HTTP(1) DACS Commands Manual HTTP(1)
NAME
http - perform an HTTP/HTTPS request
SYNOPSIS
http [-get | -post | -delete | -head | -options | -soptions | -put] [-ll log_level]
[-prompt] [-v] [--version] [[-ct string] | [--content-type string]]
[{-header name value}...] [-headers filename] [-body filename] [-ih]
[-user-agent string] [{-p name value}...] [-proto version-num] [-proxy proxyhost:proxyport]
[-proxymatch hostname[:port] proxyhost:proxyport] [-f name filename] [{-cookies filename}...] [-ah] [-ssl command-line]
[-ssl-flags flags] uri
DESCRIPTION
This program is part of the DACS suite. It is a stand-alone program that neither accepts the usual DACS command line options
(dacsoptions[1]) nor accesses any DACS configuration files.
This general-purpose utility sends an HTTP/HTTPS request for uri to a web server and prints the reply to its standard output.
http will automatically follow redirects according to RFC 2616[2] and up to a compile-time maximum, unless the -prompt flag is given. A
non-standard extension is that a redirect to a non-absolute URI is interpreted in a manner compatible with most browsers.
Note
DACS can issue its own HTTP requests, such as from dacs_authenticate to an external authentication module. This HTTP functionality is
provided by the same support code that the http command uses, and therefore much of the following information applies to these
internally generated requests also (e.g., HTTP_PROG[3], SSL_PROG[4], SSL_PROG_ARGS[5], SSL_PROG_CA_CRT[6], SSL_PROG_CLIENT_CRT[7],
VFS[8]).
OPTIONS
The HTTP GET method is used by default, but some flags implicitly select a different method (e.g., -f and -p). One of the following flags
can be used to explicitly specify the HTTP method, provided it is compatible with the other options:
-get
Use the GET method (the default).
-post
Use the POST method.
-head
Use the HEAD method.
-put
Use the PUT method.
-delete
Use the DELETE method.
-options
Use the OPTIONS method.
-soptions
Use the OPTIONS method but ignore anything that follows the authority component of uri and instead use the special case "*" request URI
that means that the request applies to the server itself rather than to a particular resource.
These command line flags are also recognized:
-ah
If cookies (credentials) are to be sent (see -cookies), use an Authorization header rather than a Cookie header.
-body filename
Read the message body from filename. It is assumed that the body has already been appropriately formatted for the request's content
type.
-cookies filename
Obtain cookies from filename, one per line, to send with the request using the Cookie header. Multiple cookies are separated using a
semi-colon, which follows the Netscape spec[9]. Alternatively, multiple cookies can be combined on a single line, separated by either a
semi-colon or a comma (following RFC 2109[10] or RFC 2965[11]). This argument may be repeated.
-ct string
--content-type string
Set the Content-Type request-header to string. If the request has an entity-body, the default Content-Type is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded; if the request does not have an entity-body, by default the Content-Type request-header is not set.
-f name filename
Passes and encodes the contents of filename as the value for name. By default, the POST method will be used, although PUT and OPTIONS
can be selected. If filename is "-", the standard input is read; this form can only be used once on the command line. This argument may
be repeated.
-header name value
This flag, which may be repeated, causes the HTTP header name: value to be sent with the request. Neither name nor value are checked in
any way.
Note
This will not override headers required or implied by other command line flags; for example, the following flags are not
equivalent:
-header User-Agent foo
-user-agent foo
The former case will send the User-Agent header twice.
-headers filename
Read additional message headers from filename, one per line, and send them with the request (refer to the -header flag). This flag may
be repeated.
-ih
Include the HTTP response headers in the output. They are terminated by a blank line. The status line is labelled "Status-Line".
-ll log_level
Set the debugging output level to log_level (see dacs(1)[12]). The default level is warn, and the -v flag bumps the level to debug or
trace.
-p name value
Passes and encodes name=value as part of the entity-body. By default, the POST method will be used, although PUT and OPTIONS can be
selected. This argument may be repeated.
-prompt
Prompt the user for permission to proceed after certain events, such as receiving a redirect; the response is affirmative only if it is
"yes" or "y". If this option is not specified, the affirmative action will automatically be taken.
-proto version-num
Function in compliance with version-num of the HTTP protocol (e.g., 1.0).
-proxy proxyhost:proxyport
Forward all HTTP requests (except for those that match a -proxymatch flag) to the proxy server at proxyport (a numeric port number or
recognized service name) on proxyhost (a domain name or IP address). Proxying is not fully supported by http, but it will connect to
the specified proxy server instead of the server implied by uri.
-proxymatch hostname[:port] proxyhost:proxyport
If hostname matches the host specified in uri, proxy the HTTP request through proxyhost (a domain name or IP address) at proxyport (a
numeric port number or recognized service name). If port is not given, it is assumed to be 80 (for the http scheme) or 443 (for the
https scheme). Matching is done by resolving hostname to an IP address (if necessary) and comparing it to the effective IP address that
is specified by uri. This flag is given priority over the -proxy flag, so it can be used to override a default proxy server.
Note
This option is not implemented. The SSL flags apply to all connections; this is probably a bug.
-ssl command-line
This flag indicates that HTTPS (i.e, HTTP over an SSL connection) is to be used, regardless of the scheme specified by uri. Because
http does not directly include SSL functionality, it uses pipes to communicate with an external program that provides the SSL
connection. The sslclient(1)[13] command is strongly recommended for this purpose (version 3.26 of stunnel(1) and stunnel3, which comes
with some releases of stunnel-4.x, might also work).
