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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
Barry Warsawd4867072013-05-14 11:35:16 -040019.. function:: urlopen(url, data=None[, timeout], *, cafile=None, capath=None, cadefault=False)
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
Antoine Pitroude9ac6c2012-05-16 21:40:01 +020056 The *cadefault* parameter specifies whether to fall back to loading a
57 default certificate store defined by the underlying OpenSSL library if the
58 *cafile* and *capath* parameters are omitted. This will only work on
59 some non-Windows platforms.
60
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000061 .. warning::
Serhiy Storchakafbc1c262013-11-29 12:17:13 +020062 If neither *cafile* nor *capath* is specified, and *cadefault* is ``False``,
Antoine Pitroude9ac6c2012-05-16 21:40:01 +020063 an HTTPS request will not do any verification of the server's
64 certificate.
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +000065
Senthil Kumaranb98e96a2013-02-07 00:47:01 -080066 For http and https urls, this function returns a
67 :class:`http.client.HTTPResponse` object which has the following
68 :ref:`httpresponse-objects` methods.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000069
Senthil Kumarand03f4672013-02-07 21:43:21 -080070 For ftp, file, and data urls and requests explicity handled by legacy
71 :class:`URLopener` and :class:`FancyURLopener` classes, this function
72 returns a :class:`urllib.response.addinfourl` object which can work as
Senthil Kumaranb98e96a2013-02-07 00:47:01 -080073 :term:`context manager` and has methods such as
74
75 * :meth:`~urllib.response.addinfourl.geturl` --- return the URL of the resource retrieved,
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +000076 commonly used to determine if a redirect was followed
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000077
Senthil Kumaranb98e96a2013-02-07 00:47:01 -080078 * :meth:`~urllib.response.addinfourl.info` --- return the meta-information of the page, such as headers,
Senthil Kumaran13a7eb42010-06-28 17:31:40 +000079 in the form of an :func:`email.message_from_string` instance (see
80 `Quick Reference to HTTP Headers <http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/http.html>`_)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000081
Senthil Kumaranb98e96a2013-02-07 00:47:01 -080082 * :meth:`~urllib.response.addinfourl.getcode` -- return the HTTP status code of the response.
83
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +030084 Raises :exc:`~urllib.error.URLError` on errors.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +000085
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000086 Note that ``None`` may be returned if no handler handles the request (though
87 the default installed global :class:`OpenerDirector` uses
88 :class:`UnknownHandler` to ensure this never happens).
89
R David Murray5aea37a2013-04-28 11:07:16 -040090 In addition, if proxy settings are detected (for example, when a ``*_proxy``
91 environment variable like :envvar:`http_proxy` is set),
92 :class:`ProxyHandler` is default installed and makes sure the requests are
93 handled through the proxy.
Senthil Kumarana51a1b32009-10-18 01:42:33 +000094
Georg Brandl2dd01042009-02-27 16:46:46 +000095 The legacy ``urllib.urlopen`` function from Python 2.6 and earlier has been
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -070096 discontinued; :func:`urllib.request.urlopen` corresponds to the old
97 ``urllib2.urlopen``. Proxy handling, which was done by passing a dictionary
98 parameter to ``urllib.urlopen``, can be obtained by using
99 :class:`ProxyHandler` objects.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000100
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000101 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
102 *cafile* and *capath* were added.
103
Antoine Pitroud5323212010-10-22 18:19:07 +0000104 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
105 HTTPS virtual hosts are now supported if possible (that is, if
106 :data:`ssl.HAS_SNI` is true).
107
Senthil Kumaran7bc0d872010-12-19 10:49:52 +0000108 .. versionadded:: 3.2
109 *data* can be an iterable object.
110
Antoine Pitroude9ac6c2012-05-16 21:40:01 +0200111 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
112 *cadefault* was added.
113
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000114.. function:: install_opener(opener)
115
116 Install an :class:`OpenerDirector` instance as the default global opener.
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700117 Installing an opener is only necessary if you want urlopen to use that
118 opener; otherwise, simply call :meth:`OpenerDirector.open` instead of
119 :func:`~urllib.request.urlopen`. The code does not check for a real
120 :class:`OpenerDirector`, and any class with the appropriate interface will
121 work.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000122
123
124.. function:: build_opener([handler, ...])
125
126 Return an :class:`OpenerDirector` instance, which chains the handlers in the
127 order given. *handler*\s can be either instances of :class:`BaseHandler`, or
128 subclasses of :class:`BaseHandler` (in which case it must be possible to call
129 the constructor without any parameters). Instances of the following classes
130 will be in front of the *handler*\s, unless the *handler*\s contain them,
R David Murray5aea37a2013-04-28 11:07:16 -0400131 instances of them or subclasses of them: :class:`ProxyHandler` (if proxy
R David Murray9330a942013-04-28 11:24:35 -0400132 settings are detected), :class:`UnknownHandler`, :class:`HTTPHandler`,
133 :class:`HTTPDefaultErrorHandler`, :class:`HTTPRedirectHandler`,
134 :class:`FTPHandler`, :class:`FileHandler`, :class:`HTTPErrorProcessor`.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000135
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000136 If the Python installation has SSL support (i.e., if the :mod:`ssl` module
137 can be imported), :class:`HTTPSHandler` will also be added.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000138
Georg Brandle6bcc912008-05-12 18:05:20 +0000139 A :class:`BaseHandler` subclass may also change its :attr:`handler_order`
Senthil Kumarana6bac952011-07-04 11:28:30 -0700140 attribute to modify its position in the handlers list.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000141
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000142
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000143.. function:: pathname2url(path)
Christian Heimes292d3512008-02-03 16:51:08 +0000144
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000145 Convert the pathname *path* from the local syntax for a path to the form used in
146 the path component of a URL. This does not produce a complete URL. The return
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300147 value will already be quoted using the :func:`~urllib.parse.quote` function.
Christian Heimes292d3512008-02-03 16:51:08 +0000148
149
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +0000150.. function:: url2pathname(path)
151
Senthil Kumaranf0769e82010-08-09 19:53:52 +0000152 Convert the path component *path* from a percent-encoded URL to the local syntax for a
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300153 path. This does not accept a complete URL. This function uses
154 :func:`~urllib.parse.unquote` to decode *path*.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000155
Senthil Kumaran7e557a62010-02-26 00:53:23 +0000156.. function:: getproxies()
157
158 This helper function returns a dictionary of scheme to proxy server URL
Senthil Kumaran19d85c22012-01-11 01:29:08 +0800159 mappings. It scans the environment for variables named ``<scheme>_proxy``,
160 in a case insensitive approach, for all operating systems first, and when it
161 cannot find it, looks for proxy information from Mac OSX System
162 Configuration for Mac OS X and Windows Systems Registry for Windows.
Senthil Kumaran7e557a62010-02-26 00:53:23 +0000163
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000164
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000165The following classes are provided:
166
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800167.. class:: Request(url, data=None, headers={}, origin_req_host=None, unverifiable=False, method=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000168
169 This class is an abstraction of a URL request.
170
171 *url* should be a string containing a valid URL.
