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Georg Brandl8175dae2010-11-29 14:53:15 +00001:mod:`urllib.request` --- Extensible library for opening URLs
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00002=============================================================
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00003
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00004.. module:: urllib.request
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00005 :synopsis: Next generation URL opening library.
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +00006.. moduleauthor:: Jeremy Hylton <jeremy@alum.mit.edu>
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00007.. sectionauthor:: Moshe Zadka <moshez@users.sourceforge.net>
8
9
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +000010The :mod:`urllib.request` module defines functions and classes which help in
11opening URLs (mostly HTTP) in a complex world --- basic and digest
12authentication, redirections, cookies and more.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000013
Antoine Pitrou79ecd762010-09-29 11:24:21 +000014
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +000015The :mod:`urllib.request` module defines the following functions:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000016
17
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000018.. function:: urlopen(url, data=None[, timeout], *, cafile=None, capath=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000019
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000020 Open the URL *url*, which can be either a string or a
21 :class:`Request` object.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000022
Georg Brandl09a7df82010-12-19 12:33:52 +000023 *data* may be a bytes object specifying additional data to send to the
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +000024 server, or ``None`` if no such data is needed. *data* may also be an
25 iterable object and in that case Content-Length value must be specified in
26 the headers. Currently HTTP requests are the only ones that use *data*; the
27 HTTP request will be a POST instead of a GET when the *data* parameter is
28 provided. *data* should be a buffer in the standard
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000029 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format. The
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +000030 :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function takes a mapping or sequence of
31 2-tuples and returns a string in this format. urllib.request module uses
Senthil Kumaran916bd382010-10-15 12:55:19 +000032 HTTP/1.1 and includes ``Connection:close`` header in its HTTP requests.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000033
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000034 The optional *timeout* parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for
35 blocking operations like the connection attempt (if not specified,
36 the global default timeout setting will be used). This actually
Senthil Kumaranc08d9072010-10-05 18:46:56 +000037 only works for HTTP, HTTPS and FTP connections.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000038
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000039 The optional *cafile* and *capath* parameters specify a set of trusted
40 CA certificates for HTTPS requests. *cafile* should point to a single
41 file containing a bundle of CA certificates, whereas *capath* should
42 point to a directory of hashed certificate files. More information can
43 be found in :meth:`ssl.SSLContext.load_verify_locations`.
44
45 .. warning::
46 If neither *cafile* nor *capath* is specified, an HTTPS request
47 will not do any verification of the server's certificate.
48
Senthil Kumaran21c71ba2012-03-13 19:47:51 -070049 This function returns a file-like object that works as a :term:`context manager`,
50 with two additional methods from the :mod:`urllib.response` module
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000051
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000052 * :meth:`geturl` --- return the URL of the resource retrieved,
53 commonly used to determine if a redirect was followed
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000054
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000055 * :meth:`info` --- return the meta-information of the page, such as headers,
Senthil Kumaran13a7eb42010-06-28 17:31:40 +000056 in the form of an :func:`email.message_from_string` instance (see
57 `Quick Reference to HTTP Headers <http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/http.html>`_)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000058
59 Raises :exc:`URLError` on errors.
60
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000061 Note that ``None`` may be returned if no handler handles the request (though
62 the default installed global :class:`OpenerDirector` uses
63 :class:`UnknownHandler` to ensure this never happens).
64
Senthil Kumarana51a1b32009-10-18 01:42:33 +000065 In addition, default installed :class:`ProxyHandler` makes sure the requests
66 are handled through the proxy when they are set.
67
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000068 The legacy ``urllib.urlopen`` function from Python 2.6 and earlier has been
69 discontinued; :func:`urlopen` corresponds to the old ``urllib2.urlopen``.
70 Proxy handling, which was done by passing a dictionary parameter to
71 ``urllib.urlopen``, can be obtained by using :class:`ProxyHandler` objects.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000072
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000073 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
74 *cafile* and *capath* were added.
75
Antoine Pitroud5323212010-10-22 18:19:07 +000076 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
77 HTTPS virtual hosts are now supported if possible (that is, if
78 :data:`ssl.HAS_SNI` is true).
79
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +000080 .. versionadded:: 3.2
81 *data* can be an iterable object.
82
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000083.. function:: install_opener(opener)
84
85 Install an :class:`OpenerDirector` instance as the default global opener.
86 Installing an opener is only necessary if you want urlopen to use that opener;
87 otherwise, simply call :meth:`OpenerDirector.open` instead of :func:`urlopen`.
88 The code does not check for a real :class:`OpenerDirector`, and any class with
89 the appropriate interface will work.
90
91
92.. function:: build_opener([handler, ...])
93
94 Return an :class:`OpenerDirector` instance, which chains the handlers in the
95 order given. *handler*\s can be either instances of :class:`BaseHandler`, or
96 subclasses of :class:`BaseHandler` (in which case it must be possible to call
97 the constructor without any parameters). Instances of the following classes
98 will be in front of the *handler*\s, unless the *handler*\s contain them,
99 instances of them or subclasses of them: :class:`ProxyHandler`,
100 :class:`UnknownHandler`, :class:`HTTPHandler`, :class:`HTTPDefaultErrorHandler`,
101 :class:`HTTPRedirectHandler`, :class:`FTPHandler`, :class:`FileHandler`,
102 :class:`HTTPErrorProcessor`.
103
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000104 If the Python installation has SSL support (i.e., if the :mod:`ssl` module
105 can be imported), :class:`HTTPSHandler` will also be added.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000106
Georg Brandle6bcc912008-05-12 18:05:20 +0000107 A :class:`BaseHandler` subclass may also change its :attr:`handler_order`
Senthil Kumarana6bac952011-07-04 11:28:30 -0700108 attribute to modify its position in the handlers list.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000109
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000110
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000111.. function:: pathname2url(path)
Christian Heimes292d3512008-02-03 16:51:08 +0000112
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000113 Convert the pathname *path* from the local syntax for a path to the form used in
114 the path component of a URL. This does not produce a complete URL. The return
115 value will already be quoted using the :func:`quote` function.
