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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
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -07005 :synopsis: Extensible library for opening URLs.
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>
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -07008.. sectionauthor:: Senthil Kumaran <senthil@uthcode.com>
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00009
10
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +000011The :mod:`urllib.request` module defines functions and classes which help in
12opening URLs (mostly HTTP) in a complex world --- basic and digest
13authentication, redirections, cookies and more.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000014
Antoine Pitrou79ecd762010-09-29 11:24:21 +000015
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +000016The :mod:`urllib.request` module defines the following functions:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000017
18
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000019.. function:: urlopen(url, data=None[, timeout], *, cafile=None, capath=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000020
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000021 Open the URL *url*, which can be either a string or a
22 :class:`Request` object.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000023
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -070024 *data* must be a bytes object specifying additional data to be sent to the
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +000025 server, or ``None`` if no such data is needed. *data* may also be an
26 iterable object and in that case Content-Length value must be specified in
27 the headers. Currently HTTP requests are the only ones that use *data*; the
28 HTTP request will be a POST instead of a GET when the *data* parameter is
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -070029 provided.
30
31 *data* should be a buffer in the standard
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000032 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format. The
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +000033 :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function takes a mapping or sequence of
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -070034 2-tuples and returns a string in this format. It should be encoded to bytes
35 before being used as the *data* parameter. The charset parameter in
36 ``Content-Type`` header may be used to specify the encoding. If charset
37 parameter is not sent with the Content-Type header, the server following the
38 HTTP 1.1 recommendation may assume that the data is encoded in ISO-8859-1
39 encoding. It is advisable to use charset parameter with encoding used in
40 ``Content-Type`` header with the :class:`Request`.
41
42 urllib.request module uses HTTP/1.1 and includes ``Connection:close`` header
43 in its HTTP requests.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000044
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000045 The optional *timeout* parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for
46 blocking operations like the connection attempt (if not specified,
47 the global default timeout setting will be used). This actually
Senthil Kumaranc08d9072010-10-05 18:46:56 +000048 only works for HTTP, HTTPS and FTP connections.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000049
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000050 The optional *cafile* and *capath* parameters specify a set of trusted
51 CA certificates for HTTPS requests. *cafile* should point to a single
52 file containing a bundle of CA certificates, whereas *capath* should
53 point to a directory of hashed certificate files. More information can
54 be found in :meth:`ssl.SSLContext.load_verify_locations`.
55
56 .. warning::
57 If neither *cafile* nor *capath* is specified, an HTTPS request
58 will not do any verification of the server's certificate.
59
Senthil Kumaran21c71ba2012-03-13 19:47:51 -070060 This function returns a file-like object that works as a :term:`context manager`,
61 with two additional methods from the :mod:`urllib.response` module
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000062
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000063 * :meth:`geturl` --- return the URL of the resource retrieved,
64 commonly used to determine if a redirect was followed
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000065
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000066 * :meth:`info` --- return the meta-information of the page, such as headers,
Senthil Kumaran13a7eb42010-06-28 17:31:40 +000067 in the form of an :func:`email.message_from_string` instance (see
68 `Quick Reference to HTTP Headers <http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/http.html>`_)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000069
70 Raises :exc:`URLError` on errors.
71
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000072 Note that ``None`` may be returned if no handler handles the request (though
73 the default installed global :class:`OpenerDirector` uses
74 :class:`UnknownHandler` to ensure this never happens).
75
Senthil Kumarana51a1b32009-10-18 01:42:33 +000076 In addition, default installed :class:`ProxyHandler` makes sure the requests
77 are handled through the proxy when they are set.
78
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000079 The legacy ``urllib.urlopen`` function from Python 2.6 and earlier has been
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -070080 discontinued; :func:`urllib.request.urlopen` corresponds to the old
81 ``urllib2.urlopen``. Proxy handling, which was done by passing a dictionary
82 parameter to ``urllib.urlopen``, can be obtained by using
83 :class:`ProxyHandler` objects.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000084
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000085 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
86 *cafile* and *capath* were added.
87
Antoine Pitroud5323212010-10-22 18:19:07 +000088 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
89 HTTPS virtual hosts are now supported if possible (that is, if
90 :data:`ssl.HAS_SNI` is true).
91
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +000092 .. versionadded:: 3.2
93 *data* can be an iterable object.
94
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000095.. function:: install_opener(opener)
96
97 Install an :class:`OpenerDirector` instance as the default global opener.
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -070098 Installing an opener is only necessary if you want urlopen to use that
99 opener; otherwise, simply call :meth:`OpenerDirector.open` instead of
100 :func:`~urllib.request.urlopen`. The code does not check for a real
101 :class:`OpenerDirector`, and any class with the appropriate interface will
102 work.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000103
104
105.. function:: build_opener([handler, ...])
106
107 Return an :class:`OpenerDirector` instance, which chains the handlers in the
108 order given. *handler*\s can be either instances of :class:`BaseHandler`, or
109 subclasses of :class:`BaseHandler` (in which case it must be possible to call
110 the constructor without any parameters). Instances of the following classes
111 will be in front of the *handler*\s, unless the *handler*\s contain them,
112 instances of them or subclasses of them: :class:`ProxyHandler`,
113 :class:`UnknownHandler`, :class:`HTTPHandler`, :class:`HTTPDefaultErrorHandler`,
114 :class:`HTTPRedirectHandler`, :class:`FTPHandler`, :class:`FileHandler`,
115 :class:`HTTPErrorProcessor`.
116
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000117 If the Python installation has SSL support (i.e., if the :mod:`ssl` module
118 can be imported), :class:`HTTPSHandler` will also be added.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000119
Georg Brandle6bcc912008-05-12 18:05:20 +0000120 A :class:`BaseHandler` subclass may also change its :attr:`handler_order`
Senthil Kumarana6bac952011-07-04 11:28:30 -0700121 attribute to modify its position in the handlers list.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000122
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000123
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000124.. function:: pathname2url(path)
Christian Heimes292d3512008-02-03 16:51:08 +0000125
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000126 Convert the pathname *path* from the local syntax for a path to the form used in
127 the path component of a URL. This does not produce a complete URL. The return
128 value will already be quoted using the :func:`quote` function.