172
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700173 *data* must be a bytes object specifying additional data to send to the
Senthil Kumaran87684e62012-03-14 18:08:13 -0700174 server, or ``None`` if no such data is needed. Currently HTTP requests are
175 the only ones that use *data*; the HTTP request will be a POST instead of a
176 GET when the *data* parameter is provided. *data* should be a buffer in the
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700177 standard :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format.
178
179 The :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function takes a mapping or sequence of
180 2-tuples and returns a string in this format. It should be encoded to bytes
181 before being used as the *data* parameter. The charset parameter in
182 ``Content-Type`` header may be used to specify the encoding. If charset
183 parameter is not sent with the Content-Type header, the server following the
184 HTTP 1.1 recommendation may assume that the data is encoded in ISO-8859-1
185 encoding. It is advisable to use charset parameter with encoding used in
186 ``Content-Type`` header with the :class:`Request`.
187
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000188
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000189 *headers* should be a dictionary, and will be treated as if
190 :meth:`add_header` was called with each key and value as arguments.
191 This is often used to "spoof" the ``User-Agent`` header, which is
192 used by a browser to identify itself -- some HTTP servers only
193 allow requests coming from common browsers as opposed to scripts.
194 For example, Mozilla Firefox may identify itself as ``"Mozilla/5.0
195 (X11; U; Linux i686) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11"``, while
196 :mod:`urllib`'s default user agent string is
197 ``"Python-urllib/2.6"`` (on Python 2.6).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000198
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -0700199 An example of using ``Content-Type`` header with *data* argument would be
200 sending a dictionary like ``{"Content-Type":" application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=utf-8"}``
201
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000202 The final two arguments are only of interest for correct handling
203 of third-party HTTP cookies:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000204
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000205 *origin_req_host* should be the request-host of the origin
206 transaction, as defined by :rfc:`2965`. It defaults to
207 ``http.cookiejar.request_host(self)``. This is the host name or IP
208 address of the original request that was initiated by the user.
209 For example, if the request is for an image in an HTML document,
210 this should be the request-host of the request for the page
Georg Brandl24420152008-05-26 16:32:26 +0000211 containing the image.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000212
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000213 *unverifiable* should indicate whether the request is unverifiable,
Serhiy Storchakafbc1c262013-11-29 12:17:13 +0200214 as defined by RFC 2965. It defaults to ``False``. An unverifiable
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000215 request is one whose URL the user did not have the option to
216 approve. For example, if the request is for an image in an HTML
217 document, and the user had no option to approve the automatic
218 fetching of the image, this should be true.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000219
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800220 *method* should be a string that indicates the HTTP request method that
R David Murray7cae3362014-02-25 10:22:50 -0500221 will be used (e.g. ``'HEAD'``). If provided, its value is stored in the
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800222 :attr:`~Request.method` attribute and is used by :meth:`get_method()`.
Jason R. Coombs0c47f342013-09-22 09:33:45 -0400223 Subclasses may indicate a default method by setting the
224 :attr:`~Request.method` attribute in the class itself.
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800225
226 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
Georg Brandl61063cc2012-06-24 22:48:30 +0200227 :attr:`Request.method` argument is added to the Request class.
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800228
Jason R. Coombs0c47f342013-09-22 09:33:45 -0400229 .. versionchanged:: 3.4
230 Default :attr:`Request.method` may be indicated at the class level.
231
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000232
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000233.. class:: OpenerDirector()
234
235 The :class:`OpenerDirector` class opens URLs via :class:`BaseHandler`\ s chained
236 together. It manages the chaining of handlers, and recovery from errors.
237
238
239.. class:: BaseHandler()
240
241 This is the base class for all registered handlers --- and handles only the
242 simple mechanics of registration.
243
244
245.. class:: HTTPDefaultErrorHandler()
246
247 A class which defines a default handler for HTTP error responses; all responses
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300248 are turned into :exc:`~urllib.error.HTTPError` exceptions.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000249
250
251.. class:: HTTPRedirectHandler()
252
253 A class to handle redirections.
254
255
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000256.. class:: HTTPCookieProcessor(cookiejar=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000257
258 A class to handle HTTP Cookies.
259
260
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000261.. class:: ProxyHandler(proxies=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000262
263 Cause requests to go through a proxy. If *proxies* is given, it must be a
R David Murray9330a942013-04-28 11:24:35 -0400264 dictionary mapping protocol names to URLs of proxies. The default is to read
265 the list of proxies from the environment variables
266 :envvar:`<protocol>_proxy`. If no proxy environment variables are set, then
267 in a Windows environment proxy settings are obtained from the registry's
268 Internet Settings section, and in a Mac OS X environment proxy information
269 is retrieved from the OS X System Configuration Framework.
Senthil Kumarana51a1b32009-10-18 01:42:33 +0000270
Christian Heimese25f35e2008-03-20 10:49:03 +0000271 To disable autodetected proxy pass an empty dictionary.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000272
273
274.. class:: HTTPPasswordMgr()
275
276 Keep a database of ``(realm, uri) -> (user, password)`` mappings.
277
278
279.. class:: HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
280
281 Keep a database of ``(realm, uri) -> (user, password)`` mappings. A realm of
282 ``None`` is considered a catch-all realm, which is searched if no other realm
283 fits.
284
285
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000286.. class:: AbstractBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000287
288 This is a mixin class that helps with HTTP authentication, both to the remote
289 host and to a proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be something that is
290 compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
291 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
292 supported.
293
294
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000295.. class:: HTTPBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000296
Senthil Kumaran4de00a22011-05-11 21:17:57 +0800297 Handle authentication with the remote host. *password_mgr*, if given, should
298 be something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to
299 section :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must
300 be supported. HTTPBasicAuthHandler will raise a :exc:`ValueError` when
301 presented with a wrong Authentication scheme.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000302
303
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000304.. class:: ProxyBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000305
306 Handle authentication with the proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
307 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
308 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
309 supported.
310
311
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000312.. class:: AbstractDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000313
314 This is a mixin class that helps with HTTP authentication, both to the remote
315 host and to a proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be something that is
316 compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
317 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
318 supported.
319
320
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000321.. class:: HTTPDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000322
Senthil Kumaran4de00a22011-05-11 21:17:57 +0800323 Handle authentication with the remote host. *password_mgr*, if given, should
324 be something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to
325 section :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must
326 be supported. When both Digest Authentication Handler and Basic
327 Authentication Handler are both added, Digest Authentication is always tried
328 first. If the Digest Authentication returns a 40x response again, it is sent
329 to Basic Authentication handler to Handle. This Handler method will raise a
330 :exc:`ValueError` when presented with an authentication scheme other than
331 Digest or Basic.
332
Ezio Melottie9c7d6c2011-05-12 01:10:57 +0300333 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
334 Raise :exc:`ValueError` on unsupported Authentication Scheme.
Senthil Kumaran4de00a22011-05-11 21:17:57 +0800335
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000336
337
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000338.. class:: ProxyDigestAuthHandler(password_mgr=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000339
340 Handle authentication with the proxy. *password_mgr*, if given, should be
341 something that is compatible with :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr`; refer to section
342 :ref:`http-password-mgr` for information on the interface that must be
343 supported.
