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CONTENTS

NAME

HTTP::Tiny - A small, simple, correct HTTP/1.1 client

VERSION

version 0.088

SYNOPSIS

use HTTP::Tiny;

my $response = HTTP::Tiny->new->get('http://example.com/');

die "Failed!\n" unless $response->{success};

print "$response->{status} $response->{reason}\n";

while (my ($k, $v) = each %{$response->{headers}}) {
    for (ref $v eq 'ARRAY' ? @$v : $v) {
        print "$k: $_\n";
    }
}

print $response->{content} if length $response->{content};

DESCRIPTION

This is a very simple HTTP/1.1 client, designed for doing simple requests without the overhead of a large framework like LWP::UserAgent.

It is more correct and more complete than HTTP::Lite. It supports proxies and redirection. It also correctly resumes after EINTR.

If IO::Socket::IP 0.25 or later is installed, HTTP::Tiny will use it instead of IO::Socket::INET for transparent support for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Cookie support requires HTTP::CookieJar or an equivalent class.

METHODS

new

$http = HTTP::Tiny->new( %attributes );

This constructor returns a new HTTP::Tiny object. Valid attributes include:

An accessor/mutator method exists for each attribute.

Passing an explicit undef for proxy, http_proxy or https_proxy will prevent getting the corresponding proxies from the environment.

Errors during request execution will result in a pseudo-HTTP status code of 599 and a reason of "Internal Exception". The content field in the response will contain the text of the error.

The keep_alive parameter enables a persistent connection, but only to a single destination scheme, host and port. If any connection-relevant attributes are modified via accessor, or if the process ID or thread ID change, the persistent connection will be dropped. If you want persistent connections across multiple destinations, use multiple HTTP::Tiny objects.

See "SSL SUPPORT" for more on the verify_SSL and SSL_options attributes.

get|head|put|post|patch|delete

$response = $http->get($url);
$response = $http->get($url, \%options);
$response = $http->head($url);

These methods are shorthand for calling request() for the given method. The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and international domain names encoded. See request() for valid options and a description of the response.

The success field of the response will be true if the status code is 2XX.

post_form

$response = $http->post_form($url, $form_data);
$response = $http->post_form($url, $form_data, \%options);

This method executes a POST request and sends the key/value pairs from a form data hash or array reference to the given URL with a content-type of application/x-www-form-urlencoded. If data is provided as an array reference, the order is preserved; if provided as a hash reference, the terms are sorted on key and value for consistency. See documentation for the www_form_urlencode method for details on the encoding.

The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and international domain names encoded. See request() for valid options and a description of the response. Any content-type header or content in the options hashref will be ignored.

The success field of the response will be true if the status code is 2XX.

mirror

$response = $http->mirror($url, $file, \%options)
if ( $response->{success} ) {
    print "$file is up to date\n";
}

Executes a GET request for the URL and saves the response body to the file name provided. The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and international domain names encoded. If the file already exists, the request will include an If-Modified-Since header with the modification timestamp of the file. You may specify a different If-Modified-Since header yourself in the $options->{headers} hash.

The success field of the response will be true if the status code is 2XX or if the status code is 304 (unmodified).

If the file was modified and the server response includes a properly formatted Last-Modified header, the file modification time will be updated accordingly.

request

$response = $http->request($method, $url);
$response = $http->request($method, $url, \%options);

Executes an HTTP request of the given method type ('GET', 'HEAD', 'POST', 'PUT', etc.) on the given URL. The URL must have unsafe characters escaped and international domain names encoded.

NOTE: Method names are case-sensitive per the HTTP/1.1 specification. Don't use get when you really want GET. See LIMITATIONS for how this applies to redirection.

If the URL includes a "user:password" stanza, they will be used for Basic-style authorization headers. (Authorization headers will not be included in a redirected request.) For example:

$http->request('GET', 'http://Aladdin:open sesame@example.com/');

If the "user:password" stanza contains reserved characters, they must be percent-escaped:

$http->request('GET', 'http://john%40example.com:password@example.com/');

A hashref of options may be appended to modify the request.

Valid options are:

The Host header is generated from the URL in accordance with RFC 2616. It is a fatal error to specify Host in the headers option. Other headers may be ignored or overwritten if necessary for transport compliance.

If the content option is a code reference, it will be called iteratively to provide the content body of the request. It should return the empty string or undef when the iterator is exhausted.

If the content option is the empty string, no content-type or content-length headers will be generated.

If the data_callback option is provided, it will be called iteratively until the entire response body is received. The first argument will be a string containing a chunk of the response body, the second argument will be the in-progress response hash reference, as described below. (This allows customizing the action of the callback based on the status or headers received prior to the content body.)

Content data in the request/response is handled as "raw bytes". Any encoding/decoding (with associated headers) are the responsibility of the caller.