Christian Heimes292d3512008-02-03 16:51:08 +0000116
117
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000118.. function:: url2pathname(path)
119
Senthil Kumaranf0769e82010-08-09 19:53:52 +0000120 Convert the path component *path* from a percent-encoded URL to the local syntax for a
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000121 path. This does not accept a complete URL. This function uses :func:`unquote`
122 to decode *path*.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000123
Senthil Kumaran7e557a62010-02-26 00:53:23 +0000124.. function:: getproxies()
125
126 This helper function returns a dictionary of scheme to proxy server URL
Senthil Kumaran19d85c22012-01-11 01:29:08 +0800127 mappings. It scans the environment for variables named ``<scheme>_proxy``,
128 in a case insensitive approach, for all operating systems first, and when it
129 cannot find it, looks for proxy information from Mac OSX System
130 Configuration for Mac OS X and Windows Systems Registry for Windows.
Senthil Kumaran7e557a62010-02-26 00:53:23 +0000131
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000132
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000133The following classes are provided:
134
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800135.. class:: Request(url, data=None, headers={}, origin_req_host=None, unverifiable=False, method=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000136
137 This class is an abstraction of a URL request.
138
139 *url* should be a string containing a valid URL.
140
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000141 *data* may be a string specifying additional data to send to the
142 server, or ``None`` if no such data is needed. Currently HTTP
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800143 requests are the only ones that use *data*, in order to choose between
144 ``'GET'`` and ``'POST'`` when *method* is not specified.
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000145 *data* should be a buffer in the standard
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000146 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format. The
Georg Brandl7fe2c4a2008-12-05 07:32:56 +0000147 :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function takes a mapping or sequence
148 of 2-tuples and returns a string in this format.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000149
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000150 *headers* should be a dictionary, and will be treated as if
151 :meth:`add_header` was called with each key and value as arguments.
152 This is often used to "spoof" the ``User-Agent`` header, which is
153 used by a browser to identify itself -- some HTTP servers only
154 allow requests coming from common browsers as opposed to scripts.
155 For example, Mozilla Firefox may identify itself as ``"Mozilla/5.0
156 (X11; U; Linux i686) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11"``, while
157 :mod:`urllib`'s default user agent string is
158 ``"Python-urllib/2.6"`` (on Python 2.6).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000159
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800160 The following two arguments, *origin_req_host* and *unverifiable*,
161 are only of interest for correct handling of third-party HTTP cookies:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000162
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000163 *origin_req_host* should be the request-host of the origin
164 transaction, as defined by :rfc:`2965`. It defaults to
165 ``http.cookiejar.request_host(self)``. This is the host name or IP
166 address of the original request that was initiated by the user.
167 For example, if the request is for an image in an HTML document,
168 this should be the request-host of the request for the page
Georg Brandl24420152008-05-26 16:32:26 +0000169 containing the image.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000170
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000171 *unverifiable* should indicate whether the request is unverifiable,
172 as defined by RFC 2965. It defaults to False. An unverifiable
173 request is one whose URL the user did not have the option to
174 approve. For example, if the request is for an image in an HTML
175 document, and the user had no option to approve the automatic
176 fetching of the image, this should be true.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000177
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800178 *method* should be a string that indicates the HTTP request method that
179 will be used (e.g. ``'HEAD'``). Its value is stored in the
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800180 :attr:`~Request.method` attribute and is used by :meth:`get_method()`.
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800181
182 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
183 :attr:`Request.method` argument is added to the Request class.
184
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000185
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000186.. class:: OpenerDirector()
187
188 The :class:`OpenerDirector` class opens URLs via :class:`BaseHandler`\ s chained
189 together. It manages the chaining of handlers, and recovery from errors.
190
191
192.. class:: BaseHandler()
193
194 This is the base class for all registered handlers --- and handles only the
195 simple mechanics of registration.
196
197
198.. class:: HTTPDefaultErrorHandler()
199
200 A class which defines a default handler for HTTP error responses; all responses
201 are turned into :exc:`HTTPError` exceptions.
202
203
204.. class:: HTTPRedirectHandler()
205
206 A class to handle redirections.
207
208
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000209.. class:: HTTPCookieProcessor(cookiejar=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000210
211 A class to handle HTTP Cookies.
212
213
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000214.. class:: ProxyHandler(proxies=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000215
216 Cause requests to go through a proxy. If *proxies* is given, it must be a
217 dictionary mapping protocol names to URLs of proxies. The default is to read the
218 list of proxies from the environment variables :envvar:`<protocol>_proxy`.
Senthil Kumarana51a1b32009-10-18 01:42:33 +0000219 If no proxy environment variables are set, in a Windows environment, proxy
220 settings are obtained from the registry's Internet Settings section and in a
221 Mac OS X environment, proxy information is retrieved from the OS X System
222 Configuration Framework.
223
Christian Heimese25f35e2008-03-20 10:49:03 +0000224 To disable autodetected proxy pass an empty dictionary.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000225
226
227.. class:: HTTPPasswordMgr()
228
229 Keep a database of ``(realm, uri) -> (user, password)`` mappings.
230
231
232.. class:: HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
233
234 Keep a database of ``(realm, uri) -> (user, password)`` mappings. A realm of
235 ``None`` is considered a catch-all realm, which is searched if no other realm
236 fits.
237
238
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000239.. class:: AbstractBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000240
241 This is a mixin class that helps with HTTP authentication, both to the remote
242 host and to a proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be something that is
243 compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
244 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
245 supported.
246
247
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000248.. class:: HTTPBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000249
Senthil Kumaran4de00a22011-05-11 21:17:57 +0800250 Handle authentication with the remote host. *password_mgr*, if given, should
251 be something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to
252 section :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must
253 be supported. HTTPBasicAuthHandler will raise a :exc:`ValueError` when
254 presented with a wrong Authentication scheme.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000255
256
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000257.. class:: ProxyBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000258
259 Handle authentication with the proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
260 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
261 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
262 supported.
263
264
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000265.. class:: AbstractDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000266
267 This is a mixin class that helps with HTTP authentication, both to the remote
268 host and to a proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be something that is
269 compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
270 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
271 supported.
272
273
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000274.. class:: HTTPDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000275
Senthil Kumaran4de00a22011-05-11 21:17:57 +0800276 Handle authentication with the remote host. *password_mgr*, if given, should
277 be something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to
278 section :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must
279 be supported. When both Digest Authentication Handler and Basic
280 Authentication Handler are both added, Digest Authentication is always tried
281 first. If the Digest Authentication returns a 40x response again, it is sent
282 to Basic Authentication handler to Handle. This Handler method will raise a
283 :exc:`ValueError` when presented with an authentication scheme other than
284 Digest or Basic.
285
Ezio Melottie9c7d6c2011-05-12 01:10:57 +0300286 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
287 Raise :exc:`ValueError` on unsupported Authentication Scheme.
Senthil Kumaran4de00a22011-05-11 21:17:57 +0800288
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000289
290
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000291.. class:: ProxyDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000292
293 Handle authentication with the proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
294 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
295 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
296 supported.