Christian Heimes292d3512008-02-03 16:51:08 +0000129
130
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000131.. function:: url2pathname(path)
132
Senthil Kumaranf0769e82010-08-09 19:53:52 +0000133 Convert the path component *path* from a percent-encoded URL to the local syntax for a
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000134 path. This does not accept a complete URL. This function uses :func:`unquote`
135 to decode *path*.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000136
Senthil Kumaran7e557a62010-02-26 00:53:23 +0000137.. function:: getproxies()
138
139 This helper function returns a dictionary of scheme to proxy server URL
Senthil Kumaran19d85c22012-01-11 01:29:08 +0800140 mappings. It scans the environment for variables named ``<scheme>_proxy``,
141 in a case insensitive approach, for all operating systems first, and when it
142 cannot find it, looks for proxy information from Mac OSX System
143 Configuration for Mac OS X and Windows Systems Registry for Windows.
Senthil Kumaran7e557a62010-02-26 00:53:23 +0000144
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000145
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000146The following classes are provided:
147
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000148.. class:: Request(url, data=None, headers={}, origin_req_host=None, unverifiable=False)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000149
150 This class is an abstraction of a URL request.
151
152 *url* should be a string containing a valid URL.
153
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700154 *data* must be a bytes object specifying additional data to send to the
Senthil Kumaran87684e62012-03-14 18:08:13 -0700155 server, or ``None`` if no such data is needed. Currently HTTP requests are
156 the only ones that use *data*; the HTTP request will be a POST instead of a
157 GET when the *data* parameter is provided. *data* should be a buffer in the
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700158 standard :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format.
159
160 The :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function takes a mapping or sequence of
161 2-tuples and returns a string in this format. It should be encoded to bytes
162 before being used as the *data* parameter. The charset parameter in
163 ``Content-Type`` header may be used to specify the encoding. If charset
164 parameter is not sent with the Content-Type header, the server following the
165 HTTP 1.1 recommendation may assume that the data is encoded in ISO-8859-1
166 encoding. It is advisable to use charset parameter with encoding used in
167 ``Content-Type`` header with the :class:`Request`.
168
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000169
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000170 *headers* should be a dictionary, and will be treated as if
171 :meth:`add_header` was called with each key and value as arguments.
172 This is often used to "spoof" the ``User-Agent`` header, which is
173 used by a browser to identify itself -- some HTTP servers only
174 allow requests coming from common browsers as opposed to scripts.
175 For example, Mozilla Firefox may identify itself as ``"Mozilla/5.0
176 (X11; U; Linux i686) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11"``, while
177 :mod:`urllib`'s default user agent string is
178 ``"Python-urllib/2.6"`` (on Python 2.6).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000179
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700180 An example of using ``Content-Type`` header with *data* argument would be
181 sending a dictionary like ``{"Content-Type":" application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=utf-8"}``
182
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000183 The final two arguments are only of interest for correct handling
184 of third-party HTTP cookies:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000185
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000186 *origin_req_host* should be the request-host of the origin
187 transaction, as defined by :rfc:`2965`. It defaults to
188 ``http.cookiejar.request_host(self)``. This is the host name or IP
189 address of the original request that was initiated by the user.
190 For example, if the request is for an image in an HTML document,
191 this should be the request-host of the request for the page
Georg Brandl24420152008-05-26 16:32:26 +0000192 containing the image.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000193
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000194 *unverifiable* should indicate whether the request is unverifiable,
195 as defined by RFC 2965. It defaults to False. An unverifiable
196 request is one whose URL the user did not have the option to
197 approve. For example, if the request is for an image in an HTML
198 document, and the user had no option to approve the automatic
199 fetching of the image, this should be true.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000200
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000201
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000202.. class:: OpenerDirector()
203
204 The :class:`OpenerDirector` class opens URLs via :class:`BaseHandler`\ s chained
205 together. It manages the chaining of handlers, and recovery from errors.
206
207
208.. class:: BaseHandler()
209
210 This is the base class for all registered handlers --- and handles only the
211 simple mechanics of registration.
212
213
214.. class:: HTTPDefaultErrorHandler()
215
216 A class which defines a default handler for HTTP error responses; all responses
217 are turned into :exc:`HTTPError` exceptions.
218
219
220.. class:: HTTPRedirectHandler()
221
222 A class to handle redirections.
223
224
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000225.. class:: HTTPCookieProcessor(cookiejar=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000226
227 A class to handle HTTP Cookies.
228
229
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000230.. class:: ProxyHandler(proxies=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000231
232 Cause requests to go through a proxy. If *proxies* is given, it must be a
233 dictionary mapping protocol names to URLs of proxies. The default is to read the
234 list of proxies from the environment variables :envvar:`<protocol>_proxy`.
Senthil Kumarana51a1b32009-10-18 01:42:33 +0000235 If no proxy environment variables are set, in a Windows environment, proxy
236 settings are obtained from the registry's Internet Settings section and in a
237 Mac OS X environment, proxy information is retrieved from the OS X System
238 Configuration Framework.
239
Christian Heimese25f35e2008-03-20 10:49:03 +0000240 To disable autodetected proxy pass an empty dictionary.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000241
242
243.. class:: HTTPPasswordMgr()
244
245 Keep a database of ``(realm, uri) -> (user, password)`` mappings.
246
247
248.. class:: HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
249
250 Keep a database of ``(realm, uri) -> (user, password)`` mappings. A realm of
251 ``None`` is considered a catch-all realm, which is searched if no other realm
252 fits.
253
254
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000255.. class:: AbstractBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000256
257 This is a mixin class that helps with HTTP authentication, both to the remote
258 host and to a proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be something that is
259 compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
260 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
261 supported.
262
263
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000264.. class:: HTTPBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000265
266 Handle authentication with the remote host. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
267 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
268 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
269 supported.
270
271
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000272.. class:: ProxyBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000273
274 Handle authentication with the proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
275 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
276 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
277 supported.
278
279
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000280.. class:: AbstractDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000281
282 This is a mixin class that helps with HTTP authentication, both to the remote
283 host and to a proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be something that is
284 compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
285 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
286 supported.
287
288
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000289.. class:: HTTPDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000290
291 Handle authentication with the remote host. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
292 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
293 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
294 supported.
295
296
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000297.. class:: ProxyDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000298
299 Handle authentication with the proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
300 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
301 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
302 supported.
