NAME¶
HTTP::Tiny - A small, simple, correct HTTP/1.1 client
VERSION¶
version 0.050
SYNOPSIS¶
use HTTP::Tiny;
my $response = HTTP::Tiny->new->get('http://example.com/');
die "Failed!\n" unless $response->{success};
print "$response->{status} $response->{reason}\n";
while (my ($k, $v) = each %{$response->{headers}}) {
for (ref $v eq 'ARRAY' ? @$v : $v) {
print "$k: $_\n";
}
}
print $response->{content} if length $response->{content};
DESCRIPTION¶
This is a very simple HTTP/1.1 client, designed for doing simple requests
without the overhead of a large framework like LWP::UserAgent.
It is more correct and more complete than HTTP::Lite. It supports proxies and
redirection. It also correctly resumes after EINTR.
If IO::Socket::IP 0.25 or later is installed, HTTP::Tiny will use it instead of
IO::Socket::INET for transparent support for both IPv4 and IPv6.
Cookie support requires HTTP::CookieJar or an equivalent class.
METHODS¶
new¶
$http = HTTP::Tiny->new( %attributes );
This constructor returns a new HTTP::Tiny object. Valid attributes include:
- •
- "agent" X A user-agent string (defaults to
'HTTP-Tiny/$VERSION'). If "agent" X ends in a space character,
the default user-agent string is appended.
- •
- "cookie_jar" X An instance of HTTP::CookieJar X or equivalent
class that supports the "add" and "cookie_header"
methods
- •
- "default_headers" X A hashref of default headers to apply to
requests
- •
- "local_address" X The local IP address to bind to
- •
- "keep_alive" X Whether to reuse the last connection (if for the
same scheme, host and port) (defaults to 1)
- •
- "max_redirect" X Maximum number of redirects allowed (defaults
to 5)
- •
- "max_size" X Maximum response size (only when not using a data
callback). If defined, responses larger than this will return an
exception.
- •
- "http_proxy" X URL of a proxy server to use for HTTP connections
(default is $ENV{http_proxy} X if set)
- •
- "https_proxy" X URL of a proxy server to use for HTTPS
connections (default is $ENV{https_proxy} X if set)
- •
- "proxy" X URL of a generic proxy server for both HTTP and HTTPS
connections (default is $ENV{all_proxy} X if set)
- •
- "no_proxy" X List of domain suffixes that should not be proxied.
Must be a comma-separated string or an array reference. (default is
$ENV{no_proxy} X)
- •
- "timeout" X Request timeout in seconds (default is 60)
- •
- "verify_SSL" X A boolean that indicates whether to validate the
SSL certificate of an "https" X connection (default is
false)
- •
- "SSL_options" X A hashref of "SSL_*" X options to pass
through to IO::Socket::SSL
Passing an explicit "undef" for "proxy",
"http_proxy" or "https_proxy" will prevent getting the
corresponding proxies from the environment.
Exceptions from "max_size", "timeout" or other errors will
result in a pseudo-HTTP status code of 599 and a reason of "Internal
Exception". The content field in the response will contain the text of
the exception.
The "keep_alive" parameter enables a persistent connection, but only
to a single destination scheme, host and port. Also, if any
connection-relevant attributes are modified, or if the process ID or thread ID
change, the persistent connection will be dropped. If you want persistent
connections across multiple destinations, use multiple HTTP::Tiny objects.
See "SSL SUPPORT" for more on the "verify_SSL" and
"SSL_options" attributes.
get|head|put|post|delete¶
$response = $http->get($url);
$response = $http->get($url, \%options);
$response = $http->head($url);
These methods are shorthand for calling "request()" for the given
method. The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and international domain
names encoded. See "request()" for valid options and a description
of the response.
The "success" field of the response will be true if the status code is
2XX.
post_form¶
$response = $http->post_form($url, $form_data);
$response = $http->post_form($url, $form_data, \%options);
This method executes a "POST" request and sends the key/value pairs
from a form data hash or array reference to the given URL with a
"content-type" of "application/x-www-form-urlencoded". If
data is provided as an array reference, the order is preserved; if provided as
a hash reference, the terms are sorted on key and value for consistency. See
documentation for the "www_form_urlencode" method for details on the
encoding.