344
345
346.. class:: HTTPHandler()
347
348 A class to handle opening of HTTP URLs.
349
350
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000351.. class:: HTTPSHandler(debuglevel=0, context=None, check_hostname=None)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000352
Antoine Pitrou803e6d62010-10-13 10:36:15 +0000353 A class to handle opening of HTTPS URLs. *context* and *check_hostname*
354 have the same meaning as in :class:`http.client.HTTPSConnection`.
355
356 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
357 *context* and *check_hostname* were added.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000358
359
360.. class:: FileHandler()
361
362 Open local files.
363
Antoine Pitroudf204be2012-11-24 17:59:08 +0100364.. class:: DataHandler()
365
366 Open data URLs.
367
368 .. versionadded:: 3.4
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000369
370.. class:: FTPHandler()
371
372 Open FTP URLs.
373
374
375.. class:: CacheFTPHandler()
376
377 Open FTP URLs, keeping a cache of open FTP connections to minimize delays.
378
379
380.. class:: UnknownHandler()
381
382 A catch-all class to handle unknown URLs.
383
384
Senthil Kumaraned270fa2011-07-18 06:42:46 +0800385.. class:: HTTPErrorProcessor()
386
387 Process HTTP error responses.
388
389
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000390.. _request-objects:
391
392Request Objects
393---------------
394
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000395The following methods describe :class:`Request`'s public interface,
396and so all may be overridden in subclasses. It also defines several
397public attributes that can be used by clients to inspect the parsed
398request.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000399
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000400.. attribute:: Request.full_url
401
402 The original URL passed to the constructor.
403
Senthil Kumaran83070752013-05-24 09:14:12 -0700404 .. versionchanged:: 3.4
405
406 Request.full_url is a property with setter, getter and a deleter. Getting
407 :attr:`~Request.full_url` returns the original request URL with the
408 fragment, if it was present.
409
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000410.. attribute:: Request.type
411
412 The URI scheme.
413
414.. attribute:: Request.host
415
416 The URI authority, typically a host, but may also contain a port
417 separated by a colon.
418
419.. attribute:: Request.origin_req_host
420
421 The original host for the request, without port.
422
423.. attribute:: Request.selector
424
425 The URI path. If the :class:`Request` uses a proxy, then selector
426 will be the full url that is passed to the proxy.
427
428.. attribute:: Request.data
429
430 The entity body for the request, or None if not specified.
431
Andrew Svetlovbff98fe2012-11-27 23:06:19 +0200432 .. versionchanged:: 3.4
433 Changing value of :attr:`Request.data` now deletes "Content-Length"
434 header if it was previously set or calculated.
435
Jeremy Hyltone2573162009-03-31 14:38:13 +0000436.. attribute:: Request.unverifiable
437
438 boolean, indicates whether the request is unverifiable as defined
439 by RFC 2965.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000440
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800441.. attribute:: Request.method
442
R David Murray7cae3362014-02-25 10:22:50 -0500443 The HTTP request method to use. By default its value is :const:`None`,
444 which means that :meth:`~Request.get_method` will do its normal computation
445 of the method to be used. Its value can be set (thus overriding the default
446 computation in :meth:`~Request.get_method`) either by providing a default
447 value by setting it at the class level in a :class:`Request` subclass, or by
448 passing a value in to the :class:`Request` constructor via the *method*
449 argument.
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800450
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800451 .. versionadded:: 3.3
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800452
R David Murray7cae3362014-02-25 10:22:50 -0500453 .. versionchanged:: 3.4
454 A default value can now be set in subclasses; previously it could only
455 be set via the constructor argument.
456
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000457
458.. method:: Request.get_method()
459
Senthil Kumarande49d642011-10-16 23:54:44 +0800460 Return a string indicating the HTTP request method. If
461 :attr:`Request.method` is not ``None``, return its value, otherwise return
462 ``'GET'`` if :attr:`Request.data` is ``None``, or ``'POST'`` if it's not.
463 This is only meaningful for HTTP requests.
464
Florent Xicluna95483b62011-10-19 11:44:51 +0200465 .. versionchanged:: 3.3
Senthil Kumarana41c9422011-10-20 02:37:08 +0800466 get_method now looks at the value of :attr:`Request.method`.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000467
468
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000469.. method:: Request.add_header(key, val)
470
471 Add another header to the request. Headers are currently ignored by all
472 handlers except HTTP handlers, where they are added to the list of headers sent
473 to the server. Note that there cannot be more than one header with the same
474 name, and later calls will overwrite previous calls in case the *key* collides.
475 Currently, this is no loss of HTTP functionality, since all headers which have
476 meaning when used more than once have a (header-specific) way of gaining the
477 same functionality using only one header.
478
479
480.. method:: Request.add_unredirected_header(key, header)
481
482 Add a header that will not be added to a redirected request.
483
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000484
485.. method:: Request.has_header(header)
486
487 Return whether the instance has the named header (checks both regular and
488 unredirected).
489
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000490
Andrew Svetlovbff98fe2012-11-27 23:06:19 +0200491.. method:: Request.remove_header(header)
492
493 Remove named header from the request instance (both from regular and
494 unredirected headers).
495
Georg Brandlc0fc9582012-12-22 10:36:45 +0100496 .. versionadded:: 3.4
497
Andrew Svetlovbff98fe2012-11-27 23:06:19 +0200498
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000499.. method:: Request.get_full_url()
500
501 Return the URL given in the constructor.
502
Senthil Kumaran83070752013-05-24 09:14:12 -0700503 .. versionchanged:: 3.4
504
505 Returns :attr:`Request.full_url`
506
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000507
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000508.. method:: Request.set_proxy(host, type)
509
510 Prepare the request by connecting to a proxy server. The *host* and *type* will
511 replace those of the instance, and the instance's selector will be the original
512 URL given in the constructor.
513
514
Senthil Kumaran8dc50042012-04-29 11:50:39 +0800515.. method:: Request.get_header(header_name, default=None)
516
517 Return the value of the given header. If the header is not present, return
518 the default value.
519
520
521.. method:: Request.header_items()
522
523 Return a list of tuples (header_name, header_value) of the Request headers.
524
Senthil Kumaran6ddec172013-03-19 18:03:39 -0700525.. versionchanged:: 3.4
526 Request methods add_data, has_data, get_data, get_type, get_host,
527 get_selector, get_origin_req_host and is_unverifiable deprecated since 3.3
528 have been removed.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000529
530.. _opener-director-objects:
531
532OpenerDirector Objects
533----------------------
534
535:class:`OpenerDirector` instances have the following methods:
536
537
538.. method:: OpenerDirector.add_handler(handler)
539
540 *handler* should be an instance of :class:`BaseHandler`. The following methods
541 are searched, and added to the possible chains (note that HTTP errors are a
542 special case).
543
544 * :meth:`protocol_open` --- signal that the handler knows how to open *protocol*
545 URLs.
546
547 * :meth:`http_error_type` --- signal that the handler knows how to handle HTTP
548 errors with HTTP error code *type*.
549
550 * :meth:`protocol_error` --- signal that the handler knows how to handle errors
551 from (non-\ ``http``) *protocol*.
552
553 * :meth:`protocol_request` --- signal that the handler knows how to pre-process
554 *protocol* requests.