303
304
305.. class:: HTTPHandler()
306
307 A class to handle opening of HTTP URLs.
308
309
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000310.. class:: HTTPSHandler(debuglevel=0, context=None, check_hostname=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000311
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000312 A class to handle opening of HTTPS URLs. *context* and *check_hostname*
313 have the same meaning as in :class:`http.client.HTTPSConnection`.
314
315 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
316 *context* and *check_hostname* were added.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000317
318
319.. class:: FileHandler()
320
321 Open local files.
322
323
324.. class:: FTPHandler()
325
326 Open FTP URLs.
327
328
329.. class:: CacheFTPHandler()
330
331 Open FTP URLs, keeping a cache of open FTP connections to minimize delays.
332
333
334.. class:: UnknownHandler()
335
336 A catch-all class to handle unknown URLs.
337
338
Senthil Kumaraned270fa2011-07-18 06:42:46 +0800339.. class:: HTTPErrorProcessor()
340
341 Process HTTP error responses.
342
343
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000344.. _request-objects:
345
346Request Objects
347---------------
348
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000349The following methods describe :class:`Request`'s public interface,
350and so all may be overridden in subclasses. It also defines several
351public attributes that can be used by clients to inspect the parsed
352request.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000353
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000354.. attribute:: Request.full_url
355
356 The original URL passed to the constructor.
357
358.. attribute:: Request.type
359
360 The URI scheme.
361
362.. attribute:: Request.host
363
364 The URI authority, typically a host, but may also contain a port
365 separated by a colon.
366
367.. attribute:: Request.origin_req_host
368
369 The original host for the request, without port.
370
371.. attribute:: Request.selector
372
373 The URI path. If the :class:`Request` uses a proxy, then selector
374 will be the full url that is passed to the proxy.
375
376.. attribute:: Request.data
377
378 The entity body for the request, or None if not specified.
379
380.. attribute:: Request.unverifiable
381
382 boolean, indicates whether the request is unverifiable as defined
383 by RFC 2965.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000384
385.. method:: Request.add_data(data)
386
387 Set the :class:`Request` data to *data*. This is ignored by all handlers except
388 HTTP handlers --- and there it should be a byte string, and will change the
389 request to be ``POST`` rather than ``GET``.
390
391
392.. method:: Request.get_method()
393
394 Return a string indicating the HTTP request method. This is only meaningful for
395 HTTP requests, and currently always returns ``'GET'`` or ``'POST'``.
396
397
398.. method:: Request.has_data()
399
400 Return whether the instance has a non-\ ``None`` data.
401
402
403.. method:: Request.get_data()
404
405 Return the instance's data.
406
407
408.. method:: Request.add_header(key, val)
409
410 Add another header to the request. Headers are currently ignored by all
411 handlers except HTTP handlers, where they are added to the list of headers sent
412 to the server. Note that there cannot be more than one header with the same
413 name, and later calls will overwrite previous calls in case the *key* collides.
414 Currently, this is no loss of HTTP functionality, since all headers which have
415 meaning when used more than once have a (header-specific) way of gaining the
416 same functionality using only one header.
417
418
419.. method:: Request.add_unredirected_header(key, header)
420
421 Add a header that will not be added to a redirected request.
422
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000423
424.. method:: Request.has_header(header)
425
426 Return whether the instance has the named header (checks both regular and
427 unredirected).
428
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000429
430.. method:: Request.get_full_url()
431
432 Return the URL given in the constructor.
433
434
435.. method:: Request.get_type()
436
437 Return the type of the URL --- also known as the scheme.
438
439
440.. method:: Request.get_host()
441
442 Return the host to which a connection will be made.
443
444
445.. method:: Request.get_selector()
446
447 Return the selector --- the part of the URL that is sent to the server.
448
449
450.. method:: Request.set_proxy(host, type)
451
452 Prepare the request by connecting to a proxy server. The *host* and *type* will
453 replace those of the instance, and the instance's selector will be the original
454 URL given in the constructor.
455
456
457.. method:: Request.get_origin_req_host()
458
459 Return the request-host of the origin transaction, as defined by :rfc:`2965`.
460 See the documentation for the :class:`Request` constructor.
461
462
463.. method:: Request.is_unverifiable()
464
465 Return whether the request is unverifiable, as defined by RFC 2965. See the
466 documentation for the :class:`Request` constructor.
467
468
469.. _opener-director-objects:
470
471OpenerDirector Objects
472----------------------
473
474:class:`OpenerDirector` instances have the following methods:
475
476
477.. method:: OpenerDirector.add_handler(handler)
478
479 *handler* should be an instance of :class:`BaseHandler`. The following methods
480 are searched, and added to the possible chains (note that HTTP errors are a
481 special case).
482
483 * :meth:`protocol_open` --- signal that the handler knows how to open *protocol*
484 URLs.
485
486 * :meth:`http_error_type` --- signal that the handler knows how to handle HTTP
487 errors with HTTP error code *type*.
488
489 * :meth:`protocol_error` --- signal that the handler knows how to handle errors
490 from (non-\ ``http``) *protocol*.
491
492 * :meth:`protocol_request` --- signal that the handler knows how to pre-process
493 *protocol* requests.
494
495 * :meth:`protocol_response` --- signal that the handler knows how to
496 post-process *protocol* responses.
497
498
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000499.. method:: OpenerDirector.open(url, data=None[, timeout])
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000500
501 Open the given *url* (which can be a request object or a string), optionally
Alexandre Vassalotti5f8ced22008-05-16 00:03:33 +0000502 passing the given *data*. Arguments, return values and exceptions raised are
503 the same as those of :func:`urlopen` (which simply calls the :meth:`open`
504 method on the currently installed global :class:`OpenerDirector`). The
505 optional *timeout* parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for blocking
Georg Brandlf78e02b2008-06-10 17:40:04 +0000506 operations like the connection attempt (if not specified, the global default
Georg Brandl325524e2010-05-21 20:57:33 +0000507 timeout setting will be used). The timeout feature actually works only for
Senthil Kumaranc08d9072010-10-05 18:46:56 +0000508 HTTP, HTTPS and FTP connections).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000509
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000510
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000511.. method:: OpenerDirector.error(proto, *args)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000512
513 Handle an error of the given protocol. This will call the registered error
514 handlers for the given protocol with the given arguments (which are protocol
515 specific). The HTTP protocol is a special case which uses the HTTP response
516 code to determine the specific error handler; refer to the :meth:`http_error_\*`
517 methods of the handler classes.