The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and international domain names
encoded. See "request()" for valid options and a description of the
response. Any "content-type" header or content in the options
hashref will be ignored.
The "success" field of the response will be true if the status code is
2XX.
mirror¶
$response = $http->mirror($url, $file, \%options)
if ( $response->{success} ) {
print "$file is up to date\n";
}
Executes a "GET" request for the URL and saves the response body to
the file name provided. The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and
international domain names encoded. If the file already exists, the request
will include an "If-Modified-Since" header with the modification
timestamp of the file. You may specify a different
"If-Modified-Since" header yourself in the
"$options->{headers}" hash.
The "success" field of the response will be true if the status code is
2XX or if the status code is 304 (unmodified).
If the file was modified and the server response includes a properly formatted
"Last-Modified" header, the file modification time will be updated
accordingly.
request¶
$response = $http->request($method, $url);
$response = $http->request($method, $url, \%options);
Executes an HTTP request of the given method type ('GET', 'HEAD', 'POST', 'PUT',
etc.) on the given URL. The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and
international domain names encoded.
If the URL includes a "user:password" stanza, they will be used for
Basic-style authorization headers. (Authorization headers will not be included
in a redirected request.) For example:
$http->request('GET', 'http://Aladdin:open sesame@example.com/');
If the "user:password" stanza contains reserved characters, they must
be percent-escaped:
$http->request('GET', 'http://john%40example.com:password@example.com/');
A hashref of options may be appended to modify the request.
Valid options are:
- •
- "headers" X A hashref containing headers to include with the
request. If the value for a header is an array reference, the header will
be output multiple times with each value in the array. These headers
over-write any default headers.
- •
- "content" X A scalar to include as the body of the request OR a
code reference that will be called iteratively to produce the body of the
request
- •
- "trailer_callback" X A code reference that will be called if it
exists to provide a hashref of trailing headers (only used with chunked
transfer-encoding)
- •
- "data_callback" X A code reference that will be called for each
chunks of the response body received.
The "Host" header is generated from the URL in accordance with RFC
2616. It is a fatal error to specify "Host" in the
"headers" option. Other headers may be ignored or overwritten if
necessary for transport compliance.
If the "content" option is a code reference, it will be called
iteratively to provide the content body of the request. It should return the
empty string or undef when the iterator is exhausted.
If the "content" option is the empty string, no
"content-type" or "content-length" headers will be
generated.
If the "data_callback" option is provided, it will be called
iteratively until the entire response body is received. The first argument
will be a string containing a chunk of the response body, the second argument
will be the in-progress response hash reference, as described below. (This
allows customizing the action of the callback based on the "status"
or "headers" received prior to the content body.)
The "request" method returns a hashref containing the response. The
hashref will have the following keys:
- •
- "success" X Boolean indicating whether the operation returned a
2XX status code
- •
- "url" X URL that provided the response. This is the URL of the
request unless there were redirections, in which case it is the last URL
queried in a redirection chain
- •
- "status" X The HTTP status code of the response
- •
- "reason" X The response phrase returned by the server
- •
- "content" X The body of the response. If the response does not
have any content or if a data callback is provided to consume the response
body, this will be the empty string
- •
- "headers" X A hashref of header fields. All header field names
will be normalized to be lower case. If a header is repeated, the value
will be an arrayref; it will otherwise be a scalar string containing the
value
On an exception during the execution of the request, the "status"
field will contain 599, and the "content" field will contain the
text of the exception.
$params = $http->www_form_urlencode( $data );
$response = $http->get("http://example.com/query?$params");
This method converts the key/value pairs from a data hash or array reference
into a "x-www-form-urlencoded" string. The keys and values from the
data reference will be UTF-8 encoded and escaped per RFC 3986. If a value is
an array reference, the key will be repeated with each of the values of the
array reference. If data is provided as a hash reference, the key/value pairs
in the resulting string will be sorted by key and value for consistent
ordering.
