Python Library Reference

11.6 httplib -- HTTP protocol client

This module defines classes which implement the client side of the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. It is normally not used directly -- the module urllib uses it to handle URLs that use HTTP and HTTPS.

The module provides the following classes:

class HTTPConnection(

host[, port])

An HTTPConnection instance represents one transaction with an HTTP server. It should be instantiated passing it a host and optional port number. If no port number is passed, the port is extracted from the host string if it has the form host:port, else the default HTTP port (80) is used. For example, the following calls all create instances that connect to the server at the same host and port:

>>> h1 = httplib.HTTPConnection('www.cwi.nl')
>>> h2 = httplib.HTTPConnection('www.cwi.nl:80')
>>> h3 = httplib.HTTPConnection('www.cwi.nl', 80)

New in version 2.0.

class HTTPSConnection(

host[, port, key_file, cert_file])

A subclass of HTTPConnection that uses SSL for communication with secure servers. Default port is 443. key_file is the name of a PEM formatted file that contains your private key. cert_file is a PEM formatted certificate chain file.

Warning: This does not do any certificate verification!

New in version 2.0.

class HTTPResponse(

sock[, debuglevel=0][, strict=0])

Class whose instances are returned upon successful connection. Not instantiated directly by user. New in version 2.0.

The following exceptions are raised as appropriate:

exception HTTPException

The base class of the other exceptions in this module. It is a subclass of Exception. New in version 2.0.

exception NotConnected

A subclass of HTTPException. New in version 2.0.

exception InvalidURL

A subclass of HTTPException, raised if a port is given and is either non-numeric or empty. New in version 2.3.

exception UnknownProtocol

A subclass of HTTPException. New in version 2.0.

exception UnknownTransferEncoding

A subclass of HTTPException. New in version 2.0.

exception UnimplementedFileMode

A subclass of HTTPException. New in version 2.0.

exception IncompleteRead

A subclass of HTTPException. New in version 2.0.

exception ImproperConnectionState

A subclass of HTTPException. New in version 2.0.

exception CannotSendRequest

A subclass of ImproperConnectionState. New in version 2.0.

exception CannotSendHeader

A subclass of ImproperConnectionState. New in version 2.0.

exception ResponseNotReady

A subclass of ImproperConnectionState. New in version 2.0.

exception BadStatusLine

A subclass of HTTPException. Raised if a server responds with a HTTP status code that we don't understand. New in version 2.0.

The constants defined in this module are:

HTTP_PORT

The default port for the HTTP protocol (always 80).

HTTPS_PORT

The default port for the HTTPS protocol (always 443).

and also the following constants for integer status codes:

• 11.6.1 HTTPConnection Objects
• 11.6.2 HTTPResponse Objects
• 11.6.3 Examples

Python Library Reference

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Release 2.4c1, documentation updated on 18 November 2004.