The command-line is a complete shell command line that will be used to run the program as a filter. For example, this argument might
look like either of:
-ssl "/usr/local/dacs/bin/sslclient example.com:443"
-ssl "/usr/local/bin/stunnel -c -r example.com:443"
If the -ssl argument is absent but the uri argument uses the https scheme, http will still try to use SSL. It will attempt to use
sslclient(1)[13] and assume it is in its default location. If the -ssl argument is present but specifies only one string, that string
is assumed to be the path to sslclient(1)[13]. The first example below will run sslclient(1)[13] from /tmp/sslclient to connect to port
443 at example.com; the second example has the same effect but will run sslclient(1)[13] from its default location:
% http -ssl "/tmp/sslclient" https://example.com
% http https://example.com
-ssl-flags flags
If SSL operation is enabled but the -ssl flag is absent or did not simply specify a pathname, append flags to the list of arguments to
be passed to the external SSL provider; when the -ssl flag specifies more than one argument, this flag is ignored. The flags string is
a space-separated list of arguments. This flag may be repeated.
For example, in this example http will invoke sslclient with the two arguments -sm and bobo.example.com:
% http -ssl-flags "-sm bobo.example.com" https://example.com
If a wildcard server certificate is used, it may be necessary to explicitly match all hosts within a specific domain:
% http -ssl-flags "-sm .*.example.com" https://example.com
Important
When called by http, error messages produced by sslclient may be lost. If you encounter problems with SSL operation, work with
sslclient(1)[13] to ensure that an SSL connection can be established, or to determine and resolve the problem. If you discover that
sslclient requires command line flags for proper operation, you will need to make sure that http passes those flags to it.
-user-agent string
Set the User-Agent request-header to string. If not provided, this string will have the prefix "DACS-http/", followed by a DACS release
identifier (example: "DACS-http/1.4.1").
-v
Increase the level of debugging output. This will cause response headers to be displayed, for example. The flag may be repeated.
--version
Print version information to stderr, then exit immediately.
The uri argument is the URL to invoke. It may include a query string suffix (even if HTTP POST is selected).
Whether selected implicitly or explicitly, the command line must specify exactly one of the HTTP methods.
Request headers specified using the -header or -headers flags are sent in the order in which the flags appear on the command line. If they
are read from a file, there ordering is maintained.
EXAMPLES
The following will retrieve RFC 2616[2] and save it in rfc2616.txt:
% http "http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt" > rfc2616.txt
This will do a GET on the given URL, passing the query string foo=baz, and writing the result to stdout:
% http "https://example.com/cgi-bin/dacs/dacs_prenv?foo=baz"
This will do a POST on the given URL, passing two arguments:
% http -p foo baz -p bar zork https://example.com/cgi-bin/dacs/dacs_prenv
This will make an HTTP GET method request over SSL to the given URL:
% http -ssl "/usr/local/dacs/bin/sslclient example.com:443"
https://example.com/cgi-bin/dacs/dacs_prenv
DIAGNOSTICS
The program exits 0 if everything was fine, 1 if an error occurred.
BUGS
Use of an SSL provider other than sslclient(1)[13] is officially deprecated. Recent development makes it doubtful that any other program
will function properly with http.
It is only a partial implementation of RFC 2616[2] (HTTP 1.0). It only talks HTTP (no other URI schemes are supported). Received cookies
are discarded, there is no support for RFC 2617[14] authentication, and no client-side caching is performed. http should not require an
external program to provide SSL functionality. The program is a bit confused about when it should be able to send a message body.
SEE ALSO
sslclient(1)[13], lynx(1)[15], curl(1)[16], Wget(1)[17], RFC 1738[18], RFC 2396[19], RFC 2616[2], RFC 3986[20]
AUTHOR
Distributed Systems Software (www.dss.ca[21])
COPYING
Copyright2003-2012 Distributed Systems Software. See the LICENSE[22] file that accompanies the distribution for licensing information.
NOTES
1. dacsoptions
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html#dacsoptions
2. RFC 2616
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt
3. HTTP_PROG
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#HTTP_PROG
4. SSL_PROG
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#SSL_PROG
5. SSL_PROG_ARGS
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#SSL_PROG_ARGS
6. SSL_PROG_CA_CRT
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#SSL_PROG_CA_CRT
7. SSL_PROG_CLIENT_CRT
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#SSL_PROG_CLIENT_CRT
8. VFS
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.conf.5.html#VFS
9. Netscape spec
http://web.archive.org/web/20070805052634/http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html
10. RFC 2109
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2109.txt
11. RFC 2965
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2965.txt
12. dacs(1)
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/dacs.1.html
13. sslclient(1)
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/sslclient.1.html
14. RFC 2617
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2617.txt
15. lynx(1)
http://lynx.isc.org
16. curl(1)
http://directory.fsf.org/All_Packages_in_Directory/cURL.html
17. Wget(1)
http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html
18. RFC 1738
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt
19. RFC 2396
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt
20. RFC 3986
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt
21. www.dss.ca
http://www.dss.ca
22. LICENSE
http://dacs.dss.ca/man/../misc/LICENSE
DACS 1.4.27b 10/22/2012 HTTP(1)