SSL SUPPORT¶
Direct "https" connections are supported only if IO::Socket::SSL 1.56
or greater and Net::SSLeay 1.49 or greater are installed. An exception will be
thrown if new enough versions of these modules are not installed or if the SSL
encryption fails. An "https" connection may be made via an
"http" proxy that supports the CONNECT command (i.e. RFC 2817). You
may not proxy "https" via a proxy that itself requires
"https" to communicate.
SSL provides two distinct capabilities:
- •
- Encrypted communication channel
- •
- Verification of server identity
By default, HTTP::Tiny does not verify server identity.
Server identity verification is controversial and potentially tricky because it
depends on a (usually paid) third-party Certificate Authority (CA) trust model
to validate a certificate as legitimate. This discriminates against servers
with self-signed certificates or certificates signed by free, community-driven
CA's such as CAcert.org <
http://cacert.org>.
By default, HTTP::Tiny does not make any assumptions about your trust model,
threat level or risk tolerance. It just aims to give you an encrypted channel
when you need one.
Setting the "verify_SSL" attribute to a true value will make
HTTP::Tiny verify that an SSL connection has a valid SSL certificate
corresponding to the host name of the connection and that the SSL certificate
has been verified by a CA. Assuming you trust the CA, this will protect
against a man-in-the-middle attack
<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack>. If you are
concerned about security, you should enable this option.
Certificate verification requires a file containing trusted CA certificates. If
the Mozilla::CA module is installed, HTTP::Tiny will use the CA file included
with it as a source of trusted CA's. (This means you trust Mozilla, the author
of Mozilla::CA, the CPAN mirror where you got Mozilla::CA, the toolchain used
to install it, and your operating system security, right?)
If that module is not available, then HTTP::Tiny will search several
system-specific default locations for a CA certificate file:
- •
- /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
- •
- /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
- •
- /etc/ssl/ca-bundle.pem
An exception will be raised if "verify_SSL" is true and no CA
certificate file is available.
If you desire complete control over SSL connections, the "SSL_options"
attribute lets you provide a hash reference that will be passed through to
"IO::Socket::SSL::start_SSL()", overriding any options set by
HTTP::Tiny. For example, to provide your own trusted CA file:
SSL_options => {
SSL_ca_file => $file_path,
}
The "SSL_options" attribute could also be used for such things as
providing a client certificate for authentication to a server or controlling
the choice of cipher used for the SSL connection. See IO::Socket::SSL
documentation for details.
PROXY SUPPORT¶
HTTP::Tiny can proxy both "http" and "https" requests. Only
Basic proxy authorization is supported and it must be provided as part of the
proxy URL: "
http://user:pass@proxy.example.com/".
HTTP::Tiny supports the following proxy environment variables:
- •
- http_proxy
- •
- https_proxy or HTTPS_PROXY
- •
- all_proxy or ALL_PROXY
Tunnelling "https" over an "http" proxy using the CONNECT
method is supported. If your proxy uses "https" itself, you can not
tunnel "https" over it.
Be warned that proxying an "https" connection opens you to the risk of
a man-in-the-middle attack by the proxy server.
The "no_proxy" environment variable is supported in the format of a
comma-separated list of domain extensions proxy should not be used for.
Proxy arguments passed to "new" will override their corresponding
environment variables.
LIMITATIONS¶
HTTP::Tiny is
conditionally compliant with the HTTP/1.1 specifications
<
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/>:
- •
- "Message Syntax and Routing" [RFC7230]
- •
- "Semantics and Content" [RFC7231]
- •
- "Conditional Requests" [RFC7232]
- •
- "Range Requests" [RFC7233]
- •
- "Caching" [RFC7234]
- •
- "Authentication" [RFC7235]
It attempts to meet all "MUST" requirements of the specification, but
does not implement all "SHOULD" requirements. (Note: it was
developed against the earlier RFC 2616 specification and may not yet meet the
revised RFC 7230-7235 spec.)
