Module BaseHTTPServer :: Class BaseHTTPRequestHandler
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[frames] | no frames]

_ClassType BaseHTTPRequestHandler

SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler --+    
                                  |    
  SocketServer.StreamRequestHandler --+
                                      |
                                     BaseHTTPRequestHandler
Known Subclasses:

HTTP request handler base class.

The following explanation of HTTP serves to guide you through the
code as well as to expose any misunderstandings I may have about
HTTP (so you don't need to read the code to figure out I'm wrong
:-).

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is an extensible protocol on
top of a reliable stream transport (e.g. TCP/IP).  The protocol
recognizes three parts to a request:

1. One line identifying the request type and path
2. An optional set of RFC-822-style headers
3. An optional data part

The headers and data are separated by a blank line.

The first line of the request has the form

<command> <path> <version>

where <command> is a (case-sensitive) keyword such as GET or POST,
<path> is a string containing path information for the request,
and <version> should be the string "HTTP/1.0" or "HTTP/1.1".
<path> is encoded using the URL encoding scheme (using %xx to signify
the ASCII character with hex code xx).

The specification specifies that lines are separated by CRLF but
for compatibility with the widest range of clients recommends
servers also handle LF.  Similarly, whitespace in the request line
is treated sensibly (allowing multiple spaces between components
and allowing trailing whitespace).

Similarly, for output, lines ought to be separated by CRLF pairs
but most clients grok LF characters just fine.

If the first line of the request has the form

<command> <path>

(i.e. <version> is left out) then this is assumed to be an HTTP
0.9 request; this form has no optional headers and data part and
the reply consists of just the data.

The reply form of the HTTP 1.x protocol again has three parts:

1. One line giving the response code
2. An optional set of RFC-822-style headers
3. The data

Again, the headers and data are separated by a blank line.

The response code line has the form

<version> <responsecode> <responsestring>

where <version> is the protocol version ("HTTP/1.0" or "HTTP/1.1"),
<responsecode> is a 3-digit response code indicating success or
failure of the request, and <responsestring> is an optional
human-readable string explaining what the response code means.

This server parses the request and the headers, and then calls a
function specific to the request type (<command>).  Specifically,
a request SPAM will be handled by a method do_SPAM().  If no
such method exists the server sends an error response to the
client.  If it exists, it is called with no arguments:

do_SPAM()

Note that the request name is case sensitive (i.e. SPAM and spam
are different requests).

The various request details are stored in instance variables:

- client_address is the client IP address in the form (host,
port);

- command, path and version are the broken-down request line;

- headers is an instance of mimetools.Message (or a derived
class) containing the header information;

- rfile is a file object open for reading positioned at the
start of the optional input data part;

- wfile is a file object open for writing.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO ADHERE TO THE PROTOCOL FOR WRITING!

The first thing to be written must be the response line.  Then
follow 0 or more header lines, then a blank line, and then the
actual data (if any).  The meaning of the header lines depends on
the command executed by the server; in most cases, when data is
returned, there should be at least one header line of the form

Content-type: <type>/<subtype>

where <type> and <subtype> should be registered MIME types,
e.g. "text/html" or "text/plain".

Nested Classes [hide private]
MessageClass
A derived class of rfc822.Message that knows about MIME headers and contains some hooks for decoding encoded and multipart messages.
Instance Methods [hide private]
 
parse_request(self)
Parse a request (internal).
 
handle_one_request(self)
Handle a single HTTP request.
 
handle(self)
Handle multiple requests if necessary.
 
send_error(self, code, message=None)
Send and log an error reply.
 
send_response(self, code, message=None)
Send the response header and log the response code.
 
send_header(self, keyword, value)
Send a MIME header.
 
end_headers(self)
Send the blank line ending the MIME headers.
 
log_request(self, code='-', size='-')
Log an accepted request.
 
log_error(self, *args)
Log an error.
 
log_message(self, format, *args)
Log an arbitrary message.
 
version_string(self)
Return the server software version string.
 
date_time_string(self, timestamp=None)
Return the current date and time formatted for a message header.
 
log_date_time_string(self)
Return the current time formatted for logging.
 
address_string(self)
Return the client address formatted for logging.

Inherited from SocketServer.StreamRequestHandler: finish, setup

Inherited from SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler: __init__

Class Variables [hide private]
  sys_version = 'Python/2.5'
  server_version = 'BaseHTTP/0.3'
  error_message_format = '<head>\n<title>Error response</title>\...
  weekdayname = ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri', 'Sat', 'Sun']
  monthname = [None, 'Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', '...
  protocol_version = 'HTTP/1.0'
  responses = {100: ('Continue', 'Request received, please conti...

Inherited from SocketServer.StreamRequestHandler: rbufsize, wbufsize

Method Details [hide private]

parse_request(self)

 

Parse a request (internal).

The request should be stored in self.raw_requestline; the results are in self.command, self.path, self.request_version and self.headers.

Return True for success, False for failure; on failure, an error is sent back.

handle_one_request(self)

 

Handle a single HTTP request.

You normally don't need to override this method; see the class __doc__ string for information on how to handle specific HTTP commands such as GET and POST.

handle(self)

 

Handle multiple requests if necessary.

Overrides: SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler.handle

send_error(self, code, message=None)

 

Send and log an error reply.

Arguments are the error code, and a detailed message. The detailed message defaults to the short entry matching the response code.

This sends an error response (so it must be called before any output has been generated), logs the error, and finally sends a piece of HTML explaining the error to the user.

send_response(self, code, message=None)

 

Send the response header and log the response code.

Also send two standard headers with the server software version and the current date.

log_request(self, code='-', size='-')

 

Log an accepted request.

This is called by send_response().

log_error(self, *args)

 

Log an error.

This is called when a request cannot be fulfilled. By default it passes the message on to log_message().

Arguments are the same as for log_message().

XXX This should go to the separate error log.

log_message(self, format, *args)

 

Log an arbitrary message.

This is used by all other logging functions. Override it if you have specific logging wishes.

The first argument, FORMAT, is a format string for the message to be logged. If the format string contains any % escapes requiring parameters, they should be specified as subsequent arguments (it's just like printf!).

The client host and current date/time are prefixed to every message.

address_string(self)

 

Return the client address formatted for logging.

This version looks up the full hostname using gethostbyaddr(), and tries to find a name that contains at least one dot.


Class Variable Details [hide private]

error_message_format

Value:
'''<head>
<title>Error response</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Error response</h1>
<p>Error code %(code)d.
<p>Message: %(message)s.
<p>Error code explanation: %(code)s = %(explain)s.
...

monthname

Value:
[None,
 'Jan',
 'Feb',
 'Mar',
 'Apr',
 'May',
 'Jun',
 'Jul',
...

responses

Value:
{100: ('Continue', 'Request received, please continue'),
 101: ('Switching Protocols',
       'Switching to new protocol; obey Upgrade header'),
 200: ('OK', 'Request fulfilled, document follows'),
 201: ('Created', 'Document created, URL follows'),
 202: ('Accepted', 'Request accepted, processing continues off-line'),
 203: ('Non-Authoritative Information',
       'Request fulfilled from cache'),
...