518
519 Return values and exceptions raised are the same as those of :func:`urlopen`.
520
521OpenerDirector objects open URLs in three stages:
522
523The order in which these methods are called within each stage is determined by
524sorting the handler instances.
525
526#. Every handler with a method named like :meth:`protocol_request` has that
527 method called to pre-process the request.
528
529#. Handlers with a method named like :meth:`protocol_open` are called to handle
530 the request. This stage ends when a handler either returns a non-\ :const:`None`
531 value (ie. a response), or raises an exception (usually :exc:`URLError`).
532 Exceptions are allowed to propagate.
533
534 In fact, the above algorithm is first tried for methods named
535 :meth:`default_open`. If all such methods return :const:`None`, the algorithm
536 is repeated for methods named like :meth:`protocol_open`. If all such methods
537 return :const:`None`, the algorithm is repeated for methods named
538 :meth:`unknown_open`.
539
540 Note that the implementation of these methods may involve calls of the parent
Georg Brandla5eacee2010-07-23 16:55:26 +0000541 :class:`OpenerDirector` instance's :meth:`~OpenerDirector.open` and
542 :meth:`~OpenerDirector.error` methods.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000543
544#. Every handler with a method named like :meth:`protocol_response` has that
545 method called to post-process the response.
546
547
548.. _base-handler-objects:
549
550BaseHandler Objects
551-------------------
552
553:class:`BaseHandler` objects provide a couple of methods that are directly
554useful, and others that are meant to be used by derived classes. These are
555intended for direct use:
556
557
558.. method:: BaseHandler.add_parent(director)
559
560 Add a director as parent.
561
562
563.. method:: BaseHandler.close()
564
565 Remove any parents.
566
Senthil Kumarana6bac952011-07-04 11:28:30 -0700567The following attribute and methods should only be used by classes derived from
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000568:class:`BaseHandler`.
569
570.. note::
571
572 The convention has been adopted that subclasses defining
573 :meth:`protocol_request` or :meth:`protocol_response` methods are named
574 :class:`\*Processor`; all others are named :class:`\*Handler`.
575
576
577.. attribute:: BaseHandler.parent
578
579 A valid :class:`OpenerDirector`, which can be used to open using a different
580 protocol, or handle errors.
581
582
583.. method:: BaseHandler.default_open(req)
584
585 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
586 define it if they want to catch all URLs.
587
588 This method, if implemented, will be called by the parent
589 :class:`OpenerDirector`. It should return a file-like object as described in
590 the return value of the :meth:`open` of :class:`OpenerDirector`, or ``None``.
591 It should raise :exc:`URLError`, unless a truly exceptional thing happens (for
592 example, :exc:`MemoryError` should not be mapped to :exc:`URLError`).
593
594 This method will be called before any protocol-specific open method.
595
596
597.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_open(req)
598 :noindex:
599
600 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
601 define it if they want to handle URLs with the given protocol.
602
603 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
604 Return values should be the same as for :meth:`default_open`.
605
606
607.. method:: BaseHandler.unknown_open(req)
608
609 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
610 define it if they want to catch all URLs with no specific registered handler to
611 open it.
612
613 This method, if implemented, will be called by the :attr:`parent`
614 :class:`OpenerDirector`. Return values should be the same as for
615 :meth:`default_open`.
616
617
618.. method:: BaseHandler.http_error_default(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
619
620 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
621 override it if they intend to provide a catch-all for otherwise unhandled HTTP
622 errors. It will be called automatically by the :class:`OpenerDirector` getting
623 the error, and should not normally be called in other circumstances.
624
625 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object, *fp* will be a file-like object with
626 the HTTP error body, *code* will be the three-digit code of the error, *msg*
627 will be the user-visible explanation of the code and *hdrs* will be a mapping
628 object with the headers of the error.
629
630 Return values and exceptions raised should be the same as those of
631 :func:`urlopen`.
632
633
634.. method:: BaseHandler.http_error_nnn(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
635
636 *nnn* should be a three-digit HTTP error code. This method is also not defined
637 in :class:`BaseHandler`, but will be called, if it exists, on an instance of a
638 subclass, when an HTTP error with code *nnn* occurs.
639
640 Subclasses should override this method to handle specific HTTP errors.
641
642 Arguments, return values and exceptions raised should be the same as for
643 :meth:`http_error_default`.
644
645
646.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_request(req)
647 :noindex:
648
649 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
650 define it if they want to pre-process requests of the given protocol.
651
652 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
653 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object. The return value should be a
654 :class:`Request` object.
655
656
657.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_response(req, response)
658 :noindex:
659
660 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
661 define it if they want to post-process responses of the given protocol.
662
663 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
664 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object. *response* will be an object
665 implementing the same interface as the return value of :func:`urlopen`. The
666 return value should implement the same interface as the return value of
667 :func:`urlopen`.
668
669
670.. _http-redirect-handler:
671
672HTTPRedirectHandler Objects
673---------------------------
674
675.. note::
676
677 Some HTTP redirections require action from this module's client code. If this
678 is the case, :exc:`HTTPError` is raised. See :rfc:`2616` for details of the
679 precise meanings of the various redirection codes.
680
guido@google.coma119df92011-03-29 11:41:02 -0700681 An :class:`HTTPError` exception raised as a security consideration if the
682 HTTPRedirectHandler is presented with a redirected url which is not an HTTP,
683 HTTPS or FTP url.
684
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000685
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000686.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.redirect_request(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs, newurl)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000687
688 Return a :class:`Request` or ``None`` in response to a redirect. This is called
689 by the default implementations of the :meth:`http_error_30\*` methods when a
690 redirection is received from the server. If a redirection should take place,
691 return a new :class:`Request` to allow :meth:`http_error_30\*` to perform the
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000692 redirect to *newurl*. Otherwise, raise :exc:`HTTPError` if no other handler
693 should try to handle this URL, or return ``None`` if you can't but another
694 handler might.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000695
696 .. note::
697
698 The default implementation of this method does not strictly follow :rfc:`2616`,
699 which says that 301 and 302 responses to ``POST`` requests must not be
700 automatically redirected without confirmation by the user. In reality, browsers
701 do allow automatic redirection of these responses, changing the POST to a
702 ``GET``, and the default implementation reproduces this behavior.