297
298
299.. class:: HTTPHandler()
300
301 A class to handle opening of HTTP URLs.
302
303
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000304.. class:: HTTPSHandler(debuglevel=0, context=None, check_hostname=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000305
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000306 A class to handle opening of HTTPS URLs. *context* and *check_hostname*
307 have the same meaning as in :class:`http.client.HTTPSConnection`.
308
309 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
310 *context* and *check_hostname* were added.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000311
312
313.. class:: FileHandler()
314
315 Open local files.
316
317
318.. class:: FTPHandler()
319
320 Open FTP URLs.
321
322
323.. class:: CacheFTPHandler()
324
325 Open FTP URLs, keeping a cache of open FTP connections to minimize delays.
326
327
328.. class:: UnknownHandler()
329
330 A catch-all class to handle unknown URLs.
331
332
Senthil Kumaraned270fa2011-07-18 06:42:46 +0800333.. class:: HTTPErrorProcessor()
334
335 Process HTTP error responses.
336
337
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000338.. _request-objects:
339
340Request Objects
341---------------
342
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000343The following methods describe :class:`Request`'s public interface,
344and so all may be overridden in subclasses. It also defines several
345public attributes that can be used by clients to inspect the parsed
346request.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000347
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000348.. attribute:: Request.full_url
349
350 The original URL passed to the constructor.
351
352.. attribute:: Request.type
353
354 The URI scheme.
355
356.. attribute:: Request.host
357
358 The URI authority, typically a host, but may also contain a port
359 separated by a colon.
360
361.. attribute:: Request.origin_req_host
362
363 The original host for the request, without port.
364
365.. attribute:: Request.selector
366
367 The URI path. If the :class:`Request` uses a proxy, then selector
368 will be the full url that is passed to the proxy.
369
370.. attribute:: Request.data
371
372 The entity body for the request, or None if not specified.
373
374.. attribute:: Request.unverifiable
375
376 boolean, indicates whether the request is unverifiable as defined
377 by RFC 2965.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000378
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800379.. attribute:: Request.method
380
381 The HTTP request method to use. This value is used by
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800382 :meth:`~Request.get_method` to override the computed HTTP request
383 method that would otherwise be returned. This attribute is initialized with
384 the value of the *method* argument passed to the constructor.
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800385
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800386 .. versionadded:: 3.3
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800387
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000388.. method:: Request.add_data(data)
389
390 Set the :class:`Request` data to *data*. This is ignored by all handlers except
391 HTTP handlers --- and there it should be a byte string, and will change the
392 request to be ``POST`` rather than ``GET``.
393
394
395.. method:: Request.get_method()
396
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800397 Return a string indicating the HTTP request method. If
398 :attr:`Request.method` is not ``None``, return its value, otherwise return
399 ``'GET'`` if :attr:`Request.data` is ``None``, or ``'POST'`` if it's not.
400 This is only meaningful for HTTP requests.
401
Florent Xicluna95483b62011-10-19 11:44:51 +0200402 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800403 get_method now looks at the value of :attr:`Request.method`.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000404
405
406.. method:: Request.has_data()
407
408 Return whether the instance has a non-\ ``None`` data.
409
410
411.. method:: Request.get_data()
412
413 Return the instance's data.
414
415
416.. method:: Request.add_header(key, val)
417
418 Add another header to the request. Headers are currently ignored by all
419 handlers except HTTP handlers, where they are added to the list of headers sent
420 to the server. Note that there cannot be more than one header with the same
421 name, and later calls will overwrite previous calls in case the *key* collides.
422 Currently, this is no loss of HTTP functionality, since all headers which have
423 meaning when used more than once have a (header-specific) way of gaining the
424 same functionality using only one header.
425
426
427.. method:: Request.add_unredirected_header(key, header)
428
429 Add a header that will not be added to a redirected request.
430
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000431
432.. method:: Request.has_header(header)
433
434 Return whether the instance has the named header (checks both regular and
435 unredirected).
436
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000437
438.. method:: Request.get_full_url()
439
440 Return the URL given in the constructor.
441
442
443.. method:: Request.get_type()
444
445 Return the type of the URL --- also known as the scheme.
446
447
448.. method:: Request.get_host()
449
450 Return the host to which a connection will be made.
451
452
453.. method:: Request.get_selector()
454
455 Return the selector --- the part of the URL that is sent to the server.
456
457
458.. method:: Request.set_proxy(host, type)
459
460 Prepare the request by connecting to a proxy server. The *host* and *type* will
461 replace those of the instance, and the instance's selector will be the original
462 URL given in the constructor.
463
464
465.. method:: Request.get_origin_req_host()
466
467 Return the request-host of the origin transaction, as defined by :rfc:`2965`.
468 See the documentation for the :class:`Request` constructor.
469
470
471.. method:: Request.is_unverifiable()
472
473 Return whether the request is unverifiable, as defined by RFC 2965. See the
474 documentation for the :class:`Request` constructor.
475
476
477.. _opener-director-objects:
478
479OpenerDirector Objects
480----------------------
481
482:class:`OpenerDirector` instances have the following methods:
483
484
485.. method:: OpenerDirector.add_handler(handler)
486
487 *handler* should be an instance of :class:`BaseHandler`. The following methods
488 are searched, and added to the possible chains (note that HTTP errors are a
489 special case).
490
491 * :meth:`protocol_open` --- signal that the handler knows how to open *protocol*
492 URLs.
493
494 * :meth:`http_error_type` --- signal that the handler knows how to handle HTTP
495 errors with HTTP error code *type*.
496
497 * :meth:`protocol_error` --- signal that the handler knows how to handle errors
498 from (non-\ ``http``) *protocol*.
499
500 * :meth:`protocol_request` --- signal that the handler knows how to pre-process
501 *protocol* requests.
502
503 * :meth:`protocol_response` --- signal that the handler knows how to
504 post-process *protocol* responses.