555
556 * :meth:`protocol_response` --- signal that the handler knows how to
557 post-process *protocol* responses.
558
559
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000560.. method:: OpenerDirector.open(url, data=None[, timeout])
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000561
562 Open the given *url* (which can be a request object or a string), optionally
Alexandre Vassalotti5f8ced22008-05-16 00:03:33 +0000563 passing the given *data*. Arguments, return values and exceptions raised are
564 the same as those of :func:`urlopen` (which simply calls the :meth:`open`
565 method on the currently installed global :class:`OpenerDirector`). The
566 optional *timeout* parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for blocking
Georg Brandlf78e02b2008-06-10 17:40:04 +0000567 operations like the connection attempt (if not specified, the global default
Georg Brandl325524e2010-05-21 20:57:33 +0000568 timeout setting will be used). The timeout feature actually works only for
Senthil Kumaranc08d9072010-10-05 18:46:56 +0000569 HTTP, HTTPS and FTP connections).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000570
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000571
Georg Brandl7f01a132009-09-16 15:58:14 +0000572.. method:: OpenerDirector.error(proto, *args)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000573
574 Handle an error of the given protocol. This will call the registered error
575 handlers for the given protocol with the given arguments (which are protocol
576 specific). The HTTP protocol is a special case which uses the HTTP response
577 code to determine the specific error handler; refer to the :meth:`http_error_\*`
578 methods of the handler classes.
579
580 Return values and exceptions raised are the same as those of :func:`urlopen`.
581
582OpenerDirector objects open URLs in three stages:
583
584The order in which these methods are called within each stage is determined by
585sorting the handler instances.
586
587#. Every handler with a method named like :meth:`protocol_request` has that
588 method called to pre-process the request.
589
590#. Handlers with a method named like :meth:`protocol_open` are called to handle
591 the request. This stage ends when a handler either returns a non-\ :const:`None`
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300592 value (ie. a response), or raises an exception (usually
593 :exc:`~urllib.error.URLError`). Exceptions are allowed to propagate.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000594
595 In fact, the above algorithm is first tried for methods named
596 :meth:`default_open`. If all such methods return :const:`None`, the algorithm
597 is repeated for methods named like :meth:`protocol_open`. If all such methods
598 return :const:`None`, the algorithm is repeated for methods named
599 :meth:`unknown_open`.
600
601 Note that the implementation of these methods may involve calls of the parent
Georg Brandla5eacee2010-07-23 16:55:26 +0000602 :class:`OpenerDirector` instance's :meth:`~OpenerDirector.open` and
603 :meth:`~OpenerDirector.error` methods.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000604
605#. Every handler with a method named like :meth:`protocol_response` has that
606 method called to post-process the response.
607
608
609.. _base-handler-objects:
610
611BaseHandler Objects
612-------------------
613
614:class:`BaseHandler` objects provide a couple of methods that are directly
615useful, and others that are meant to be used by derived classes. These are
616intended for direct use:
617
618
619.. method:: BaseHandler.add_parent(director)
620
621 Add a director as parent.
622
623
624.. method:: BaseHandler.close()
625
626 Remove any parents.
627
Senthil Kumarana6bac952011-07-04 11:28:30 -0700628The following attribute and methods should only be used by classes derived from
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000629:class:`BaseHandler`.
630
631.. note::
632
633 The convention has been adopted that subclasses defining
634 :meth:`protocol_request` or :meth:`protocol_response` methods are named
635 :class:`\*Processor`; all others are named :class:`\*Handler`.
636
637
638.. attribute:: BaseHandler.parent
639
640 A valid :class:`OpenerDirector`, which can be used to open using a different
641 protocol, or handle errors.
642
643
644.. method:: BaseHandler.default_open(req)
645
646 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
647 define it if they want to catch all URLs.
648
649 This method, if implemented, will be called by the parent
650 :class:`OpenerDirector`. It should return a file-like object as described in
651 the return value of the :meth:`open` of :class:`OpenerDirector`, or ``None``.
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300652 It should raise :exc:`~urllib.error.URLError`, unless a truly exceptional
653 thing happens (for example, :exc:`MemoryError` should not be mapped to
654 :exc:`URLError`).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000655
656 This method will be called before any protocol-specific open method.
657
658
659.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_open(req)
660 :noindex:
661
662 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
663 define it if they want to handle URLs with the given protocol.
664
665 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
666 Return values should be the same as for :meth:`default_open`.
667
668
669.. method:: BaseHandler.unknown_open(req)
670
671 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
672 define it if they want to catch all URLs with no specific registered handler to
673 open it.
674
675 This method, if implemented, will be called by the :attr:`parent`
676 :class:`OpenerDirector`. Return values should be the same as for
677 :meth:`default_open`.
678
679
680.. method:: BaseHandler.http_error_default(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
681
682 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
683 override it if they intend to provide a catch-all for otherwise unhandled HTTP
684 errors. It will be called automatically by the :class:`OpenerDirector` getting
685 the error, and should not normally be called in other circumstances.
686
687 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object, *fp* will be a file-like object with
688 the HTTP error body, *code* will be the three-digit code of the error, *msg*
689 will be the user-visible explanation of the code and *hdrs* will be a mapping
690 object with the headers of the error.
691
692 Return values and exceptions raised should be the same as those of
693 :func:`urlopen`.
694
695
696.. method:: BaseHandler.http_error_nnn(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
697
698 *nnn* should be a three-digit HTTP error code. This method is also not defined
699 in :class:`BaseHandler`, but will be called, if it exists, on an instance of a
700 subclass, when an HTTP error with code *nnn* occurs.
701
702 Subclasses should override this method to handle specific HTTP errors.
703
704 Arguments, return values and exceptions raised should be the same as for
705 :meth:`http_error_default`.
706
707
708.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_request(req)
709 :noindex:
710
711 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
712 define it if they want to pre-process requests of the given protocol.
713
714 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
715 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object. The return value should be a
716 :class:`Request` object.
717
718
719.. method:: BaseHandler.protocol_response(req, response)
720 :noindex:
721
722 This method is *not* defined in :class:`BaseHandler`, but subclasses should
723 define it if they want to post-process responses of the given protocol.
724
725 This method, if defined, will be called by the parent :class:`OpenerDirector`.
726 *req* will be a :class:`Request` object. *response* will be an object
727 implementing the same interface as the return value of :func:`urlopen`. The
728 return value should implement the same interface as the return value of
729 :func:`urlopen`.