Some particular limitations of note include:
- •
- HTTP::Tiny focuses on correct transport. Users are responsible for
ensuring that user-defined headers and content are compliant with the
HTTP/1.1 specification.
- •
- Users must ensure that URLs are properly escaped for unsafe characters and
that international domain names are properly encoded to ASCII. See
URI::Escape, URI::_punycode and Net::IDN::Encode.
- •
- Redirection is very strict against the specification. Redirection is only
automatic for response codes 301, 302 and 307 if the request method is
'GET' or 'HEAD'. Response code 303 is always converted into a 'GET'
redirection, as mandated by the specification. There is no automatic
support for status 305 ("Use proxy") redirections.
- •
- There is no provision for delaying a request body using an
"Expect" header. Unexpected "1XX" responses are
silently ignored as per the specification.
- •
- Only 'chunked' "Transfer-Encoding" is supported.
- •
- There is no support for a Request-URI of '*' for the 'OPTIONS'
request.
Despite the limitations listed above, HTTP::Tiny is considered feature-complete.
New feature requests should be directed to HTTP::Tiny::UA.
SEE ALSO¶
- •
- HTTP::Tiny::UA - Higher level UA features for HTTP::Tiny
- •
- HTTP::Thin - HTTP::Tiny wrapper with HTTP::Request/HTTP::Response
compatibility
- •
- HTTP::Tiny::Mech - Wrap WWW::Mechanize instance in HTTP::Tiny compatible
interface
- •
- IO::Socket::IP - Required for IPv6 support
- •
- IO::Socket::SSL - Required for SSL support
- •
- LWP::UserAgent - If HTTP::Tiny isn't enough for you, this is the
"standard" way to do things
- •
- Mozilla::CA - Required if you want to validate SSL certificates
- •
- Net::SSLeay - Required for SSL support
SUPPORT¶
Bugs / Feature Requests¶
Please report any bugs or feature requests through the issue tracker at
<
https://github.com/chansen/p5-http-tiny/issues>. You will be notified
automatically of any progress on your issue.
Source Code¶
This is open source software. The code repository is available for public review
and contribution under the terms of the license.
<
https://github.com/chansen/p5-http-tiny>
git clone https://github.com/chansen/p5-http-tiny.git
AUTHORS¶
- •
- Christian Hansen <chansen@cpan.org>
- •
- David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>
CONTRIBUTORS¶
- •
- Alan Gardner <gardner@pythian.com>
- •
- Edward Zborowski <ed@rubensteintech.com>
- •
- James Raspass <jraspass@gmail.com>
- •
- Jess Robinson <castaway@desert-island.me.uk>
- •
- Lukas Eklund <leklund@gmail.com>
- •
- Martin J. Evans <mjegh@ntlworld.com>
- •
- Martin-Louis Bright <mlbright@gmail.com>
- •
- Mike Doherty <doherty@cpan.org>
- •
- Petr PisaX <ppisar@redhat.com>
- •
- Serguei Trouchelle <stro@cpan.org>
- •
- Syohei YOSHIDA <syohex@gmail.com>
- •
- Alessandro Ghedini <al3xbio@gmail.com>
- •
- Soeren Kornetzki <soeren.kornetzki@delti.com>
- •
- Tom Hukins <tom@eborcom.com>
- •
- Tony Cook <tony@develop-help.com>
- •
- Brad Gilbert <bgills@cpan.org>
- •
- Chris Nehren <apeiron@cpan.org>
- •
- Chris Weyl <rsrchboy@cpan.org>
- •
- Claes Jakobsson <claes@surfar.nu>
- •
- Clinton Gormley <clint@traveljury.com>
- •
- Craig Berry <cberry@cpan.org>
- •
- David Mitchell <davem@iabyn.com>
- •
- Dean Pearce <pearce@pythian.com>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶
This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Christian Hansen.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.