505
506
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000507.. method:: OpenerDirector.open(url, data=None[, timeout])
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000508
509 Open the given *url* (which can be a request object or a string), optionally
Alexandre Vassalotti5f8ced22008-05-16 00:03:33 +0000510 passing the given *data*. Arguments, return values and exceptions raised are
511 the same as those of :func:`urlopen` (which simply calls the :meth:`open`
512 method on the currently installed global :class:`OpenerDirector`). The
513 optional *timeout* parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for blocking
Georg Brandlf78e02b2008-06-10 17:40:04 +0000514 operations like the connection attempt (if not specified, the global default
Georg Brandl325524e2010-05-21 20:57:33 +0000515 timeout setting will be used). The timeout feature actually works only for
Senthil Kumaranc08d9072010-10-05 18:46:56 +0000516 HTTP, HTTPS and FTP connections).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000517
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000518
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000519.. method:: OpenerDirector.error(proto, *args)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000520
521 Handle an error of the given protocol. This will call the registered error
522 handlers for the given protocol with the given arguments (which are protocol
523 specific). The HTTP protocol is a special case which uses the HTTP response
524 code to determine the specific error handler; refer to the :meth:`http_error_\*`
525 methods of the handler classes.
526
527 Return values and exceptions raised are the same as those of :func:`urlopen`.
528
529OpenerDirector objects open URLs in three stages:
530
531The order in which these methods are called within each stage is determined by
532sorting the handler instances.
533
534#. Every handler with a method named like :meth:`protocol_request` has that
535 method called to pre-process the request.
536
537#. Handlers with a method named like :meth:`protocol_open` are called to handle
538 the request. This stage ends when a handler either returns a non-\ :const:`None`
539 value (ie. a response), or raises an exception (usually :exc:`URLError`).
540 Exceptions are allowed to propagate.
541
542 In fact, the above algorithm is first tried for methods named
543 :meth:`default_open`. If all such methods return :const:`None`, the algorithm
544 is repeated for methods named like :meth:`protocol_open`. If all such methods
545 return :const:`None`, the algorithm is repeated for methods named
546 :meth:`unknown_open`.
547
548 Note that the implementation of these methods may involve calls of the parent
Georg Brandla5eacee2010-07-23 16:55:26 +0000549 :class:`OpenerDirector` instance's :meth:`~OpenerDirector.open` and
550 :meth:`~OpenerDirector.error` methods.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000551
552#. Every handler with a method named like :meth:`protocol_response` has that
553 method called to post-process the response.
554
555
556.. _base-handler-objects:
557
558BaseHandler Objects
559-------------------
560
561:class:`BaseHandler` objects provide a couple of methods that are directly
562useful, and others that are meant to be used by derived classes. These are
563intended for direct use:
564
565
566.. method:: BaseHandler.add_parent(director)
567
568 Add a director as parent.
569
570
571.. method:: BaseHandler.close()
572
573 Remove any parents.
574
Senthil Kumarana6bac952011-07-04 11:28:30 -0700575The following attribute and methods should only be used by classes derived from
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000576:class:`BaseHandler`.
577
578.. note::
579
580 The convention has been adopted that subclasses defining
581 :meth:`protocol_request` or :meth:`protocol_response` methods are named
582 :class:`\*Processor`; all others are named :class:`\*Handler`.
583
584
585.. attribute:: BaseHandler.parent
586
587 A valid :class:`OpenerDirector`, which can be used to open using a different
588 protocol, or handle errors.
589
590
591.. method:: BaseHandler.default_open(req)
592
593 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
594 define it if they want to catch all URLs.
595
596 This method, if implemented, will be called by the parent
597 :class:`OpenerDirector`. It should return a file-like object as described in
598 the return value of the :meth:`open` of :class:`OpenerDirector`, or ``None``.
599 It should raise :exc:`URLError`, unless a truly exceptional thing happens (for
600 example, :exc:`MemoryError` should not be mapped to :exc:`URLError`).
601
602 This method will be called before any protocol-specific open method.
603
604
605.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_open(req)
606 :noindex:
607
608 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
609 define it if they want to handle URLs with the given protocol.
610
611 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
612 Return values should be the same as for :meth:`default_open`.
613
614
615.. method:: BaseHandler.unknown_open(req)
616
617 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
618 define it if they want to catch all URLs with no specific registered handler to
619 open it.
620
621 This method, if implemented, will be called by the :attr:`parent`
622 :class:`OpenerDirector`. Return values should be the same as for
623 :meth:`default_open`.
624
625
626.. method:: BaseHandler.http_error_default(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
627
628 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
629 override it if they intend to provide a catch-all for otherwise unhandled HTTP
630 errors. It will be called automatically by the :class:`OpenerDirector` getting
631 the error, and should not normally be called in other circumstances.
632
633 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object, *fp* will be a file-like object with
634 the HTTP error body, *code* will be the three-digit code of the error, *msg*
635 will be the user-visible explanation of the code and *hdrs* will be a mapping
636 object with the headers of the error.
637
638 Return values and exceptions raised should be the same as those of
639 :func:`urlopen`.
640
641
642.. method:: BaseHandler.http_error_nnn(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
643
644 *nnn* should be a three-digit HTTP error code. This method is also not defined
645 in :class:`BaseHandler`, but will be called, if it exists, on an instance of a
646 subclass, when an HTTP error with code *nnn* occurs.
647
648 Subclasses should override this method to handle specific HTTP errors.
649
650 Arguments, return values and exceptions raised should be the same as for
651 :meth:`http_error_default`.
652
653
654.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_request(req)
655 :noindex:
656
657 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
658 define it if they want to pre-process requests of the given protocol.
659
660 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
661 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object. The return value should be a
662 :class:`Request` object.
663
664
665.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_response(req, response)
666 :noindex:
667
668 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
669 define it if they want to post-process responses of the given protocol.
670
671 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
672 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object. *response* will be an object
673 implementing the same interface as the return value of :func:`urlopen`. The
674 return value should implement the same interface as the return value of
675 :func:`urlopen`.
676
677
678.. _http-redirect-handler:
679
680HTTPRedirectHandler Objects
681---------------------------
682
683.. note::
684
685 Some HTTP redirections require action from this module's client code. If this
686 is the case, :exc:`HTTPError` is raised. See :rfc:`2616` for details of the
687 precise meanings of the various redirection codes.