730
731
732.. _http-redirect-handler:
733
734HTTPRedirectHandler Objects
735---------------------------
736
737.. note::
738
739 Some HTTP redirections require action from this module's client code. If this
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300740 is the case, :exc:`~urllib.error.HTTPError` is raised. See :rfc:`2616` for
741 details of the precise meanings of the various redirection codes.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000742
guido@google.coma119df92011-03-29 11:41:02 -0700743 An :class:`HTTPError` exception raised as a security consideration if the
744 HTTPRedirectHandler is presented with a redirected url which is not an HTTP,
745 HTTPS or FTP url.
746
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000747
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000748.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.redirect_request(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs, newurl)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000749
750 Return a :class:`Request` or ``None`` in response to a redirect. This is called
751 by the default implementations of the :meth:`http_error_30\*` methods when a
752 redirection is received from the server. If a redirection should take place,
753 return a new :class:`Request` to allow :meth:`http_error_30\*` to perform the
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300754 redirect to *newurl*. Otherwise, raise :exc:`~urllib.error.HTTPError` if
755 no other handler should try to handle this URL, or return ``None`` if you
756 can't but another handler might.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000757
758 .. note::
759
760 The default implementation of this method does not strictly follow :rfc:`2616`,
761 which says that 301 and 302 responses to ``POST`` requests must not be
762 automatically redirected without confirmation by the user. In reality, browsers
763 do allow automatic redirection of these responses, changing the POST to a
764 ``GET``, and the default implementation reproduces this behavior.
765
766
767.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_301(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
768
Georg Brandl9617a592009-02-13 10:40:43 +0000769 Redirect to the ``Location:`` or ``URI:`` URL. This method is called by the
770 parent :class:`OpenerDirector` when getting an HTTP 'moved permanently' response.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000771
772
773.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_302(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
774
775 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'found' response.
776
777
778.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_303(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
779
780 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'see other' response.
781
782
783.. method:: HTTPRedirectHandler.http_error_307(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
784
785 The same as :meth:`http_error_301`, but called for the 'temporary redirect'
786 response.
787
788
789.. _http-cookie-processor:
790
791HTTPCookieProcessor Objects
792---------------------------
793
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000794:class:`HTTPCookieProcessor` instances have one attribute:
795
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000796.. attribute:: HTTPCookieProcessor.cookiejar
797
Georg Brandl24420152008-05-26 16:32:26 +0000798 The :class:`http.cookiejar.CookieJar` in which cookies are stored.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000799
800
801.. _proxy-handler:
802
803ProxyHandler Objects
804--------------------
805
806
807.. method:: ProxyHandler.protocol_open(request)
808 :noindex:
809
810 The :class:`ProxyHandler` will have a method :meth:`protocol_open` for every
811 *protocol* which has a proxy in the *proxies* dictionary given in the
812 constructor. The method will modify requests to go through the proxy, by
813 calling ``request.set_proxy()``, and call the next handler in the chain to
814 actually execute the protocol.
815
816
817.. _http-password-mgr:
818
819HTTPPasswordMgr Objects
820-----------------------
821
822These methods are available on :class:`HTTPPasswordMgr` and
823:class:`HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm` objects.
824
825
826.. method:: HTTPPasswordMgr.add_password(realm, uri, user, passwd)
827
828 *uri* can be either a single URI, or a sequence of URIs. *realm*, *user* and
829 *passwd* must be strings. This causes ``(user, passwd)`` to be used as
830 authentication tokens when authentication for *realm* and a super-URI of any of
831 the given URIs is given.
832
833
834.. method:: HTTPPasswordMgr.find_user_password(realm, authuri)
835
836 Get user/password for given realm and URI, if any. This method will return
837 ``(None, None)`` if there is no matching user/password.
838
839 For :class:`HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm` objects, the realm ``None`` will be
840 searched if the given *realm* has no matching user/password.
841
842
843.. _abstract-basic-auth-handler:
844
845AbstractBasicAuthHandler Objects
846--------------------------------
847
848
849.. method:: AbstractBasicAuthHandler.http_error_auth_reqed(authreq, host, req, headers)
850
851 Handle an authentication request by getting a user/password pair, and re-trying
852 the request. *authreq* should be the name of the header where the information
853 about the realm is included in the request, *host* specifies the URL and path to
854 authenticate for, *req* should be the (failed) :class:`Request` object, and
855 *headers* should be the error headers.
856
857 *host* is either an authority (e.g. ``"python.org"``) or a URL containing an
858 authority component (e.g. ``"http://python.org/"``). In either case, the
859 authority must not contain a userinfo component (so, ``"python.org"`` and
860 ``"python.org:80"`` are fine, ``"joe:password@python.org"`` is not).
861
862
863.. _http-basic-auth-handler:
864
865HTTPBasicAuthHandler Objects
866----------------------------
867
868
869.. method:: HTTPBasicAuthHandler.http_error_401(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
870
871 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
872
873
874.. _proxy-basic-auth-handler:
875
876ProxyBasicAuthHandler Objects
877-----------------------------
878
879
880.. method:: ProxyBasicAuthHandler.http_error_407(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
881
882 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
883
884
885.. _abstract-digest-auth-handler:
886
887AbstractDigestAuthHandler Objects
888---------------------------------
889
890
891.. method:: AbstractDigestAuthHandler.http_error_auth_reqed(authreq, host, req, headers)
892
893 *authreq* should be the name of the header where the information about the realm
894 is included in the request, *host* should be the host to authenticate to, *req*
895 should be the (failed) :class:`Request` object, and *headers* should be the
896 error headers.
897
898
899.. _http-digest-auth-handler:
900
901HTTPDigestAuthHandler Objects
902-----------------------------
903
904
905.. method:: HTTPDigestAuthHandler.http_error_401(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
906
907 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
908
909
910.. _proxy-digest-auth-handler:
911
912ProxyDigestAuthHandler Objects
913------------------------------
914
915
916.. method:: ProxyDigestAuthHandler.http_error_407(req, fp, code, msg, hdrs)
917
918 Retry the request with authentication information, if available.
919
920
921.. _http-handler-objects:
922
923HTTPHandler Objects
924-------------------
925
926
927.. method:: HTTPHandler.http_open(req)
928
929 Send an HTTP request, which can be either GET or POST, depending on
930 ``req.has_data()``.
931
932
933.. _https-handler-objects:
934
935HTTPSHandler Objects
936--------------------
937
938
939.. method:: HTTPSHandler.https_open(req)
940
941 Send an HTTPS request, which can be either GET or POST, depending on
942 ``req.has_data()``.
943
944
945.. _file-handler-objects:
946
947FileHandler Objects
948-------------------
949
950
951.. method:: FileHandler.file_open(req)
952
953 Open the file locally, if there is no host name, or the host name is
Senthil Kumaran383c32d2010-10-14 11:57:35 +0000954 ``'localhost'``.
955
Georg Brandl61063cc2012-06-24 22:48:30 +0200956 .. versionchanged:: 3.2
957 This method is applicable only for local hostnames. When a remote
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +0300958 hostname is given, an :exc:`~urllib.error.URLError` is raised.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000959
960
Antoine Pitroudf204be2012-11-24 17:59:08 +0100961.. _data-handler-objects:
962
963DataHandler Objects
964-------------------
965
966.. method:: DataHandler.data_open(req)
967
968 Read a data URL. This kind of URL contains the content encoded in the URL
969 itself. The data URL syntax is specified in :rfc:`2397`. This implementation
970 ignores white spaces in base64 encoded data URLs so the URL may be wrapped
971 in whatever source file it comes from. But even though some browsers don't
972 mind about a missing padding at the end of a base64 encoded data URL, this
973 implementation will raise an :exc:`ValueError` in that case.
