connecting to the socket to wake this up instead of
@@ -230,6 +249,7 @@
                 self.service_actions()
         finally:
             self.__shutdown_request = False
+            self.__running = False
             self.__is_shut_down.set()
 
     def shutdown(self):
@@ -239,6 +259,8 @@
         serve_forever() is running in another thread, or it will
         deadlock.
         """
+        if not self.running:
+            raise RuntimeError("the server is not running")
         self.__shutdown_request = True
         self.__is_shut_down.wait()