688
guido@google.coma119df92011-03-29 11:41:02 -0700689 An :class:`HTTPError` exception raised as a security consideration if the
690 HTTPRedirectHandler is presented with a redirected url which is not an HTTP,
691 HTTPS or FTP url.
692
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000693
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000694.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.redirect_request(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs, newurl)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000695
696 Return a :class:`Request` or ``None`` in response to a redirect. This is called
697 by the default implementations of the :meth:`http_error_30\*` methods when a
698 redirection is received from the server. If a redirection should take place,
699 return a new :class:`Request` to allow :meth:`http_error_30\*` to perform the
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000700 redirect to *newurl*. Otherwise, raise :exc:`HTTPError` if no other handler
701 should try to handle this URL, or return ``None`` if you can't but another
702 handler might.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000703
704 .. note::
705
706 The default implementation of this method does not strictly follow :rfc:`2616`,
707 which says that 301 and 302 responses to ``POST`` requests must not be
708 automatically redirected without confirmation by the user. In reality, browsers
709 do allow automatic redirection of these responses, changing the POST to a
710 ``GET``, and the default implementation reproduces this behavior.
711
712
713.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_301(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
714
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000715 Redirect to the ``Location:`` or ``URI:`` URL. This method is called by the
716 parent :class:`OpenerDirector` when getting an HTTP 'moved permanently' response.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000717
718
719.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_302(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
720
721 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'found' response.
722
723
724.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_303(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
725
726 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'see other' response.
727
728
729.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_307(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
730
731 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'temporary redirect'
732 response.
733
734
735.. _http-cookie-processor:
736
737HTTPCookieProcessor Objects
738---------------------------
739
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000740:class:`HTTPCookieProcessor` instances have one attribute:
741
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000742.. attribute:: HTTPCookieProcessor.cookiejar
743
Georg Brandl24420152008-05-26 16:32:26 +0000744 The :class:`http.cookiejar.CookieJar` in which cookies are stored.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000745
746
747.. _proxy-handler:
748
749ProxyHandler Objects
750--------------------
751
752
753.. method:: ProxyHandler.protocol_open(request)
754 :noindex:
755
756 The :class:`ProxyHandler` will have a method :meth:`protocol_open` for every
757 *protocol* which has a proxy in the *proxies* dictionary given in the
758 constructor. The method will modify requests to go through the proxy, by
759 calling ``request.set_proxy()``, and call the next handler in the chain to
760 actually execute the protocol.
761
762
763.. _http-password-mgr:
764
765HTTPPasswordMgr Objects
766-----------------------
767
768These methods are available on :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr` and
769:class:`HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm` objects.
770
771
772.. method:: HTTPPasswordMgr.add_password(realm, uri, user, passwd)
773
774 *uri* can be either a single URI, or a sequence of URIs. *realm*, *user* and
775 *passwd* must be strings. This causes ``(user, passwd)`` to be used as
776 authentication tokens when authentication for *realm* and a super-URI of any of
777 the given URIs is given.
778
779
780.. method:: HTTPPasswordMgr.find_user_password(realm, authuri)
781
782 Get user/password for given realm and URI, if any. This method will return
783 ``(None, None)`` if there is no matching user/password.
784
785 For :class:`HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm` objects, the realm ``None`` will be
786 searched if the given *realm* has no matching user/password.
787
788
789.. _abstract-basic-auth-handler:
790
791AbstractBasicAuthHandler Objects
792--------------------------------
793
794
795.. method:: AbstractBasicAuthHandler.http_error_auth_reqed(authreq, host, req, headers)
796
797 Handle an authentication request by getting a user/password pair, and re-trying
798 the request. *authreq* should be the name of the header where the information
799 about the realm is included in the request, *host* specifies the URL and path to
800 authenticate for, *req* should be the (failed) :class:`Request` object, and
801 *headers* should be the error headers.
802
803 *host* is either an authority (e.g. ``"python.org"``) or a URL containing an
804 authority component (e.g. ``"http://python.org/"``). In either case, the
805 authority must not contain a userinfo component (so, ``"python.org"`` and
806 ``"python.org:80"`` are fine, ``"joe:password@python.org"`` is not).
807
808
809.. _http-basic-auth-handler:
810
811HTTPBasicAuthHandler Objects
812----------------------------
813
814
815.. method:: HTTPBasicAuthHandler.http_error_401(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
816
817 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
818
819
820.. _proxy-basic-auth-handler:
821
822ProxyBasicAuthHandler Objects
823-----------------------------
824
825
826.. method:: ProxyBasicAuthHandler.http_error_407(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
827
828 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
829
830
831.. _abstract-digest-auth-handler:
832
833AbstractDigestAuthHandler Objects
834---------------------------------
835
836
837.. method:: AbstractDigestAuthHandler.http_error_auth_reqed(authreq, host, req, headers)
838
839 *authreq* should be the name of the header where the information about the realm
840 is included in the request, *host* should be the host to authenticate to, *req*
841 should be the (failed) :class:`Request` object, and *headers* should be the
842 error headers.
843
844
845.. _http-digest-auth-handler:
846
847HTTPDigestAuthHandler Objects
848-----------------------------
849
850
851.. method:: HTTPDigestAuthHandler.http_error_401(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
852
853 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
854
855
856.. _proxy-digest-auth-handler:
857
858ProxyDigestAuthHandler Objects
859------------------------------
860
861
862.. method:: ProxyDigestAuthHandler.http_error_407(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
863
864 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
865
866
867.. _http-handler-objects:
868
869HTTPHandler Objects
870-------------------
871
872
873.. method:: HTTPHandler.http_open(req)
874
875 Send an HTTP request, which can be either GET or POST, depending on
876 ``req.has_data()``.
877
878
879.. _https-handler-objects:
880
881HTTPSHandler Objects
882--------------------
883
884
885.. method:: HTTPSHandler.https_open(req)
886
887 Send an HTTPS request, which can be either GET or POST, depending on
888 ``req.has_data()``.
889
890
891.. _file-handler-objects:
892
893FileHandler Objects
894-------------------
895
896
897.. method:: FileHandler.file_open(req)
898
899 Open the file locally, if there is no host name, or the host name is
Senthil Kumaran383c32d2010-10-14 11:57:35 +0000900 ``'localhost'``.
901
902 This method is applicable only for local hostnames. When a remote hostname
903 is given, an :exc:`URLError` is raised.
904
905.. versionchanged:: 3.2
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000906
907
908.. _ftp-handler-objects:
909
910FTPHandler Objects
911------------------
912
913
914.. method:: FTPHandler.ftp_open(req)
915
916 Open the FTP file indicated by *req*. The login is always done with empty
917 username and password.
