*********************** HTTPie: cURL for Humans *********************** v0.2.8dev (`stable version`_) HTTPie is a **command line HTTP client** whose goal is to make CLI interaction with web services as **human-friendly** as possible. It provides a simple ``http`` command that allows for sending arbitrary HTTP requests with a simple and natural syntax, and displays colorized responses. HTTPie can be used for **testing, debugging**, and generally **interacting** with HTTP servers. .. image:: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/raw/master/httpie.png :alt: HTTPie compared to cURL :width: 835 :height: 835 HTTPie is written in Python, and under the hood it uses the excellent `Requests`_ for HTTP and `Pygments`_ for colorizing. **Table of Contents** .. contents:: :local: :depth: 1 :backlinks: none ============= Main Features ============= * Expressive and intuitive syntax * Formatted and colorized terminal output * Built-in JSON support * Forms and file uploads * HTTPS, proxies, and authentication * Arbitrary request data * Custom headers * Python 2.6 and Python 3 support * Linux, Mac OS X and Windows support * Documentation * Test coverage ============ Installation ============ The latest **stable version** of HTTPie can always be installed or updated to via `pip`_ (prefered) or ``easy_install``: .. code-block:: bash $ pip install -U httpie .. code-block:: bash $ easy_install httpie Or, you can install the **development version** directly from GitHub: .. image:: https://secure.travis-ci.org/jkbr/httpie.png :target: http://travis-ci.org/jkbr/httpie :alt: Build Status of the master branch .. code-block:: bash $ pip install -U https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/tarball/master There are also packages available for `Ubuntu`_, `Debian`_, and possibly other Linux distributions as well. However, they may be a significant delay between releases and package updates. ===== Usage ===== Hello World: .. code-block:: bash $ http httpie.org Synopsis: .. code-block:: bash $ http [flags] [METHOD] URL [ITEM [ITEM]] See also ``http --help``. -------- Examples -------- Custom `HTTP method`_, `HTTP headers`_ and `JSON`_ data: .. code-block:: bash $ http PUT example.org X-API-Token:123 name=John Submitting `forms`_: .. code-block:: bash $ http -f POST example.org hello=World See the request that is being sent using on of the `output options`_: .. code-block:: bash $ http -v example.org Use `Github API`_ to post a comment on an issue with `authentication`_: .. code-block:: bash $ http -a USERNAME POST https://api.github.com/repos/jkbr/httpie/issues/83/comments body='HTTPie is awesome!' Upload a file using `redirected input`_: .. code-block:: bash $ http example.org < file.json Download a file and save it via `redirected output`_: .. code-block:: bash $ http example.org/file > file -------- *What follows is a detailed documentation. It covers the command syntax, advances usage, and also features additional examples.* ============ HTTP Method ============ The name of the HTTP method comes right before the URL argument: .. code-block:: bash $ http DELETE example.org/todos/7 Which looks similar to the actual ``Request-Line`` that is sent: .. code-block:: http DELETE /todos/7 HTTP/1.1 When the ``METHOD`` argument is **omitted** from the command, HTTPie defaults to either ``GET`` (with no request data) or ``POST`` (with request data). =========== Request URL =========== The only information HTTPie needs to perform a request is a URL. The default scheme is, somewhat unsurprisingly, ``http://``, and can be omitted from the argument – ``http example.org`` works just fine. If find yourself manually constructing URLs with **querystring parameters** on the terminal, you may appreciate the ``param==value`` syntax for appending URL parameters so that you don't have to worry about escaping the ``&`` separators. To search for ``HTTPie`` on Google Images you could use this command: .. code-block:: bash $ http GET www.google.com search==HTTPie tbm==isch .. code-block:: http GET /?search=HTTPie&tbm=isch HTTP/1.1 ============= Request Items ============= There are five different *request item* types that provide a convenient mechanism for specifying HTTP headers, simple JSON and form data, files, and URL parameters. They are key/value pairs specified after the URL. All have in common that they become part of the actual request that is sent and that their type is distinguished only by the separator used: ``:``, ``=``, ``:=``, ``@``, and ``==``. +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Item Type | Description | +=======================+=====================================================+ | HTTP Headers | Arbitrary HTTP header, e.g. ``X-API-Token:123``. | | ``Name:Value`` | | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | URL parameters | Appends the given name/value pair as a query | | ``name==value`` | string parameter to the URL. | | | The ``==`` separator is used | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Data Fields | Request data fields to be serialized as a JSON | | ``field=value`` | object (default), or to be form encoded (``--form`` | | | / ``-f``). | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Raw JSON fields | Useful when sending JSON and one or | | ``field:=json`` | more fields need to be a ``Boolean``, ``Number``, | | | nested ``Object``, or an ``Array``, e.g., | | | ``meals:='["ham","spam"]'`` or ``pies:=[1,2,3]`` | | | (note the quotes). | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | Files | Only available with ``-f`` / ``--form``. | | ``field@/dir/file`` | For example ``screenshot@~/Pictures/img.png``. | | | The presence of a file field results | | | in a ``multipart/form-data`` request. | +-----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+ You can use ``\`` to escape characters that shouldn't be used as separators (or parts thereof). e.g., ``foo\==bar`` will become a data key/value pair (``foo=`` and ``bar``) instead of a URL parameter. Note that data fields aren't the only way to specify request data, `redirected input`_ allows passing arbitrary data to be sent with the request. ==== JSON ==== JSON is the *lingua franca* of modern web services and it is also the **default content type** HTTPie uses: If your command includes some data items, they are serialized as a JSON object by default. HTTPie also automatically sets the following headers, both of which can be overwritten: ================ ======================================= ``Content-Type`` ``application/json; charset=utf-8`` ``Accept`` ``application/json`` ================ ======================================= You can use ``--json`` / ``-j`` to set ``Accept`` to ``application/json`` regardless of whether you are sending data (it's a shortcut for setting the header via the usual header notation – ``http url Accept:application/json``). Simple example: .. code-block:: bash $ http PUT example.org name=John email=john@example.org .. code-block:: http PUT / HTTP/1.1 Accept: application/json Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 Host: example.org User-Agent: HTTPie/0.2.7dev { "name": "John", "email": "john@example.org" } Non-string fields use the ``:=`` separator, which allows you to embed raw JSON into the resulting object: .. code-block:: bash $ http PUT api.example.com/person/1 name=John age:=29 married:=false hobbies:='["http", "pies"]' .. code-block:: http PUT /person/1 HTTP/1.1 Accept: application/json Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 Host: api.example.com User-Agent: HTTPie/0.2.7dev { "age": 29, "hobbies": [ "http", "pies" ], "married": false, "name": "John" } Send JSON data stored in a file (see `redirected input`_ for more examples): .. code-block:: bash $ http POST api.example.com/person/1 < person.json ===== Forms ===== Submitting forms is very similar to sending `JSON`_ requests. Often the only difference is in adding the ``--form`` / ``-f`` option, which ensures that data fields are serialized as, and ``Content-Type`` is set to, ``application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8``. ------------- Regular Forms ------------- .. code-block:: bash $ http --form POST api.example.org/person/1 name='John Smith' email=john@example.org .. code-block:: http POST /person/1 HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: HTTPie/0.2.7dev Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8 name=John+Smith&email=john%40example.org ----------------- File Upload Forms ----------------- If one or more file fields is present, the serialization and content type is ``multipart/form-data``: .. code-block:: bash $ http -f POST example.com/jobs name='John Smith' cv@~/Documents/cv.pdf The request above is the same as if the following HTML form were submitted: .. code-block:: html
============ HTTP Headers ============ To set custom headers you can use the ``Header:Value`` notation: .. code-block:: bash $ http example.org User-Agent:Bacon/1.0 Cookie:valued-visitor=yes X-Foo:Bar Referer:http://httpie.org/ .. code-block:: http GET / HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip Cookie: valued-visitor=yes Host: example.org Referer: http://httpie.org/ User-Agent: Bacon/1.0 X-Foo: Bar There are a couple of default headers that HTTPie sets: .. code-block:: http GET / HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip User-Agent: HTTPie/ Host: Any of the default headers can be overwritten. ============== Authentication ============== The currently supported authentication schemes are Basic and Digest (more to come). There are two flags that control authentication: =================== ====================================================== ``--auth, -a`` Pass a ``username:password`` pair as the argument. Or, if you only specify a username (``-a username``), you'll be prompted for the password before the request is sent. To send a an empty password, pass ``username:``. ``--auth-type`` Specify the auth mechanism. Possible values are ``basic`` and ``digest``. The default value is ``basic`` so it can often be omitted. =================== ====================================================== Authorization information from ``.netrc`` is respected as well. Basic auth: .. code-block:: bash $ http -a username:password example.org Digest auth: .. code-block:: bash $ http --auth-type=digest -a username:password example.org With password prompt: .. code-block:: bash $ http -a username example.org ======= Proxies ======= You can specify proxies to be used through the ``--proxy`` argument: .. code-block:: bash http --proxy=http:10.10.1.10:3128 --https:10.10.1.10:1080 example.org With Basic authentication: .. code-block:: bash http --proxy=http:http://user:pass@10.10.1.10:3128 example.org You can also configure proxies by environment variables ``HTTP_PROXY`` and ``HTTPS_PROXY``, and the underlying Requests library will pick them up as well. If you want to disable proxies configured through the environment variables for certain hosts, you can specify them in ``NO_PROXY``. In your ``~/.bash_profile``: .. code-block:: bash export HTTP_PROXY=10.10.1.10:3128 export HTTPS_PROXY=10.10.1.10:1080 export NO_PROXY=localhost,example.com ===== HTTPS ===== To skip the host's SSL certificate verification, you can pass ``--verify=no`` (default is ``yes``). You can also use ``--verify`` to set a custom CA bundle path. The path can also be configured via the environment variable ``REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE``. ============== Output Options ============== By default, HTTPie outputs the whole response message (headers as well as the body). You can control what should be printed via several options: ================= ===================================================== ``--headers, -h`` Only the response headers are printed. ``--body, -b`` Only the response body is printed. ``--verbose, -v`` Print the whole HTTP exchange (request and response). ``--print, -p`` Selects parts of the HTTP exchange. ================= ===================================================== ``--verbose`` can often be useful for debugging the request and generating documentation examples: .. code-block:: bash $ http --verbose PUT httpbin.org/put hello=world PUT /put HTTP/1.1 Accept: application/json Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 Host: httpbin.org User-Agent: HTTPie/0.2.7dev { "hello": "world" } HTTP/1.1 200 OK Connection: keep-alive Content-Length: 477 Content-Type: application/json Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:25:23 GMT Server: gunicorn/0.13.4 { […] } All the other options are just a shortcut for ``--print`` / ``-p``. It accepts a string of characters each of which represents a specific part of the HTTP exchange: ========== ================== Character Stands for ========== ================== ``H`` Request headers. ``B`` Request body. ``h`` Response headers. ``b`` Response body. ========== ================== Print request and response headers: .. code-block:: bash $ http --print=Hh PUT httpbin.org/put hello=world ------------------------- Conditional Body Download ------------------------- As an optimization, the response body is downloaded from the server only if it's part of the output. This is similar to performing a ``HEAD`` request, except that it applies to any HTTP method you use. Let's say that there is an API that returns the whole resource when it is updated, but you are only interested in the response headers to see the status code after an update: .. code-block:: bash $ http --headers PATCH example.org/Really-Huge-Resource name='New Name' Since we are only printing the HTTP headers here, the connection to the server is closed as soon as all the response headers have been received. Therefore, bandwidth and time isn't wasted downloading the body which you don't care about. The response headers are downloaded always, even if they are not part of the output ================ Redirected Input ================ **A universal method for passing request data is through redirected** ``stdin`` (standard input). Such data is buffered and then with no further processing used as the request body. There are multiple useful ways to use piping: Redirect from a file: .. code-block:: bash $ http PUT example.com/person/1 X-API-Token:123 < person.json Or the output of another program: .. code-block:: bash $ grep /var/log/httpd/error_log '401 Unauthorized' | http POST example.org/intruders You can use ``echo`` for simple data: .. code-block:: bash $ echo '{"name": "John"}' | http PATCH example.com/person/1 X-API-Token:123 You can even pipe web services together using HTTPie: .. code-block:: bash $ http GET https://api.github.com/repos/jkbr/httpie | http POST httpbin.org/post You can use ``cat`` to enter multiline data on the terminal: .. code-block:: bash $ cat | http POST example.com ^D .. code-block:: bash $ cat | http POST example.com/todos Content-Type:text/plain - buy milk - call parents ^D On OS X, you can send the contents of the clipboard with ``pbpaste``: .. code-block:: bash $ pbpaste | http PUT example.com Passing data through ``stdin`` cannot be combined with data fields specified on the command line. ------------------------- Body Data From a Filename ------------------------- **An alternative to redirected** ``stdin`` is specifying a filename (as ``@/path/to/file``) whose content is used as if it came from ``stdin``. It has the advantage that **the** ``Content-Type`` **header is automatically set** to the appropriate value based on the filename extension. For example, the following request sends the verbatim contents of that XML file with ``Content-Type: application/xml``: .. code-block:: bash $ http PUT httpbin.org/put @/data/file.xml ================= Terminal Output ================= HTTPie does several things by default in order to make its terminal output easy to read. --------------------- Colors and Formatting --------------------- Syntax highlighting is applied to HTTP headers and bodies (where it makes sense). You can choose your prefered color scheme via the ``--style`` option if you don't like the default one (see ``$ http --help`` for the possible values). Also, the following formatting is applied: * HTTP headers are sorted by name. * JSON data is indented, sorted by keys, and unicode escapes are converted to the characters they represent. One of these options can be used to control output processing: ==================== ======================================================== ``--pretty=all`` Apply both colors and formatting. Default for terminal output. ``--pretty=colors`` Apply colors. ``--pretty=format`` Apply formatting. ``--pretty=none`` Disables output processing. Default for redirected output. ==================== ======================================================== ----------- Binary data ----------- Binary data is suppressed for terminal output, which makes it safe to perform requests to URLs that send back binary data. Binary data is suppressed also in redirected, but prettified output. The connection is closed as soon as we know that the response body is binary, .. code-block:: bash http example.org/Movie.mov You will nearly instantly see something like this: .. code-block:: http HTTP/1.1 200 OK Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Encoding: gzip Content-Type: video/quicktime Transfer-Encoding: chunked +-----------------------------------------+ | NOTE: binary data not shown in terminal | +-----------------------------------------+ ================= Redirected Output ================= HTTPie uses **different defaults** for redirected output than for `terminal output`_: * Formatting and colors aren't applied (unless ``--pretty`` is specified). * Only the response body is printed (unless one of the `output options`_ is set). * Also, binary data isn't suppressed. The reason is to make piping HTTPie's output to another programs and downloading files work with no extra flags. Most of the time, only the raw response body is of an interest when the output is redirected. Download a file: .. code-block:: bash $ http example.org/Movie.mov > Movie.mov Download an image of Octocat, resize it using ImageMagick, upload it elsewhere: .. code-block:: bash $ http octodex.github.com/images/original.jpg | convert - -resize 25% - | http example.org/Octocats Force colorizing and formatting, and show both the request and the response in ``less`` pager: .. code-block:: bash $ http --pretty=all --verbose example.org | less -R The ``-R`` flag tells ``less`` to interpret color escape sequences included HTTPie`s