703
704
705.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_301(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
706
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000707 Redirect to the ``Location:`` or ``URI:`` URL. This method is called by the
708 parent :class:`OpenerDirector` when getting an HTTP 'moved permanently' response.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000709
710
711.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_302(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
712
713 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'found' response.
714
715
716.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_303(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
717
718 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'see other' response.
719
720
721.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_307(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
722
723 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'temporary redirect'
724 response.
725
726
727.. _http-cookie-processor:
728
729HTTPCookieProcessor Objects
730---------------------------
731
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000732:class:`HTTPCookieProcessor` instances have one attribute:
733
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000734.. attribute:: HTTPCookieProcessor.cookiejar
735
Georg Brandl24420152008-05-26 16:32:26 +0000736 The :class:`http.cookiejar.CookieJar` in which cookies are stored.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000737
738
739.. _proxy-handler:
740
741ProxyHandler Objects
742--------------------
743
744
745.. method:: ProxyHandler.protocol_open(request)
746 :noindex:
747
748 The :class:`ProxyHandler` will have a method :meth:`protocol_open` for every
749 *protocol* which has a proxy in the *proxies* dictionary given in the
750 constructor. The method will modify requests to go through the proxy, by
751 calling ``request.set_proxy()``, and call the next handler in the chain to
752 actually execute the protocol.
753
754
755.. _http-password-mgr:
756
757HTTPPasswordMgr Objects
758-----------------------
759
760These methods are available on :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr` and
761:class:`HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm` objects.
762
763
764.. method:: HTTPPasswordMgr.add_password(realm, uri, user, passwd)
765
766 *uri* can be either a single URI, or a sequence of URIs. *realm*, *user* and
767 *passwd* must be strings. This causes ``(user, passwd)`` to be used as
768 authentication tokens when authentication for *realm* and a super-URI of any of
769 the given URIs is given.
770
771
772.. method:: HTTPPasswordMgr.find_user_password(realm, authuri)
773
774 Get user/password for given realm and URI, if any. This method will return
775 ``(None, None)`` if there is no matching user/password.
776
777 For :class:`HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm` objects, the realm ``None`` will be
778 searched if the given *realm* has no matching user/password.
779
780
781.. _abstract-basic-auth-handler:
782
783AbstractBasicAuthHandler Objects
784--------------------------------
785
786
787.. method:: AbstractBasicAuthHandler.http_error_auth_reqed(authreq, host, req, headers)
788
789 Handle an authentication request by getting a user/password pair, and re-trying
790 the request. *authreq* should be the name of the header where the information
791 about the realm is included in the request, *host* specifies the URL and path to
792 authenticate for, *req* should be the (failed) :class:`Request` object, and
793 *headers* should be the error headers.
794
795 *host* is either an authority (e.g. ``"python.org"``) or a URL containing an
796 authority component (e.g. ``"http://python.org/"``). In either case, the
797 authority must not contain a userinfo component (so, ``"python.org"`` and
798 ``"python.org:80"`` are fine, ``"joe:password@python.org"`` is not).
799
800
801.. _http-basic-auth-handler:
802
803HTTPBasicAuthHandler Objects
804----------------------------
805
806
807.. method:: HTTPBasicAuthHandler.http_error_401(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
808
809 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
810
811
812.. _proxy-basic-auth-handler:
813
814ProxyBasicAuthHandler Objects
815-----------------------------
816
817
818.. method:: ProxyBasicAuthHandler.http_error_407(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
819
820 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
821
822
823.. _abstract-digest-auth-handler:
824
825AbstractDigestAuthHandler Objects
826---------------------------------
827
828
829.. method:: AbstractDigestAuthHandler.http_error_auth_reqed(authreq, host, req, headers)
830
831 *authreq* should be the name of the header where the information about the realm
832 is included in the request, *host* should be the host to authenticate to, *req*
833 should be the (failed) :class:`Request` object, and *headers* should be the
834 error headers.
835
836
837.. _http-digest-auth-handler:
838
839HTTPDigestAuthHandler Objects
840-----------------------------
841
842
843.. method:: HTTPDigestAuthHandler.http_error_401(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
844
845 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
846
847
848.. _proxy-digest-auth-handler:
849
850ProxyDigestAuthHandler Objects
851------------------------------
852
853
854.. method:: ProxyDigestAuthHandler.http_error_407(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
855
856 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
857
858
859.. _http-handler-objects:
860
861HTTPHandler Objects
862-------------------
863
864
865.. method:: HTTPHandler.http_open(req)
866
867 Send an HTTP request, which can be either GET or POST, depending on
868 ``req.has_data()``.
869
870
871.. _https-handler-objects:
872
873HTTPSHandler Objects
874--------------------
875
876
877.. method:: HTTPSHandler.https_open(req)
878
879 Send an HTTPS request, which can be either GET or POST, depending on
880 ``req.has_data()``.
881
882
883.. _file-handler-objects:
884
885FileHandler Objects
886-------------------
887
888
889.. method:: FileHandler.file_open(req)
890
891 Open the file locally, if there is no host name, or the host name is
Senthil Kumaran383c32d2010-10-14 11:57:35 +0000892 ``'localhost'``.
893
894 This method is applicable only for local hostnames. When a remote hostname
895 is given, an :exc:`URLError` is raised.
896
897.. versionchanged:: 3.2
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000898
899
900.. _ftp-handler-objects:
901
902FTPHandler Objects
903------------------
904
905
906.. method:: FTPHandler.ftp_open(req)
907
908 Open the FTP file indicated by *req*. The login is always done with empty
909 username and password.