918
919
920.. _cacheftp-handler-objects:
921
922CacheFTPHandler Objects
923-----------------------
924
925:class:`CacheFTPHandler` objects are :class:`FTPHandler` objects with the
926following additional methods:
927
928
929.. method:: CacheFTPHandler.setTimeout(t)
930
931 Set timeout of connections to *t* seconds.
932
933
934.. method:: CacheFTPHandler.setMaxConns(m)
935
936 Set maximum number of cached connections to *m*.
937
938
939.. _unknown-handler-objects:
940
941UnknownHandler Objects
942----------------------
943
944
945.. method:: UnknownHandler.unknown_open()
946
947 Raise a :exc:`URLError` exception.
948
949
950.. _http-error-processor-objects:
951
952HTTPErrorProcessor Objects
953--------------------------
954
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +0800955.. method:: HTTPErrorProcessor.http_response()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000956
957 Process HTTP error responses.
958
959 For 200 error codes, the response object is returned immediately.
960
961 For non-200 error codes, this simply passes the job on to the
962 :meth:`protocol_error_code` handler methods, via :meth:`OpenerDirector.error`.
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +0000963 Eventually, :class:`HTTPDefaultErrorHandler` will raise an
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000964 :exc:`HTTPError` if no other handler handles the error.
965
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +0000966
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +0800967.. method:: HTTPErrorProcessor.https_response()
968
Senthil Kumaran3e7f33f2011-07-18 07:17:20 +0800969 Process HTTPS error responses.
970
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +0800971 The behavior is same as :meth:`http_response`.
972
973
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +0000974.. _urllib-request-examples:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000975
976Examples
977--------
978
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000979This example gets the python.org main page and displays the first 300 bytes of
Georg Brandlbdc55ab2010-04-20 18:15:54 +0000980it. ::
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000981
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000982 >>> import urllib.request
983 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/')
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000984 >>> print(f.read(300))
985 b'<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
986 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">\n\n\n<html
987 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">\n\n<head>\n
988 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />\n
989 <title>Python Programming '
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +0000990
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000991Note that urlopen returns a bytes object. This is because there is no way
992for urlopen to automatically determine the encoding of the byte stream
993it receives from the http server. In general, a program will decode
994the returned bytes object to string once it determines or guesses
995the appropriate encoding.
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +0000996
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000997The following W3C document, http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset , lists
998the various ways in which a (X)HTML or a XML document could have specified its
999encoding information.
1000
Senthil Kumaran21c71ba2012-03-13 19:47:51 -07001001As the python.org website uses *utf-8* encoding as specified in it's meta tag, we
1002will use the same for decoding the bytes object. ::
1003
1004 >>> with urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/') as f:
1005 ... print(f.read(100).decode('utf-8'))
1006 ...
1007 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1008 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtm
1009
1010It is also possible to achieve the same result without using the
1011:term:`context manager` approach. ::
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001012
1013 >>> import urllib.request
1014 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/')
Georg Brandlfe4fd832010-05-21 21:01:32 +00001015 >>> print(f.read(100).decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001016 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1017 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtm
1018
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001019In the following example, we are sending a data-stream to the stdin of a CGI
1020and reading the data it returns to us. Note that this example will only work
1021when the Python installation supports SSL. ::
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001022
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001023 >>> import urllib.request
1024 >>> req = urllib.request.Request(url='https://localhost/cgi-bin/test.cgi',
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001025 ... data=b'This data is passed to stdin of the CGI')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001026 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001027 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001028 Got Data: "This data is passed to stdin of the CGI"
1029
1030The code for the sample CGI used in the above example is::
1031
1032 #!/usr/bin/env python
1033 import sys
1034 data = sys.stdin.read()
Collin Winterc79461b2007-09-01 23:34:30 +00001035 print('Content-type: text-plain\n\nGot Data: "%s"' % data)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001036
1037Use of Basic HTTP Authentication::
1038
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001039 import urllib.request
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001040 # Create an OpenerDirector with support for Basic HTTP Authentication...
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001041 auth_handler = urllib.request.HTTPBasicAuthHandler()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001042 auth_handler.add_password(realm='PDQ Application',
1043 uri='https://mahler:8092/site-updates.py',
1044 user='klem',
1045 passwd='kadidd!ehopper')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001046 opener = urllib.request.build_opener(auth_handler)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001047 # ...and install it globally so it can be used with urlopen.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001048 urllib.request.install_opener(opener)
1049 urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.example.com/login.html')
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001050
1051:func:`build_opener` provides many handlers by default, including a
1052:class:`ProxyHandler`. By default, :class:`ProxyHandler` uses the environment
1053variables named ``<scheme>_proxy``, where ``<scheme>`` is the URL scheme
1054involved. For example, the :envvar:`http_proxy` environment variable is read to
1055obtain the HTTP proxy's URL.
1056
1057This example replaces the default :class:`ProxyHandler` with one that uses
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +00001058programmatically-supplied proxy URLs, and adds proxy authorization support with
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001059:class:`ProxyBasicAuthHandler`. ::
1060
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001061 proxy_handler = urllib.request.ProxyHandler({'http': 'http://www.example.com:3128/'})
Senthil Kumaran037f8362009-12-24 02:24:37 +00001062 proxy_auth_handler = urllib.request.ProxyBasicAuthHandler()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001063 proxy_auth_handler.add_password('realm', 'host', 'username', 'password')
1064
Senthil Kumaran037f8362009-12-24 02:24:37 +00001065 opener = urllib.request.build_opener(proxy_handler, proxy_auth_handler)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001066 # This time, rather than install the OpenerDirector, we use it directly:
1067 opener.open('http://www.example.com/login.html')
1068
1069Adding HTTP headers:
1070
1071Use the *headers* argument to the :class:`Request` constructor, or::
1072
Georg Brandl029986a2008-06-23 11:44:14 +00001073 import urllib.request
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001074 req = urllib.request.Request('http://www.example.com/')
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001075 req.add_header('Referer', 'http://www.python.org/')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001076 r = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001077
1078:class:`OpenerDirector` automatically adds a :mailheader:`User-Agent` header to
1079every :class:`Request`. To change this::
1080
Georg Brandl029986a2008-06-23 11:44:14 +00001081 import urllib.request
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001082 opener = urllib.request.build_opener()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001083 opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0')]
1084 opener.open('http://www.example.com/')
1085
1086Also, remember that a few standard headers (:mailheader:`Content-Length`,
1087:mailheader:`Content-Type` and :mailheader:`Host`) are added when the
1088:class:`Request` is passed to :func:`urlopen` (or :meth:`OpenerDirector.open`).