output. ================== Streamed Responses ================== Responses are downloaded and printed in chunks, which allows for streaming and large file downloads without using too much RAM. However, when `colors and formatting`_ is applied, the whole response is buffered and only then processed at once. You can use the ``--stream, -S`` flag to make two things happen: 1. The output is flushed in **much smaller chunks** without any buffering, which makes HTTPie behave kind of like ``tail -f`` for URLs. 2. Streaming becomes enabled even when the output is prettified: It will be applied to **each line** of the response and flushed immediately. This makes it possible to have a nice output for long-lived requests, such as one to the Twitter streaming API. Prettified streamed response: .. code-block:: bash $ http --stream -f -a YOUR-TWITTER-NAME https://stream.twitter.com/1/statuses/filter.json track='Justin Bieber' Streamed output by small chunks alá ``tail -f``: .. code-block:: bash # Send each new tweet (JSON object) mentioning "Apple" to another # server as soon as it arrives from the Twitter streaming API: $ http --stream -f -a YOUR-TWITTER-NAME https://stream.twitter.com/1/statuses/filter.json track=Apple \ | while read tweet; do echo "$tweet" | http POST example.org/tweets ; done ========= Scripting ========= When using HTTPie from **shell scripts**, it can be handy to set the ``--check-status`` flag. It instructs HTTPie to exit with an error if the HTTP status is one of ``3xx``, ``4xx``, or ``5xx``. The exit status will be ``3`` (unless ``--allow-redirects`` is set), ``4``, or ``5``, respectively. Also, the ``--timeout`` option allows to overwrite the default 30s timeout: .. code-block:: bash #!/bin/bash if http --timeout=2.5 --check-status HEAD example.org/health &> /dev/null; then echo 'OK!' else case $? in 2) echo 'Request timed out!' ;; 3) echo 'Unexpected HTTP 3xx Redirection!' ;; 4) echo 'HTTP 4xx Client Error!' ;; 5) echo 'HTTP 5xx Server Error!' ;; *) echo 'Other Error!' ;; esac fi ================ Interface Design ================ The syntax of the command arguments closely corresponds to the actual HTTP requests sent over the wire. It has the advantage that it's easy to remember and read. It is often possible to translate an HTTP request to an HTTPie argument list just by inlining the request elements. For example, compare this HTTP request: .. code-block:: http POST /collection HTTP/1.1 X-API-Key: 123 User-Agent: Bacon/1.0 Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded name=value&name2=value2 with the HTTPie command that sends it: .. code-block:: bash $ http -f POST example.org/collection \ X-API-Key:123 \ User-Agent:Bacon/1.0 \ name=value \ name2=value2 Notice that both the order of elements and the syntax is very similar, and that only a small portion of the command is used to control HTTPie and doesn't directly correspond to any part of the request (here it's only ``-f`` asking HTTPie to send a form request). The two modes, ``--pretty=all`` (default for terminal) and ``--pretty=none`` (default for redirected output), allow for both user-friendly interactive use and usage from scripts, where HTTPie serves as a generic HTTP client. As HTTPie is still under heavy development, the existing command line syntax and some of the ``--OPTIONS`` may change slightly before HTTPie reaches its final version ``1.0``. All changes are recorded in the `changelog`_. ========== Contribute ========== Bug reports and code and documentation patches are greatly appretiated. You can also help by using the development version of HTTPie and reporting any bugs you might encounter. Before working on a new feature or a bug, please browse the `existing issues`_ to see whether it has been previously discussed. If the change in question is a bigger one, it's always good to discuss before your starting working on it. Then fork and clone `the repository`_. It's very useful to point the ``http`` command to your local branch during development. To do so, install HTTPie with ``pip`` in editable mode: .. code-block:: bash $ pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall --editable . Please run the existing suite of tests before a pull request is submitted: .. code-block:: bash python setup.py test `Tox`_ can also be used to conveniently run tests in all of the `supported Python environments`_: .. code-block:: bash # Install tox pip install tox # Run tests tox Don't forget to add yourself to `AUTHORS.rst`_. ======= Authors ======= `Jakub Roztocil`_ (`@jakubroztocil`_) created HTTPie and `these fine people`_ have contributed. ======= Licence ======= Please see `LICENSE`_. ========= Changelog ========= *You can click a version name to see a diff with the previous one.