910
911
912.. _cacheftp-handler-objects:
913
914CacheFTPHandler Objects
915-----------------------
916
917:class:`CacheFTPHandler` objects are :class:`FTPHandler` objects with the
918following additional methods:
919
920
921.. method:: CacheFTPHandler.setTimeout(t)
922
923 Set timeout of connections to *t* seconds.
924
925
926.. method:: CacheFTPHandler.setMaxConns(m)
927
928 Set maximum number of cached connections to *m*.
929
930
931.. _unknown-handler-objects:
932
933UnknownHandler Objects
934----------------------
935
936
937.. method:: UnknownHandler.unknown_open()
938
939 Raise a :exc:`URLError` exception.
940
941
942.. _http-error-processor-objects:
943
944HTTPErrorProcessor Objects
945--------------------------
946
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +0800947.. method:: HTTPErrorProcessor.http_response()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000948
949 Process HTTP error responses.
950
951 For 200 error codes, the response object is returned immediately.
952
953 For non-200 error codes, this simply passes the job on to the
954 :meth:`protocol_error_code` handler methods, via :meth:`OpenerDirector.error`.
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +0000955 Eventually, :class:`HTTPDefaultErrorHandler` will raise an
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000956 :exc:`HTTPError` if no other handler handles the error.
957
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +0000958
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +0800959.. method:: HTTPErrorProcessor.https_response()
960
Senthil Kumaran3e7f33f2011-07-18 07:17:20 +0800961 Process HTTPS error responses.
962
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +0800963 The behavior is same as :meth:`http_response`.
964
965
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +0000966.. _urllib-request-examples:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000967
968Examples
969--------
970
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000971This example gets the python.org main page and displays the first 300 bytes of
Georg Brandlbdc55ab2010-04-20 18:15:54 +0000972it. ::
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000973
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000974 >>> import urllib.request
975 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/')
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000976 >>> print(f.read(300))
977 b'<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
978 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">\n\n\n<html
979 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">\n\n<head>\n
980 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />\n
981 <title>Python Programming '
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +0000982
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000983Note that urlopen returns a bytes object. This is because there is no way
984for urlopen to automatically determine the encoding of the byte stream
985it receives from the http server. In general, a program will decode
986the returned bytes object to string once it determines or guesses
987the appropriate encoding.
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +0000988
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +0000989The following W3C document, http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset , lists
990the various ways in which a (X)HTML or a XML document could have specified its
991encoding information.
992
Senthil Kumaran21c71ba2012-03-13 19:47:51 -0700993As the python.org website uses *utf-8* encoding as specified in it's meta tag, we
994will use the same for decoding the bytes object. ::
995
996 >>> with urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/') as f:
997 ... print(f.read(100).decode('utf-8'))
998 ...
999 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1000 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtm
1001
1002It is also possible to achieve the same result without using the
1003:term:`context manager` approach. ::
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001004
1005 >>> import urllib.request
1006 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/')
Georg Brandlfe4fd832010-05-21 21:01:32 +00001007 >>> print(f.read(100).decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001008 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1009 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtm
1010
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001011In the following example, we are sending a data-stream to the stdin of a CGI
1012and reading the data it returns to us. Note that this example will only work
1013when the Python installation supports SSL. ::
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001014
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001015 >>> import urllib.request
1016 >>> req = urllib.request.Request(url='https://localhost/cgi-bin/test.cgi',
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001017 ... data=b'This data is passed to stdin of the CGI')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001018 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001019 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001020 Got Data: "This data is passed to stdin of the CGI"
1021
1022The code for the sample CGI used in the above example is::
1023
1024 #!/usr/bin/env python
1025 import sys
1026 data = sys.stdin.read()
Collin Winterc79461b2007-09-01 23:34:30 +00001027 print('Content-type: text-plain\n\nGot Data: "%s"' % data)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001028
1029Use of Basic HTTP Authentication::
1030
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001031 import urllib.request
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001032 # Create an OpenerDirector with support for Basic HTTP Authentication...
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001033 auth_handler = urllib.request.HTTPBasicAuthHandler()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001034 auth_handler.add_password(realm='PDQ Application',
1035 uri='https://mahler:8092/site-updates.py',
1036 user='klem',
1037 passwd='kadidd!ehopper')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001038 opener = urllib.request.build_opener(auth_handler)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001039 # ...and install it globally so it can be used with urlopen.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001040 urllib.request.install_opener(opener)
1041 urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.example.com/login.html')
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001042
1043:func:`build_opener` provides many handlers by default, including a
1044:class:`ProxyHandler`. By default, :class:`ProxyHandler` uses the environment
1045variables named ``<scheme>_proxy``, where ``<scheme>`` is the URL scheme
1046involved. For example, the :envvar:`http_proxy` environment variable is read to
1047obtain the HTTP proxy's URL.
1048
1049This example replaces the default :class:`ProxyHandler` with one that uses
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +00001050programmatically-supplied proxy URLs, and adds proxy authorization support with
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001051:class:`ProxyBasicAuthHandler`. ::
1052
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001053 proxy_handler = urllib.request.ProxyHandler({'http': 'http://www.example.com:3128/'})
Senthil Kumaran037f8362009-12-24 02:24:37 +00001054 proxy_auth_handler = urllib.request.ProxyBasicAuthHandler()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001055 proxy_auth_handler.add_password('realm', 'host', 'username', 'password')
1056
Senthil Kumaran037f8362009-12-24 02:24:37 +00001057 opener = urllib.request.build_opener(proxy_handler, proxy_auth_handler)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001058 # This time, rather than install the OpenerDirector, we use it directly:
1059 opener.open('http://www.example.com/login.html')
1060
1061Adding HTTP headers:
1062
1063Use the *headers* argument to the :class:`Request` constructor, or::
1064
Georg Brandl029986a2008-06-23 11:44:14 +00001065 import urllib.request
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001066 req = urllib.request.Request('http://www.example.com/')
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001067 req.add_header('Referer', 'http://www.python.org/')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001068 r = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001069
1070:class:`OpenerDirector` automatically adds a :mailheader:`User-Agent` header to
1071every :class:`Request`. To change this::
1072
Georg Brandl029986a2008-06-23 11:44:14 +00001073 import urllib.request
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001074 opener = urllib.request.build_opener()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001075 opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0')]
1076 opener.open('http://www.example.com/')
1077
1078Also, remember that a few standard headers (:mailheader:`Content-Length`,
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -07001079:mailheader:`Content-Type` without charset parameter and :mailheader:`Host`)
1080are added when the :class:`Request` is passed to :func:`urlopen` (or
1081:meth:`OpenerDirector.open`).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001082
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001083.. _urllib-examples:
1084
1085Here is an example session that uses the ``GET`` method to retrieve a URL
1086containing parameters::
1087
1088 >>> import urllib.request
1089 >>> import urllib.parse
1090 >>> params = urllib.parse.urlencode({'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'bacon': 0})
1091 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen("http://www.musi-cal.com/cgi-bin/query?%s" % params)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001092 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001093
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001094The following example uses the ``POST`` method instead. Note that params output
1095from urlencode is encoded to bytes before it is sent to urlopen as data::
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001096
1097 >>> import urllib.request
1098 >>> import urllib.parse
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -07001099 >>> data = urllib.parse.urlencode({'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'bacon': 0})
1100 >>> data = data.encode('utf-8')
1101 >>> request = urllib.request.Request("http://requestb.in/xrbl82xr")
1102 >>> # adding charset parameter to the Content-Type header.