1089
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001090.. _urllib-examples:
1091
1092Here is an example session that uses the ``GET`` method to retrieve a URL
1093containing parameters::
1094
1095 >>> import urllib.request
1096 >>> import urllib.parse
1097 >>> params = urllib.parse.urlencode({'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'bacon': 0})
1098 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen("http://www.musi-cal.com/cgi-bin/query?%s" % params)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001099 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001100
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001101The following example uses the ``POST`` method instead. Note that params output
1102from urlencode is encoded to bytes before it is sent to urlopen as data::
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001103
1104 >>> import urllib.request
1105 >>> import urllib.parse
1106 >>> params = urllib.parse.urlencode({'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'bacon': 0})
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001107 >>> params = params.encode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001108 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen("http://www.musi-cal.com/cgi-bin/query", params)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001109 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001110
1111The following example uses an explicitly specified HTTP proxy, overriding
1112environment settings::
1113
1114 >>> import urllib.request
1115 >>> proxies = {'http': 'http://proxy.example.com:8080/'}
1116 >>> opener = urllib.request.FancyURLopener(proxies)
1117 >>> f = opener.open("http://www.python.org")
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001118 >>> f.read().decode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001119
1120The following example uses no proxies at all, overriding environment settings::
1121
1122 >>> import urllib.request
1123 >>> opener = urllib.request.FancyURLopener({})
1124 >>> f = opener.open("http://www.python.org/")
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001125 >>> f.read().decode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001126
1127
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001128Legacy interface
1129----------------
1130
1131The following functions and classes are ported from the Python 2 module
1132``urllib`` (as opposed to ``urllib2``). They might become deprecated at
1133some point in the future.
1134
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001135.. function:: urlretrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None, data=None)
1136
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001137 Copy a network object denoted by a URL to a local file. If the URL
1138 points to a local file, the object will not be copied unless filename is supplied.
1139 Return a tuple ``(filename, headers)`` where *filename* is the
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001140 local file name under which the object can be found, and *headers* is whatever
1141 the :meth:`info` method of the object returned by :func:`urlopen` returned (for
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001142 a remote object). Exceptions are the same as for :func:`urlopen`.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001143
1144 The second argument, if present, specifies the file location to copy to (if
1145 absent, the location will be a tempfile with a generated name). The third
1146 argument, if present, is a hook function that will be called once on
1147 establishment of the network connection and once after each block read
1148 thereafter. The hook will be passed three arguments; a count of blocks
1149 transferred so far, a block size in bytes, and the total size of the file. The
1150 third argument may be ``-1`` on older FTP servers which do not return a file
1151 size in response to a retrieval request.
1152
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001153 The following example illustrates the most common usage scenario::
1154
1155 >>> import urllib.request
1156 >>> local_filename, headers = urllib.request.urlretrieve('http://python.org/')
1157 >>> html = open(local_filename)
1158 >>> html.close()
1159
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001160 If the *url* uses the :file:`http:` scheme identifier, the optional *data*
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001161 argument may be given to specify a ``POST`` request (normally the request
1162 type is ``GET``). The *data* argument must in standard
1163 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format; see the
1164 :func:`urlencode` function below.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001165
1166 :func:`urlretrieve` will raise :exc:`ContentTooShortError` when it detects that
1167 the amount of data available was less than the expected amount (which is the
1168 size reported by a *Content-Length* header). This can occur, for example, when
1169 the download is interrupted.
1170
1171 The *Content-Length* is treated as a lower bound: if there's more data to read,
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001172 urlretrieve reads more data, but if less data is available, it raises the
1173 exception.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001174
1175 You can still retrieve the downloaded data in this case, it is stored in the
1176 :attr:`content` attribute of the exception instance.
1177
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001178 If no *Content-Length* header was supplied, urlretrieve can not check the size
1179 of the data it has downloaded, and just returns it. In this case you just have
1180 to assume that the download was successful.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001181
1182.. function:: urlcleanup()
1183
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001184 Cleans up temporary files that may have been left behind by previous
1185 calls to :func:`urlretrieve`.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001186
1187.. class:: URLopener(proxies=None, **x509)
1188
1189 Base class for opening and reading URLs. Unless you need to support opening
1190 objects using schemes other than :file:`http:`, :file:`ftp:`, or :file:`file:`,
1191 you probably want to use :class:`FancyURLopener`.
1192
1193 By default, the :class:`URLopener` class sends a :mailheader:`User-Agent` header
1194 of ``urllib/VVV``, where *VVV* is the :mod:`urllib` version number.
1195 Applications can define their own :mailheader:`User-Agent` header by subclassing
1196 :class:`URLopener` or :class:`FancyURLopener` and setting the class attribute
1197 :attr:`version` to an appropriate string value in the subclass definition.
1198
1199 The optional *proxies* parameter should be a dictionary mapping scheme names to
1200 proxy URLs, where an empty dictionary turns proxies off completely. Its default
1201 value is ``None``, in which case environmental proxy settings will be used if
1202 present, as discussed in the definition of :func:`urlopen`, above.
1203
1204 Additional keyword parameters, collected in *x509*, may be used for
1205 authentication of the client when using the :file:`https:` scheme. The keywords
1206 *key_file* and *cert_file* are supported to provide an SSL key and certificate;
1207 both are needed to support client authentication.
1208
Antoine Pitrou4272d6a2011-10-12 19:10:10 +02001209 :class:`URLopener` objects will raise an :exc:`OSError` exception if the server
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001210 returns an error code.
1211
1212 .. method:: open(fullurl, data=None)
1213
1214 Open *fullurl* using the appropriate protocol. This method sets up cache and
1215 proxy information, then calls the appropriate open method with its input
1216 arguments. If the scheme is not recognized, :meth:`open_unknown` is called.
1217 The *data* argument has the same meaning as the *data* argument of
1218 :func:`urlopen`.