974
975
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +0000976.. _ftp-handler-objects:
977
978FTPHandler Objects
979------------------
980
981
982.. method:: FTPHandler.ftp_open(req)
983
984 Open the FTP file indicated by *req*. The login is always done with empty
985 username and password.
986
987
988.. _cacheftp-handler-objects:
989
990CacheFTPHandler Objects
991-----------------------
992
993:class:`CacheFTPHandler` objects are :class:`FTPHandler` objects with the
994following additional methods:
995
996
997.. method:: CacheFTPHandler.setTimeout(t)
998
999 Set timeout of connections to *t* seconds.
1000
1001
1002.. method:: CacheFTPHandler.setMaxConns(m)
1003
1004 Set maximum number of cached connections to *m*.
1005
1006
1007.. _unknown-handler-objects:
1008
1009UnknownHandler Objects
1010----------------------
1011
1012
1013.. method:: UnknownHandler.unknown_open()
1014
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +03001015 Raise a :exc:`~urllib.error.URLError` exception.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001016
1017
1018.. _http-error-processor-objects:
1019
1020HTTPErrorProcessor Objects
1021--------------------------
1022
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +08001023.. method:: HTTPErrorProcessor.http_response()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001024
1025 Process HTTP error responses.
1026
1027 For 200 error codes, the response object is returned immediately.
1028
1029 For non-200 error codes, this simply passes the job on to the
1030 :meth:`protocol_error_code` handler methods, via :meth:`OpenerDirector.error`.
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001031 Eventually, :class:`HTTPDefaultErrorHandler` will raise an
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +03001032 :exc:`~urllib.error.HTTPError` if no other handler handles the error.
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001033
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001034
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +08001035.. method:: HTTPErrorProcessor.https_response()
1036
Senthil Kumaran3e7f33f2011-07-18 07:17:20 +08001037 Process HTTPS error responses.
1038
Senthil Kumaran0215d092011-07-18 07:12:40 +08001039 The behavior is same as :meth:`http_response`.
1040
1041
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001042.. _urllib-request-examples:
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001043
1044Examples
1045--------
1046
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001047This example gets the python.org main page and displays the first 300 bytes of
Georg Brandlbdc55ab2010-04-20 18:15:54 +00001048it. ::
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001049
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001050 >>> import urllib.request
1051 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/')
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001052 >>> print(f.read(300))
1053 b'<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1054 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">\n\n\n<html
1055 xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">\n\n<head>\n
1056 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />\n
1057 <title>Python Programming '
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001058
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001059Note that urlopen returns a bytes object. This is because there is no way
1060for urlopen to automatically determine the encoding of the byte stream
1061it receives from the http server. In general, a program will decode
1062the returned bytes object to string once it determines or guesses
1063the appropriate encoding.
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001064
Serhiy Storchakaa4d170d2013-12-23 18:20:51 +02001065The following W3C document, http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset\ , lists
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001066the various ways in which a (X)HTML or a XML document could have specified its
1067encoding information.
1068
Senthil Kumaran21c71ba2012-03-13 19:47:51 -07001069As the python.org website uses *utf-8* encoding as specified in it's meta tag, we
1070will use the same for decoding the bytes object. ::
1071
1072 >>> with urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/') as f:
1073 ... print(f.read(100).decode('utf-8'))
1074 ...
1075 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1076 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtm
1077
1078It is also possible to achieve the same result without using the
1079:term:`context manager` approach. ::
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001080
1081 >>> import urllib.request
1082 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.python.org/')
Georg Brandlfe4fd832010-05-21 21:01:32 +00001083 >>> print(f.read(100).decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaran0c2d8b82010-04-22 10:53:30 +00001084 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
1085 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtm
1086
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001087In the following example, we are sending a data-stream to the stdin of a CGI
1088and reading the data it returns to us. Note that this example will only work
1089when the Python installation supports SSL. ::
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001090
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001091 >>> import urllib.request
1092 >>> req = urllib.request.Request(url='https://localhost/cgi-bin/test.cgi',
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001093 ... data=b'This data is passed to stdin of the CGI')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001094 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001095 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001096 Got Data: "This data is passed to stdin of the CGI"
1097
1098The code for the sample CGI used in the above example is::
1099
1100 #!/usr/bin/env python
1101 import sys
1102 data = sys.stdin.read()
Collin Winterc79461b2007-09-01 23:34:30 +00001103 print('Content-type: text-plain\n\nGot Data: "%s"' % data)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001104
Senthil Kumarane66cc812013-03-13 13:42:47 -07001105Here is an example of doing a ``PUT`` request using :class:`Request`::
1106
1107 import urllib.request
1108 DATA=b'some data'
1109 req = urllib.request.Request(url='http://localhost:8080', data=DATA,method='PUT')
1110 f = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
1111 print(f.status)
1112 print(f.reason)
1113
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001114Use of Basic HTTP Authentication::
1115
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001116 import urllib.request
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001117 # Create an OpenerDirector with support for Basic HTTP Authentication...
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001118 auth_handler = urllib.request.HTTPBasicAuthHandler()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001119 auth_handler.add_password(realm='PDQ Application',
1120 uri='https://mahler:8092/site-updates.py',
1121 user='klem',
1122 passwd='kadidd!ehopper')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001123 opener = urllib.request.build_opener(auth_handler)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001124 # ...and install it globally so it can be used with urlopen.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001125 urllib.request.install_opener(opener)
1126 urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.example.com/login.html')
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001127
1128:func:`build_opener` provides many handlers by default, including a
1129:class:`ProxyHandler`. By default, :class:`ProxyHandler` uses the environment
1130variables named ``<scheme>_proxy``, where ``<scheme>`` is the URL scheme
1131involved. For example, the :envvar:`http_proxy` environment variable is read to
1132obtain the HTTP proxy's URL.
1133
1134This example replaces the default :class:`ProxyHandler` with one that uses
Georg Brandl2ee470f2008-07-16 12:55:28 +00001135programmatically-supplied proxy URLs, and adds proxy authorization support with
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001136:class:`ProxyBasicAuthHandler`. ::
1137
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001138 proxy_handler = urllib.request.ProxyHandler({'http': 'http://www.example.com:3128/'})
Senthil Kumaran037f8362009-12-24 02:24:37 +00001139 proxy_auth_handler = urllib.request.ProxyBasicAuthHandler()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001140 proxy_auth_handler.add_password('realm', 'host', 'username', 'password')
1141
Senthil Kumaran037f8362009-12-24 02:24:37 +00001142 opener = urllib.request.build_opener(proxy_handler, proxy_auth_handler)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001143 # This time, rather than install the OpenerDirector, we use it directly:
1144 opener.open('http://www.example.com/login.html')
1145
1146Adding HTTP headers:
1147
1148Use the *headers* argument to the :class:`Request` constructor, or::
1149
Georg Brandl029986a2008-06-23 11:44:14 +00001150 import urllib.request
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001151 req = urllib.request.Request('http://www.example.com/')
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001152 req.add_header('Referer', 'http://www.python.org/')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001153 r = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001154
1155:class:`OpenerDirector` automatically adds a :mailheader:`User-Agent` header to
1156every :class:`Request`. To change this::
1157
Georg Brandl029986a2008-06-23 11:44:14 +00001158 import urllib.request
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001159 opener = urllib.request.build_opener()
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001160 opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0')]
1161 opener.open('http://www.example.com/')
1162
1163Also, remember that a few standard headers (:mailheader:`Content-Length`,
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -07001164:mailheader:`Content-Type` without charset parameter and :mailheader:`Host`)
1165are added when the :class:`Request` is passed to :func:`urlopen` (or
1166:meth:`OpenerDirector.open`).