1103 >>> request.add_header("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=utf-8")
1104 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen(request, data)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001105 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001106
1107The following example uses an explicitly specified HTTP proxy, overriding
1108environment settings::
1109
1110 >>> import urllib.request
1111 >>> proxies = {'http': 'http://proxy.example.com:8080/'}
1112 >>> opener = urllib.request.FancyURLopener(proxies)
1113 >>> f = opener.open("http://www.python.org")
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001114 >>> f.read().decode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001115
1116The following example uses no proxies at all, overriding environment settings::
1117
1118 >>> import urllib.request
1119 >>> opener = urllib.request.FancyURLopener({})
1120 >>> f = opener.open("http://www.python.org/")
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001121 >>> f.read().decode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001122
1123
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001124Legacy interface
1125----------------
1126
1127The following functions and classes are ported from the Python 2 module
1128``urllib`` (as opposed to ``urllib2``). They might become deprecated at
1129some point in the future.
1130
1131
1132.. function:: urlretrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None, data=None)
1133
1134 Copy a network object denoted by a URL to a local file, if necessary. If the URL
1135 points to a local file, or a valid cached copy of the object exists, the object
1136 is not copied. Return a tuple ``(filename, headers)`` where *filename* is the
1137 local file name under which the object can be found, and *headers* is whatever
1138 the :meth:`info` method of the object returned by :func:`urlopen` returned (for
1139 a remote object, possibly cached). Exceptions are the same as for
1140 :func:`urlopen`.
1141
1142 The second argument, if present, specifies the file location to copy to (if
1143 absent, the location will be a tempfile with a generated name). The third
1144 argument, if present, is a hook function that will be called once on
1145 establishment of the network connection and once after each block read
1146 thereafter. The hook will be passed three arguments; a count of blocks
1147 transferred so far, a block size in bytes, and the total size of the file. The
1148 third argument may be ``-1`` on older FTP servers which do not return a file
1149 size in response to a retrieval request.
1150
1151 If the *url* uses the :file:`http:` scheme identifier, the optional *data*
Senthil Kumaran87684e62012-03-14 18:08:13 -07001152 argument may be given to specify a ``POST`` request (normally the request
1153 type is ``GET``). The *data* argument must be a bytes object in standard
1154 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format; see the
1155 :func:`urlencode` function below.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001156
1157 :func:`urlretrieve` will raise :exc:`ContentTooShortError` when it detects that
1158 the amount of data available was less than the expected amount (which is the
1159 size reported by a *Content-Length* header). This can occur, for example, when
1160 the download is interrupted.
1161
1162 The *Content-Length* is treated as a lower bound: if there's more data to read,
Eli Bendersky3384e542011-04-16 15:34:29 +03001163 :func:`urlretrieve` reads more data, but if less data is available, it raises
1164 the exception.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001165
1166 You can still retrieve the downloaded data in this case, it is stored in the
1167 :attr:`content` attribute of the exception instance.
1168
Eli Bendersky3384e542011-04-16 15:34:29 +03001169 If no *Content-Length* header was supplied, :func:`urlretrieve` can not check
1170 the size of the data it has downloaded, and just returns it. In this case
1171 you just have to assume that the download was successful.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001172
1173.. function:: urlcleanup()
1174
1175 Clear the cache that may have been built up by previous calls to
1176 :func:`urlretrieve`.
1177
1178.. class:: URLopener(proxies=None, **x509)
1179
1180 Base class for opening and reading URLs. Unless you need to support opening
1181 objects using schemes other than :file:`http:`, :file:`ftp:`, or :file:`file:`,
1182 you probably want to use :class:`FancyURLopener`.
1183
1184 By default, the :class:`URLopener` class sends a :mailheader:`User-Agent` header
1185 of ``urllib/VVV``, where *VVV* is the :mod:`urllib` version number.
1186 Applications can define their own :mailheader:`User-Agent` header by subclassing
1187 :class:`URLopener` or :class:`FancyURLopener` and setting the class attribute
1188 :attr:`version` to an appropriate string value in the subclass definition.
1189
1190 The optional *proxies* parameter should be a dictionary mapping scheme names to
1191 proxy URLs, where an empty dictionary turns proxies off completely. Its default
1192 value is ``None``, in which case environmental proxy settings will be used if
1193 present, as discussed in the definition of :func:`urlopen`, above.
1194
1195 Additional keyword parameters, collected in *x509*, may be used for
1196 authentication of the client when using the :file:`https:` scheme. The keywords
1197 *key_file* and *cert_file* are supported to provide an SSL key and certificate;
1198 both are needed to support client authentication.
1199
1200 :class:`URLopener` objects will raise an :exc:`IOError` exception if the server
1201 returns an error code.
1202
1203 .. method:: open(fullurl, data=None)
1204
1205 Open *fullurl* using the appropriate protocol. This method sets up cache and
1206 proxy information, then calls the appropriate open method with its input
1207 arguments. If the scheme is not recognized, :meth:`open_unknown` is called.
1208 The *data* argument has the same meaning as the *data* argument of
1209 :func:`urlopen`.