* * `0.2.8dev`_ * CRLF HTTP header field separation in the output. * Added exit status code ``2`` for timed-out requests. * Added the option to separate colorizing and formatting (``--pretty=all``, ``--pretty=colors`` and ``--pretty=format``). ``--ugly`` has bee removed in favor of ``--pretty=none``. * `0.2.7`_ (2012-08-07) * Compatibility with Requests 0.13.6. * Streamed terminal output. ``--stream`` / ``-S`` can be used to enable streaming also with ``--pretty`` and to ensure a more frequent output flushing. * Support for efficient large file downloads. * Sort headers by name (unless ``--pretty=none``). * Response body is fetched only when needed (e.g., not with ``--headers``). * Improved content type matching. * Updated Solarized color scheme. * Windows: Added ``--output FILE`` to store output into a file (piping results in corrupted data on Windows). * Proper handling of binary requests and responses. * Fixed printing of ``multipart/form-data`` requests. * Renamed ``--traceback`` to ``--debug``. * `0.2.6`_ (2012-07-26) * The short option for ``--headers`` is now ``-h`` (``-t`` has been removed, for usage use ``--help``). * Form data and URL parameters can have multiple fields with the same name (e.g.,``http -f url a=1 a=2``). * Added ``--check-status`` to exit with an error on HTTP 3xx, 4xx and 5xx (3, 4, and 5, respectively). * If the output is piped to another program or redirected to a file, the default behaviour is to only print the response body. (It can still be overwritten via the ``--print`` flag.) * Improved highlighting of HTTP headers. * Added query string parameters (``param==value``). * Added support for terminal colors under Windows. * `0.2.5`_ (2012-07-17) * Unicode characters in prettified JSON now don't get escaped for improved readability. * --auth now prompts for a password if only a username provided. * Added support for request payloads from a file path with automatic ``Content-Type`` (``http URL @/path``). * Fixed missing query string when displaying the request headers via ``--verbose``. * Fixed Content-Type for requests with no data. * `0.2.2`_ (2012-06-24) * The ``METHOD`` positional argument can now be omitted (defaults to ``GET``, or to ``POST`` with data). * Fixed --verbose --form. * Added support for `Tox`_. * `0.2.1`_ (2012-06-13) * Added compatibility with ``requests-0.12.1``. * Dropped custom JSON and HTTP lexers in favor of the ones newly included in ``pygments-1.5``. * `0.2.0`_ (2012-04-25) * Added Python 3 support. * Added the ability to print the HTTP request as well as the response (see ``--print`` and ``--verbose``). * Added support for Digest authentication. * Added file upload support (``http -f POST file_field_name@/path/to/file``). * Improved syntax highlighting for JSON. * Added support for field name escaping. * Many bug fixes. * `0.1.6`_ (2012-03-04) .. _Requests: http://python-requests.org .. _Pygments: http://pygments.org/ .. _pip: http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/index.html .. _Tox: http://tox.testrun.org .. _Github API: http://developer.github.com/v3/issues/comments/#create-a-comment .. _supported Python environments: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/blob/master/tox.ini .. _Ubuntu: http://packages.ubuntu.com/httpie .. _Debian: http://packages.debian.org/httpie .. _the repository: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie .. _these fine people: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/contributors .. _Jakub Roztocil: http://roztocil.name .. _@jakubroztocil: https://twitter.com/jakubroztocil .. _existing issues: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/issues?state=open .. _0.1.6: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.1.4...0.1.6 .. _0.2.0: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.1.6...0.2.0 .. _0.2.1: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.0...0.2.1 .. _0.2.2: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.1...0.2.2 .. _0.2.5: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.2...0.2.5 .. _0.2.6: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.5...0.2.6 .. _0.2.7: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.5...0.2.7 .. _0.2.8dev: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/compare/0.2.7...master .. _stable version: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/tree/0.2.7#readme .. _AUTHORS.rst: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/blob/master/AUTHORS.rst .. _LICENSE: https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/blob/master/LICENSE