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140 lines
6.2 KiB
140 lines
6.2 KiB
HTTP Parser
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===========
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This is a parser for HTTP messages written in C. It parses both requests
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and responses. The parser is designed to be used in performance HTTP
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applications. It does not make any allocations, it does not buffer data, and
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it can be interrupted at anytime. Depending on your architecture, it only
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requires between 100 and 200 bytes of data per message stream (in a web
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server that is per connection).
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Features:
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* No dependencies
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* Parses both requests and responses.
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* Handles persistent streams.
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* Decodes chunked encoding.
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* Extracts the following data from a message
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* header fields and values
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* content-length
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* request method
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* response status code
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* transfer-encoding
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* http version
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* request path, query string, fragment
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* message body
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* Defends against buffer overflow attacks.
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Usage
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-----
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One `http_parser` object is used per TCP connection. Initialize the struct
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using `http_parser_init()` and set the callbacks. That might look something
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like this for a request parser:
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http_parser_settings settings;
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settings.on_path = my_path_callback;
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settings.on_header_field = my_header_field_callback;
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/* ... */
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settings.data = my_socket;
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http_parser *parser = malloc(sizeof(http_parser));
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http_parser_init(parser, HTTP_REQUEST);
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When data is received on the socket execute the parser and check for errors.
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size_t len = 80*1024, nparsed;
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char buf[len];
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ssize_t recved;
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recved = recv(fd, buf, len, 0);
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if (recved < 0) {
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/* Handle error. */
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}
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/* Start up / continue the parser.
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* Note we pass the recved==0 to http_parse_requests to signal
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* that EOF has been recieved.
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*/
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nparsed = http_parser_execute(parser, settings, buf, recved);
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if (nparsed != recved) {
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/* Handle error. Usually just close the connection. */
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}
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HTTP needs to know where the end of the stream is. For example, sometimes
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servers send responses without Content-Length and expect the client to
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consume input (for the body) until EOF. To tell http_parser about EOF, give
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`0` as the forth parameter to `http_parser_execute()`. Callbacks and errors
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can still be encountered during an EOF, so one must still be prepared
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to receive them.
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Scalar valued message information such as `status_code`, `method`, and the
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HTTP version are stored in the parser structure. This data is only
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temporally stored in `http_parser` and gets reset on each new message. If
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this information is needed later, copy it out of the structure during the
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`headers_complete` callback.
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The parser decodes the transfer-encoding for both requests and responses
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transparently. That is, a chunked encoding is decoded before being sent to
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the on_body callback.
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It does not decode the content-encoding (gzip). Not all HTTP applications
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need to inspect the body. Decoding gzip is non-neglagable amount of
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processing (and requires making allocations). HTTP proxies using this
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parser, for example, would not want such a feature.
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Callbacks
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---------
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During the `http_parser_execute()` call, the callbacks set in
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`http_parser_settings` will be executed. The parser maintains state and
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never looks behind, so buffering the data is not necessary. If you need to
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save certain data for later usage, you can do that from the callbacks.
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There are two types of callbacks:
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* notification `typedef int (*http_cb) (http_parser*);`
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Callbacks: on_message_begin, on_headers_complete, on_message_complete.
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* data `typedef int (*http_data_cb) (http_parser*, const char *at, size_t length);`
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Callbacks: (requests only) on_path, on_query_string, on_uri, on_fragment,
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(common) on_header_field, on_header_value, on_body;
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In case you parse HTTP message in chunks (i.e. `read()` request line
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from socket, parse, read half headers, parse, etc) your data callbacks
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may be called more than once. Http-parser guarantees that data pointer is only
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valid for the lifetime of callback. You can also `read()` into a heap allocated
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buffer to avoid copying memory around if this fits your application.
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Reading headers may be a tricky task if you read/parse headers partially.
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Basically, you need to remember whether last header callback was field or value
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and apply following logic:
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(on_header_field and on_header_value shortened to on_h_*)
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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| State (prev. callback) | Callback | Description/action |
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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| nothing (first call) | on_h_field | Allocate new buffer and copy callback data |
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| | | into it |
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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| value | on_h_field | New header started. |
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| | | Copy current name,value buffers to headers |
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| | | list and allocate new buffer for new name |
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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| field | on_h_field | Previous name continues. Reallocate name |
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| | | buffer and append callback data to it |
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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| field | on_h_value | Value for current header started. Allocate |
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| | | new buffer and copy callback data to it |
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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| value | on_h_value | Value continues. Reallocate value buffer |
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| | | and append callback data to it |
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------------------------ ------------ --------------------------------------------
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See examples of reading in headers:
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* [partial example](http://gist.github.com/155877) in C
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* [from http-parser tests](http://github.com/ry/http-parser/blob/37a0ff8928fb0d83cec0d0d8909c5a4abcd221af/test.c#L403) in C
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* [from Node library](http://github.com/ry/node/blob/842eaf446d2fdcb33b296c67c911c32a0dabc747/src/http.js#L284) in Javascript
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