1210
1211
1212 .. method:: open_unknown(fullurl, data=None)
1213
1214 Overridable interface to open unknown URL types.
1215
1216
1217 .. method:: retrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None, data=None)
1218
1219 Retrieves the contents of *url* and places it in *filename*. The return value
1220 is a tuple consisting of a local filename and either a
1221 :class:`email.message.Message` object containing the response headers (for remote
1222 URLs) or ``None`` (for local URLs). The caller must then open and read the
1223 contents of *filename*. If *filename* is not given and the URL refers to a
1224 local file, the input filename is returned. If the URL is non-local and
1225 *filename* is not given, the filename is the output of :func:`tempfile.mktemp`
1226 with a suffix that matches the suffix of the last path component of the input
1227 URL. If *reporthook* is given, it must be a function accepting three numeric
1228 parameters. It will be called after each chunk of data is read from the
1229 network. *reporthook* is ignored for local URLs.
1230
1231 If the *url* uses the :file:`http:` scheme identifier, the optional *data*
1232 argument may be given to specify a ``POST`` request (normally the request type
1233 is ``GET``). The *data* argument must in standard
1234 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format; see the :func:`urlencode`
1235 function below.
1236
1237
1238 .. attribute:: version
1239
1240 Variable that specifies the user agent of the opener object. To get
1241 :mod:`urllib` to tell servers that it is a particular user agent, set this in a
1242 subclass as a class variable or in the constructor before calling the base
1243 constructor.
1244
1245
1246.. class:: FancyURLopener(...)
1247
1248 :class:`FancyURLopener` subclasses :class:`URLopener` providing default handling
1249 for the following HTTP response codes: 301, 302, 303, 307 and 401. For the 30x
1250 response codes listed above, the :mailheader:`Location` header is used to fetch
1251 the actual URL. For 401 response codes (authentication required), basic HTTP
1252 authentication is performed. For the 30x response codes, recursion is bounded
1253 by the value of the *maxtries* attribute, which defaults to 10.
1254
1255 For all other response codes, the method :meth:`http_error_default` is called
1256 which you can override in subclasses to handle the error appropriately.
1257
1258 .. note::
1259
1260 According to the letter of :rfc:`2616`, 301 and 302 responses to POST requests
1261 must not be automatically redirected without confirmation by the user. In
1262 reality, browsers do allow automatic redirection of these responses, changing
1263 the POST to a GET, and :mod:`urllib` reproduces this behaviour.
1264
1265 The parameters to the constructor are the same as those for :class:`URLopener`.
1266
1267 .. note::
1268
1269 When performing basic authentication, a :class:`FancyURLopener` instance calls
1270 its :meth:`prompt_user_passwd` method. The default implementation asks the
1271 users for the required information on the controlling terminal. A subclass may
1272 override this method to support more appropriate behavior if needed.
1273
1274 The :class:`FancyURLopener` class offers one additional method that should be
1275 overloaded to provide the appropriate behavior:
1276
1277 .. method:: prompt_user_passwd(host, realm)
1278
1279 Return information needed to authenticate the user at the given host in the
1280 specified security realm. The return value should be a tuple, ``(user,
1281 password)``, which can be used for basic authentication.
1282
1283 The implementation prompts for this information on the terminal; an application
1284 should override this method to use an appropriate interaction model in the local
1285 environment.
1286
1287
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001288:mod:`urllib.request` Restrictions
1289----------------------------------
1290
1291 .. index::
1292 pair: HTTP; protocol
1293 pair: FTP; protocol
1294
Florent Xicluna83386da2011-10-28 22:03:55 +02001295* Currently, only the following protocols are supported: HTTP (versions 0.9 and
1296 1.0), FTP, and local files.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001297
Florent Xicluna305bb662011-10-28 22:14:41 +02001298* The caching feature of :func:`urlretrieve` has been disabled until someone
1299 finds the time to hack proper processing of Expiration time headers.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001300
1301* There should be a function to query whether a particular URL is in the cache.
1302
1303* For backward compatibility, if a URL appears to point to a local file but the
1304 file can't be opened, the URL is re-interpreted using the FTP protocol. This
1305 can sometimes cause confusing error messages.
1306
1307* The :func:`urlopen` and :func:`urlretrieve` functions can cause arbitrarily
1308 long delays while waiting for a network connection to be set up. This means
1309 that it is difficult to build an interactive Web client using these functions
1310 without using threads.
1311
1312 .. index::
1313 single: HTML
1314 pair: HTTP; protocol
1315
1316* The data returned by :func:`urlopen` or :func:`urlretrieve` is the raw data
1317 returned by the server. This may be binary data (such as an image), plain text
1318 or (for example) HTML. The HTTP protocol provides type information in the reply
1319 header, which can be inspected by looking at the :mailheader:`Content-Type`
1320 header. If the returned data is HTML, you can use the module
1321 :mod:`html.parser` to parse it.
1322
1323 .. index:: single: FTP
1324
1325* The code handling the FTP protocol cannot differentiate between a file and a
1326 directory. This can lead to unexpected behavior when attempting to read a URL
1327 that points to a file that is not accessible. If the URL ends in a ``/``, it is
1328 assumed to refer to a directory and will be handled accordingly. But if an
1329 attempt to read a file leads to a 550 error (meaning the URL cannot be found or
1330 is not accessible, often for permission reasons), then the path is treated as a
1331 directory in order to handle the case when a directory is specified by a URL but
1332 the trailing ``/`` has been left off. This can cause misleading results when
1333 you try to fetch a file whose read permissions make it inaccessible; the FTP
1334 code will try to read it, fail with a 550 error, and then perform a directory
1335 listing for the unreadable file. If fine-grained control is needed, consider
Éric Araujo09eb9802011-03-20 18:30:37 +01001336 using the :mod:`ftplib` module, subclassing :class:`FancyURLopener`, or changing
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001337 *_urlopener* to meet your needs.
1338
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001339
1340
Georg Brandl8175dae2010-11-29 14:53:15 +00001341:mod:`urllib.response` --- Response classes used by urllib
1342==========================================================
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001343
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001344.. module:: urllib.response
1345 :synopsis: Response classes used by urllib.
1346
1347The :mod:`urllib.response` module defines functions and classes which define a
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001348minimal file like interface, including ``read()`` and ``readline()``. The
Ezio Melottib9701422010-11-18 19:48:27 +00001349typical response object is an addinfourl instance, which defines an ``info()``
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001350method and that returns headers and a ``geturl()`` method that returns the url.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001351Functions defined by this module are used internally by the
1352:mod:`urllib.request` module.
1353