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Content-Length header is missing in POST/DELETE/PUT/PATCH requests without body #987
Description
Checklist
- I searched the HTTPX documentation but couldn't find what I'm looking for.
- I looked through similar issues on GitHub, but didn't find anything.
- I looked up "How to do ... in HTTPX" on a search engine and didn't find any information.
- I asked the community chat for help
but didn't get an answer.and decided to create an issue. :)
Environment
httpx version: 0.13.1
Python version: 3.7.3
OS: Windows 7
Question
I am not sure how to classify this issue: it could be a bug, since it is an incompatible with requests, on the other hand, it could be feature request, if you consider it is not that important. So, I decided to go with question. :D
Was replacing requests with httpx in my small script and received an error from the server httpx._exceptions.HTTPError: 411 Client Error: Length Required for url: ... while doing a POST request without a body (same behavior is applicable for PUT and PATCH requests too).
Steps to reproduce:
import requests
import httpx
for client in (requests, httpx):
for method in ("get", "head", "delete", "post", "put", "patch"):
r = client.request(method, f"https://httpbin.org/headers")
print(
f"[{client.__name__}] method={method.upper()} "
f'Content-Length={r.request.headers.get("Content-Length")}'
)requests adds Content-Length header in every possible http method, except GET and HEAD.
httpx does not add Content-Length header at all, unless requests has a body.
#866 added Content-Length to all methods, but since it is not needed in GET and HEAD methods, it was reverted.
I assume, it should be handled during the Request building.
httpx decides whether to add Content-Length depending on the steam type, which is handled in _content_streams.py#L314.
Thoughts on how to solve it
To be honest, I am not sure what is the proper way to deal with this. :-(
My first idea was to use method inside the stream:
class ByteStream(ContentStream):
def __init__(self, body: typing.Union[str, bytes], method: str) -> None:
self.body = body.encode("utf-8") if isinstance(body, str) else body
self.method = method
def get_headers(self) -> typing.Dict[str, str]:
if self.method in ("GET", "HEAD"):
return {}
content_length = str(len(self.body)) if self.body else "0"
return {"Content-Length": content_length}But this approach is not great, since it requires to pass method from Request to encode and then to ByteStream inside it. Also, it is not clear what method should I use when building stream in read methods.
Please, let me know what you think. Thanks!
Activity
yeraydiazdiaz commentedon May 24, 2020
I believe this is a bug as we're not following the RFC:
florimondmanca commentedon May 24, 2020
Thanks!
As you mentioned I think it's best if content streams stay agnostic of the HTTP semantics here.
The
.get_headers()method is called inRequest.prepare(), so other options I can see as far as implementation goes….get_headers(method=...); this would fix the "passmethoddown the content stream chain" item but streams would then have to be aware of HTTP semantics, not great.Content-Lengthin all cases, but ignore that header inRequest.prepare()ifmethoddoes not accept a body.lovelydinosaur commentedon May 24, 2020
I’d suggest auto including it in Request.prepare, if the method requires one, and none is currently present.
florimondmanca commentedon May 24, 2020
^Sounds good to me too — let the content stream not return a
Content-Lengthif there's no body, and add a defaultContent-Length: 0in the request if it's required by the method.lovelydinosaur commentedon May 25, 2020
We should cover
POST,PUT, andPATCHhere.And