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HTTP protocol client</TITLE>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0013300000000000000000">
11.3 <tt class=module>httplib</tt> --
         HTTP protocol client</A>
</H1>

<P>


<P>
<a name="l2h-1626"></a>

<P>
This module defines a class which implements the client side of the
HTTP protocol.  It is normally not used directly -- the module
<tt class=module><a href="module-urllib.html">urllib</a></tt><a name="l2h-1627"></a> uses it to handle URLs that
use HTTP.

<P>
The module defines one class, <tt class=class>HTTP</tt>:

<P>
<dl><dt><b><a name="l2h-1625"><tt class=class>HTTP</tt></a></b> (<big>[</big><var>host</var><big>[</big><var>, port</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>)
<dd>
An <tt class=class>HTTP</tt> 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 <tt><var>host</var>:<var>port</var></tt>, else the default HTTP port (80)
is used.  If no host is passed, no connection is made, and the
<tt class=method>connect()</tt> method should be used to connect to a server.  For
example, the following calls all create instances that connect to the
server at the same host and port:

<P>
<dl><dd><pre class=verbatim>
&gt;&gt;&gt; h1 = httplib.HTTP('www.cwi.nl')
&gt;&gt;&gt; h2 = httplib.HTTP('www.cwi.nl:80')
&gt;&gt;&gt; h3 = httplib.HTTP('www.cwi.nl', 80)
</pre></dl>

<P>
Once an <tt class=class>HTTP</tt> instance has been connected to an HTTP server, it
should be used as follows:

<P>
<DL COMPACT>
<DD><P>
<DT>1.
<DD>Make exactly one call to the <tt class=method>putrequest()</tt> method.

<P>
<DT>2.
<DD>Make zero or more calls to the <tt class=method>putheader()</tt> method.

<P>
<DT>3.
<DD>Call the <tt class=method>endheaders()</tt> method (this can be omitted if
step 4 makes no calls).

<P>
<DT>4.
<DD>Optional calls to the <tt class=method>send()</tt> method.

<P>
<DT>5.
<DD>Call the <tt class=method>getreply()</tt> method.

<P>
<DT>6.
<DD>Call the <tt class=method>getfile()</tt> method and read the data off the
file object that it returns.

<P>
</DL>
</dl>

<P>

<p><hr>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html2988"
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