1219
1220
1221 .. method:: open_unknown(fullurl, data=None)
1222
1223 Overridable interface to open unknown URL types.
1224
1225
1226 .. method:: retrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None, data=None)
1227
1228 Retrieves the contents of *url* and places it in *filename*. The return value
1229 is a tuple consisting of a local filename and either a
1230 :class:`email.message.Message` object containing the response headers (for remote
1231 URLs) or ``None`` (for local URLs). The caller must then open and read the
1232 contents of *filename*. If *filename* is not given and the URL refers to a
1233 local file, the input filename is returned. If the URL is non-local and
1234 *filename* is not given, the filename is the output of :func:`tempfile.mktemp`
1235 with a suffix that matches the suffix of the last path component of the input
1236 URL. If *reporthook* is given, it must be a function accepting three numeric
1237 parameters. It will be called after each chunk of data is read from the
1238 network. *reporthook* is ignored for local URLs.
1239
1240 If the *url* uses the :file:`http:` scheme identifier, the optional *data*
1241 argument may be given to specify a ``POST`` request (normally the request type
1242 is ``GET``). The *data* argument must in standard
1243 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format; see the :func:`urlencode`
1244 function below.
1245
1246
1247 .. attribute:: version
1248
1249 Variable that specifies the user agent of the opener object. To get
1250 :mod:`urllib` to tell servers that it is a particular user agent, set this in a
1251 subclass as a class variable or in the constructor before calling the base
1252 constructor.
1253
1254
1255.. class:: FancyURLopener(...)
1256
1257 :class:`FancyURLopener` subclasses :class:`URLopener` providing default handling
1258 for the following HTTP response codes: 301, 302, 303, 307 and 401. For the 30x
1259 response codes listed above, the :mailheader:`Location` header is used to fetch
1260 the actual URL. For 401 response codes (authentication required), basic HTTP
1261 authentication is performed. For the 30x response codes, recursion is bounded
1262 by the value of the *maxtries* attribute, which defaults to 10.
1263
1264 For all other response codes, the method :meth:`http_error_default` is called
1265 which you can override in subclasses to handle the error appropriately.
1266
1267 .. note::
1268
1269 According to the letter of :rfc:`2616`, 301 and 302 responses to POST requests
1270 must not be automatically redirected without confirmation by the user. In
1271 reality, browsers do allow automatic redirection of these responses, changing
1272 the POST to a GET, and :mod:`urllib` reproduces this behaviour.
1273
1274 The parameters to the constructor are the same as those for :class:`URLopener`.
1275
1276 .. note::
1277
1278 When performing basic authentication, a :class:`FancyURLopener` instance calls
1279 its :meth:`prompt_user_passwd` method. The default implementation asks the
1280 users for the required information on the controlling terminal. A subclass may
1281 override this method to support more appropriate behavior if needed.
1282
1283 The :class:`FancyURLopener` class offers one additional method that should be
1284 overloaded to provide the appropriate behavior:
1285
1286 .. method:: prompt_user_passwd(host, realm)
1287
1288 Return information needed to authenticate the user at the given host in the
1289 specified security realm. The return value should be a tuple, ``(user,
1290 password)``, which can be used for basic authentication.
1291
1292 The implementation prompts for this information on the terminal; an application
1293 should override this method to use an appropriate interaction model in the local
1294 environment.
1295
1296
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001297:mod:`urllib.request` Restrictions
1298----------------------------------
1299
1300 .. index::
1301 pair: HTTP; protocol
1302 pair: FTP; protocol
1303
Florent Xicluna83386da2011-10-28 22:03:55 +02001304* Currently, only the following protocols are supported: HTTP (versions 0.9 and
1305 1.0), FTP, and local files.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001306
Florent Xicluna305bb662011-10-28 22:14:41 +02001307* The caching feature of :func:`urlretrieve` has been disabled until someone
1308 finds the time to hack proper processing of Expiration time headers.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001309
1310* There should be a function to query whether a particular URL is in the cache.
1311
1312* For backward compatibility, if a URL appears to point to a local file but the
1313 file can't be opened, the URL is re-interpreted using the FTP protocol. This
1314 can sometimes cause confusing error messages.
1315
1316* The :func:`urlopen` and :func:`urlretrieve` functions can cause arbitrarily
1317 long delays while waiting for a network connection to be set up. This means
1318 that it is difficult to build an interactive Web client using these functions
1319 without using threads.
1320
1321 .. index::
1322 single: HTML
1323 pair: HTTP; protocol
1324
1325* The data returned by :func:`urlopen` or :func:`urlretrieve` is the raw data
1326 returned by the server. This may be binary data (such as an image), plain text
1327 or (for example) HTML. The HTTP protocol provides type information in the reply
1328 header, which can be inspected by looking at the :mailheader:`Content-Type`
1329 header. If the returned data is HTML, you can use the module
1330 :mod:`html.parser` to parse it.
1331
1332 .. index:: single: FTP
1333
1334* The code handling the FTP protocol cannot differentiate between a file and a
1335 directory. This can lead to unexpected behavior when attempting to read a URL
1336 that points to a file that is not accessible. If the URL ends in a ``/``, it is
1337 assumed to refer to a directory and will be handled accordingly. But if an
1338 attempt to read a file leads to a 550 error (meaning the URL cannot be found or
1339 is not accessible, often for permission reasons), then the path is treated as a
1340 directory in order to handle the case when a directory is specified by a URL but
1341 the trailing ``/`` has been left off. This can cause misleading results when
1342 you try to fetch a file whose read permissions make it inaccessible; the FTP
1343 code will try to read it, fail with a 550 error, and then perform a directory
1344 listing for the unreadable file. If fine-grained control is needed, consider
Éric Araujo09eb9802011-03-20 18:30:37 +01001345 using the :mod:`ftplib` module, subclassing :class:`FancyURLopener`, or changing
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001346 *_urlopener* to meet your needs.
1347
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001348
1349
Georg Brandl8175dae2010-11-29 14:53:15 +00001350:mod:`urllib.response` --- Response classes used by urllib
1351==========================================================
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001352
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001353.. module:: urllib.response
1354 :synopsis: Response classes used by urllib.
1355
1356The :mod:`urllib.response` module defines functions and classes which define a
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001357minimal file like interface, including ``read()`` and ``readline()``. The
Ezio Melottib9701422010-11-18 19:48:27 +00001358typical response object is an addinfourl instance, which defines an ``info()``
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001359method and that returns headers and a ``geturl()`` method that returns the url.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001360Functions defined by this module are used internally by the
1361:mod:`urllib.request` module.
1362