Georg Brandl116aa622007-08-15 14:28:22 +00001167
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001168.. _urllib-examples:
1169
1170Here is an example session that uses the ``GET`` method to retrieve a URL
1171containing parameters::
1172
1173 >>> import urllib.request
1174 >>> import urllib.parse
1175 >>> params = urllib.parse.urlencode({'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'bacon': 0})
1176 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen("http://www.musi-cal.com/cgi-bin/query?%s" % params)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001177 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001178
Senthil Kumaran29333122011-02-11 11:25:47 +00001179The following example uses the ``POST`` method instead. Note that params output
1180from urlencode is encoded to bytes before it is sent to urlopen as data::
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001181
1182 >>> import urllib.request
1183 >>> import urllib.parse
Senthil Kumaran6b3434a2012-03-15 18:11:16 -07001184 >>> data = urllib.parse.urlencode({'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'bacon': 0})
1185 >>> data = data.encode('utf-8')
1186 >>> request = urllib.request.Request("http://requestb.in/xrbl82xr")
1187 >>> # adding charset parameter to the Content-Type header.
1188 >>> request.add_header("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=utf-8")
1189 >>> f = urllib.request.urlopen(request, data)
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001190 >>> print(f.read().decode('utf-8'))
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001191
1192The following example uses an explicitly specified HTTP proxy, overriding
1193environment settings::
1194
1195 >>> import urllib.request
1196 >>> proxies = {'http': 'http://proxy.example.com:8080/'}
1197 >>> opener = urllib.request.FancyURLopener(proxies)
1198 >>> f = opener.open("http://www.python.org")
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001199 >>> f.read().decode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001200
1201The following example uses no proxies at all, overriding environment settings::
1202
1203 >>> import urllib.request
1204 >>> opener = urllib.request.FancyURLopener({})
1205 >>> f = opener.open("http://www.python.org/")
Senthil Kumaranb213ee32010-04-15 17:18:22 +00001206 >>> f.read().decode('utf-8')
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001207
1208
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001209Legacy interface
1210----------------
1211
1212The following functions and classes are ported from the Python 2 module
1213``urllib`` (as opposed to ``urllib2``). They might become deprecated at
1214some point in the future.
1215
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001216.. function:: urlretrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None, data=None)
1217
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001218 Copy a network object denoted by a URL to a local file. If the URL
1219 points to a local file, the object will not be copied unless filename is supplied.
1220 Return a tuple ``(filename, headers)`` where *filename* is the
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001221 local file name under which the object can be found, and *headers* is whatever
1222 the :meth:`info` method of the object returned by :func:`urlopen` returned (for
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001223 a remote object). Exceptions are the same as for :func:`urlopen`.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001224
1225 The second argument, if present, specifies the file location to copy to (if
1226 absent, the location will be a tempfile with a generated name). The third
1227 argument, if present, is a hook function that will be called once on
1228 establishment of the network connection and once after each block read
1229 thereafter. The hook will be passed three arguments; a count of blocks
1230 transferred so far, a block size in bytes, and the total size of the file. The
1231 third argument may be ``-1`` on older FTP servers which do not return a file
1232 size in response to a retrieval request.
1233
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001234 The following example illustrates the most common usage scenario::
1235
1236 >>> import urllib.request
1237 >>> local_filename, headers = urllib.request.urlretrieve('http://python.org/')
1238 >>> html = open(local_filename)
1239 >>> html.close()
1240
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001241 If the *url* uses the :file:`http:` scheme identifier, the optional *data*
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001242 argument may be given to specify a ``POST`` request (normally the request
Senthil Kumaran87684e62012-03-14 18:08:13 -07001243 type is ``GET``). The *data* argument must be a bytes object in standard
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001244 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format; see the
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +03001245 :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001246
1247 :func:`urlretrieve` will raise :exc:`ContentTooShortError` when it detects that
1248 the amount of data available was less than the expected amount (which is the
1249 size reported by a *Content-Length* header). This can occur, for example, when
1250 the download is interrupted.
1251
1252 The *Content-Length* is treated as a lower bound: if there's more data to read,
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001253 urlretrieve reads more data, but if less data is available, it raises the
1254 exception.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001255
1256 You can still retrieve the downloaded data in this case, it is stored in the
1257 :attr:`content` attribute of the exception instance.
1258
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001259 If no *Content-Length* header was supplied, urlretrieve can not check the size
1260 of the data it has downloaded, and just returns it. In this case you just have
1261 to assume that the download was successful.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001262
1263.. function:: urlcleanup()
1264
Senthil Kumarane24f96a2012-03-13 19:29:33 -07001265 Cleans up temporary files that may have been left behind by previous
1266 calls to :func:`urlretrieve`.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001267
1268.. class:: URLopener(proxies=None, **x509)
1269
Senthil Kumaran6227c692013-03-18 17:09:50 -07001270 .. deprecated:: 3.3
1271
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001272 Base class for opening and reading URLs. Unless you need to support opening
1273 objects using schemes other than :file:`http:`, :file:`ftp:`, or :file:`file:`,
1274 you probably want to use :class:`FancyURLopener`.
1275
1276 By default, the :class:`URLopener` class sends a :mailheader:`User-Agent` header
1277 of ``urllib/VVV``, where *VVV* is the :mod:`urllib` version number.
1278 Applications can define their own :mailheader:`User-Agent` header by subclassing
1279 :class:`URLopener` or :class:`FancyURLopener` and setting the class attribute
1280 :attr:`version` to an appropriate string value in the subclass definition.
1281
1282 The optional *proxies* parameter should be a dictionary mapping scheme names to
1283 proxy URLs, where an empty dictionary turns proxies off completely. Its default
1284 value is ``None``, in which case environmental proxy settings will be used if
1285 present, as discussed in the definition of :func:`urlopen`, above.
1286
1287 Additional keyword parameters, collected in *x509*, may be used for
1288 authentication of the client when using the :file:`https:` scheme. The keywords
1289 *key_file* and *cert_file* are supported to provide an SSL key and certificate;
1290 both are needed to support client authentication.
1291
Antoine Pitrou4272d6a2011-10-12 19:10:10 +02001292 :class:`URLopener` objects will raise an :exc:`OSError` exception if the server
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001293 returns an error code.
1294
1295 .. method:: open(fullurl, data=None)
1296
1297 Open *fullurl* using the appropriate protocol. This method sets up cache and
1298 proxy information, then calls the appropriate open method with its input
1299 arguments. If the scheme is not recognized, :meth:`open_unknown` is called.
1300 The *data* argument has the same meaning as the *data* argument of
1301 :func:`urlopen`.