The request method returns a hashref containing the response. The hashref will have the following keys:

On an error during the execution of the request, the status field will contain 599, and the content field will contain the text of the error.

www_form_urlencode

$params = $http->www_form_urlencode( $data );
$response = $http->get("http://example.com/query?$params");

This method converts the key/value pairs from a data hash or array reference into a x-www-form-urlencoded string. The keys and values from the data reference will be UTF-8 encoded and escaped per RFC 3986. If a value is an array reference, the key will be repeated with each of the values of the array reference. If data is provided as a hash reference, the key/value pairs in the resulting string will be sorted by key and value for consistent ordering.

can_ssl

$ok         = HTTP::Tiny->can_ssl;
($ok, $why) = HTTP::Tiny->can_ssl;
($ok, $why) = $http->can_ssl;

Indicates if SSL support is available. When called as a class object, it checks for the correct version of Net::SSLeay and IO::Socket::SSL. When called as an object methods, if SSL_verify is true or if SSL_verify_mode is set in SSL_options, it checks that a CA file is available.

In scalar context, returns a boolean indicating if SSL is available. In list context, returns the boolean and a (possibly multi-line) string of errors indicating why SSL isn't available.

connected

$host = $http->connected;
($host, $port) = $http->connected;

Indicates if a connection to a peer is being kept alive, per the keep_alive option.

In scalar context, returns the peer host and port, joined with a colon, or undef (if no peer is connected). In list context, returns the peer host and port or an empty list (if no peer is connected).

Note: This method cannot reliably be used to discover whether the remote host has closed its end of the socket.

TLS/SSL SUPPORT

Direct https connections are supported only if IO::Socket::SSL 1.56 or greater and Net::SSLeay 1.49 or greater are installed. An error will occur if new enough versions of these modules are not installed or if the TLS encryption fails. You can also use HTTP::Tiny::can_ssl() utility function that returns boolean to see if the required modules are installed.

An https connection may be made via an http proxy that supports the CONNECT command (i.e. RFC 2817). You may not proxy https via a proxy that itself requires https to communicate.

TLS/SSL provides two distinct capabilities:

By default, HTTP::Tiny verifies server identity.

This was changed in version 0.083 due to security concerns. The previous default behavior can be enabled by setting $ENV{PERL_HTTP_TINY_SSL_INSECURE_BY_DEFAULT} to 1.

Verification is done by checking that that the TLS/SSL connection has a valid certificate corresponding to the host name of the connection and that the certificate has been verified by a CA. Assuming you trust the CA, this will protect against machine-in-the-middle attacks.

Certificate verification requires a file containing trusted CA certificates.

If the environment variable SSL_CERT_FILE is present, HTTP::Tiny will try to find a CA certificate file in that location.

If the Mozilla::CA module is installed, HTTP::Tiny will use the CA file included with it as a source of trusted CA's.

If that module is not available, then HTTP::Tiny will search several system-specific default locations for a CA certificate file:

An error will be occur if verify_SSL is true and no CA certificate file is available.

If you desire complete control over TLS/SSL connections, the SSL_options attribute lets you provide a hash reference that will be passed through to IO::Socket::SSL::start_SSL(), overriding any options set by HTTP::Tiny. For example, to provide your own trusted CA file:

SSL_options => {
    SSL_ca_file => $file_path,
}

The SSL_options attribute could also be used for such things as providing a client certificate for authentication to a server or controlling the choice of cipher used for the TLS/SSL connection. See IO::Socket::SSL documentation for details.

PROXY SUPPORT

HTTP::Tiny can proxy both http and https requests. Only Basic proxy authorization is supported and it must be provided as part of the proxy URL: http://user:pass@proxy.example.com/.

HTTP::Tiny supports the following proxy environment variables:

If the REQUEST_METHOD environment variable is set, then this might be a CGI process and HTTP_PROXY would be set from the Proxy: header, which is a security risk. If REQUEST_METHOD is set, HTTP_PROXY (the upper case variant only) is ignored, but CGI_HTTP_PROXY is considered instead.

Tunnelling https over an http proxy using the CONNECT method is supported. If your proxy uses https itself, you can not tunnel https over it.

Be warned that proxying an https connection opens you to the risk of a man-in-the-middle attack by the proxy server.

The no_proxy environment variable is supported in the format of a comma-separated list of domain extensions proxy should not be used for.

Proxy arguments passed to new will override their corresponding environment variables.

LIMITATIONS

HTTP::Tiny is conditionally compliant with the HTTP/1.1 specifications:

It attempts to meet all "MUST" requirements of the specification, but does not implement all "SHOULD" requirements. (Note: it was developed against the earlier RFC 2616 specification and may not yet meet the revised RFC 7230-7235 spec.) Additionally, HTTP::Tiny supports the PATCH method of RFC 5789.

Some particular limitations of note include:

Despite the limitations listed above, HTTP::Tiny is considered feature-complete. New feature requests should be directed to HTTP::Tiny::UA.

SEE ALSO

SUPPORT

Bugs / Feature Requests

Please report any bugs or feature requests through the issue tracker at https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/HTTP-Tiny/issues. You will be notified automatically of any progress on your issue.

Source Code

This is open source software. The code repository is available for public review and contribution under the terms of the license.

https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/HTTP-Tiny

git clone https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/HTTP-Tiny.git

AUTHORS

CONTRIBUTORS

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2023 by Christian Hansen.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.