1302
1303
1304 .. method:: open_unknown(fullurl, data=None)
1305
1306 Overridable interface to open unknown URL types.
1307
1308
1309 .. method:: retrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None, data=None)
1310
1311 Retrieves the contents of *url* and places it in *filename*. The return value
1312 is a tuple consisting of a local filename and either a
1313 :class:`email.message.Message` object containing the response headers (for remote
1314 URLs) or ``None`` (for local URLs). The caller must then open and read the
1315 contents of *filename*. If *filename* is not given and the URL refers to a
1316 local file, the input filename is returned. If the URL is non-local and
1317 *filename* is not given, the filename is the output of :func:`tempfile.mktemp`
1318 with a suffix that matches the suffix of the last path component of the input
1319 URL. If *reporthook* is given, it must be a function accepting three numeric
Gregory P. Smith6b0bdab2012-11-10 13:43:44 -08001320 parameters: A chunk number, the maximum size chunks are read in and the total size of the download
1321 (-1 if unknown). It will be called once at the start and after each chunk of data is read from the
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001322 network. *reporthook* is ignored for local URLs.
1323
1324 If the *url* uses the :file:`http:` scheme identifier, the optional *data*
1325 argument may be given to specify a ``POST`` request (normally the request type
1326 is ``GET``). The *data* argument must in standard
Serhiy Storchaka5e1c0532013-10-13 20:06:50 +03001327 :mimetype:`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` format; see the
1328 :func:`urllib.parse.urlencode` function.
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001329
1330
1331 .. attribute:: version
1332
1333 Variable that specifies the user agent of the opener object. To get
1334 :mod:`urllib` to tell servers that it is a particular user agent, set this in a
1335 subclass as a class variable or in the constructor before calling the base
1336 constructor.
1337
1338
1339.. class:: FancyURLopener(...)
1340
Senthil Kumaran6227c692013-03-18 17:09:50 -07001341 .. deprecated:: 3.3
1342
Antoine Pitroub8eb9cb2010-12-15 19:07:26 +00001343 :class:`FancyURLopener` subclasses :class:`URLopener` providing default handling
1344 for the following HTTP response codes: 301, 302, 303, 307 and 401. For the 30x
1345 response codes listed above, the :mailheader:`Location` header is used to fetch
1346 the actual URL. For 401 response codes (authentication required), basic HTTP
1347 authentication is performed. For the 30x response codes, recursion is bounded
1348 by the value of the *maxtries* attribute, which defaults to 10.
1349
1350 For all other response codes, the method :meth:`http_error_default` is called
1351 which you can override in subclasses to handle the error appropriately.
1352
1353 .. note::
1354
1355 According to the letter of :rfc:`2616`, 301 and 302 responses to POST requests
1356 must not be automatically redirected without confirmation by the user. In
1357 reality, browsers do allow automatic redirection of these responses, changing
1358 the POST to a GET, and :mod:`urllib` reproduces this behaviour.
1359
1360 The parameters to the constructor are the same as those for :class:`URLopener`.
1361
1362 .. note::
1363
1364 When performing basic authentication, a :class:`FancyURLopener` instance calls
1365 its :meth:`prompt_user_passwd` method. The default implementation asks the
1366 users for the required information on the controlling terminal. A subclass may
1367 override this method to support more appropriate behavior if needed.
1368
1369 The :class:`FancyURLopener` class offers one additional method that should be
1370 overloaded to provide the appropriate behavior:
1371
1372 .. method:: prompt_user_passwd(host, realm)
1373
1374 Return information needed to authenticate the user at the given host in the
1375 specified security realm. The return value should be a tuple, ``(user,
1376 password)``, which can be used for basic authentication.
1377
1378 The implementation prompts for this information on the terminal; an application
1379 should override this method to use an appropriate interaction model in the local
1380 environment.
1381
1382
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001383:mod:`urllib.request` Restrictions
1384----------------------------------
1385
1386 .. index::
1387 pair: HTTP; protocol
1388 pair: FTP; protocol
1389
Florent Xicluna83386da2011-10-28 22:03:55 +02001390* Currently, only the following protocols are supported: HTTP (versions 0.9 and
Antoine Pitroudf204be2012-11-24 17:59:08 +01001391 1.0), FTP, local files, and data URLs.
1392
1393 .. versionchanged:: 3.4 Added support for data URLs.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001394
Florent Xicluna305bb662011-10-28 22:14:41 +02001395* The caching feature of :func:`urlretrieve` has been disabled until someone
1396 finds the time to hack proper processing of Expiration time headers.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001397
1398* There should be a function to query whether a particular URL is in the cache.
1399
1400* For backward compatibility, if a URL appears to point to a local file but the
1401 file can't be opened, the URL is re-interpreted using the FTP protocol. This
1402 can sometimes cause confusing error messages.
1403
1404* The :func:`urlopen` and :func:`urlretrieve` functions can cause arbitrarily
1405 long delays while waiting for a network connection to be set up. This means
1406 that it is difficult to build an interactive Web client using these functions
1407 without using threads.
1408
1409 .. index::
1410 single: HTML
1411 pair: HTTP; protocol
1412
1413* The data returned by :func:`urlopen` or :func:`urlretrieve` is the raw data
1414 returned by the server. This may be binary data (such as an image), plain text
1415 or (for example) HTML. The HTTP protocol provides type information in the reply
1416 header, which can be inspected by looking at the :mailheader:`Content-Type`
1417 header. If the returned data is HTML, you can use the module
1418 :mod:`html.parser` to parse it.
1419
1420 .. index:: single: FTP
1421
1422* The code handling the FTP protocol cannot differentiate between a file and a
1423 directory. This can lead to unexpected behavior when attempting to read a URL
1424 that points to a file that is not accessible. If the URL ends in a ``/``, it is
1425 assumed to refer to a directory and will be handled accordingly. But if an
1426 attempt to read a file leads to a 550 error (meaning the URL cannot be found or
1427 is not accessible, often for permission reasons), then the path is treated as a
1428 directory in order to handle the case when a directory is specified by a URL but
1429 the trailing ``/`` has been left off. This can cause misleading results when
1430 you try to fetch a file whose read permissions make it inaccessible; the FTP
1431 code will try to read it, fail with a 550 error, and then perform a directory
1432 listing for the unreadable file. If fine-grained control is needed, consider
Éric Araujo09eb9802011-03-20 18:30:37 +01001433 using the :mod:`ftplib` module, subclassing :class:`FancyURLopener`, or changing
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001434 *_urlopener* to meet your needs.
1435
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001436
1437
Georg Brandl8175dae2010-11-29 14:53:15 +00001438:mod:`urllib.response` --- Response classes used by urllib
1439==========================================================
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001440
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001441.. module:: urllib.response
1442 :synopsis: Response classes used by urllib.
1443
1444The :mod:`urllib.response` module defines functions and classes which define a
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001445minimal file like interface, including ``read()`` and ``readline()``. The
Ezio Melottib9701422010-11-18 19:48:27 +00001446typical response object is an addinfourl instance, which defines an ``info()``
Georg Brandl0f7ede42008-06-23 11:23:31 +00001447method and that returns headers and a ``geturl()`` method that returns the url.
Senthil Kumaranaca8fd72008-06-23 04:41:59 +00001448Functions defined by this module are used internally by the
1449:mod:`urllib.request` module.
1450