Bug #20077: modern http client

• Status: Feedback
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -
• Backport: 3.0: UNKNOWN, 3.1: UNKNOWN, 3.2: UNKNOWN

[pynix (Pynix wang)]

net/http is very very old and hard to use.

we need a well designed http client in stdlib.

[kjtsanaktsidis (KJ Tsanaktsidis)]

• Status changed from Open to Feedback

It would be good if you could outline in more detail:

• What, exactly, about net/http you find hard to use?
• Some use-cases where net/http causes problems which could be improved with a different client interface
• Why this use-case can't be solved by using one of the many popular Rubygems for this, like Faraday, HTTParty, etc?
• What you feel the relationship between stdlib & these gems should be?
• Since you mentioned that it's "very very old", whether there is something specific about its age which is a problem? (e.g. are there design assumptions it makes which no longer stack up today?)

Without a more specific use-case beyond "net/http is hard to use" it's hard to have a meaningful discussion.

[k0kubun (Takashi Kokubun)]

For GET and POST, modern Ruby does have APIs that aren't hard to use. I wonder if you have used them.

• Net::HTTP.get(uri, headers = {}): Ruby 3.0+ https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16686
• Net::HTTP.post(uri, body, headers = {}): Ruby 2.4+ https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/12375

[pynix (Pynix wang)]

HTTP.get return body as string,

other http method return response

there is get_print, maybe for scripting.

HTTP:Client api is also hard to use.

can we deprecate net/*

and get an modern http client (or server) in std.

http.rb is great.

[k0kubun (Takashi Kokubun)]

HTTP.get return body as string,
other http method return response
there is get_print, maybe for scripting.

If you look at what HTTP.get does, it's just HTTP.get_response(...).body. You may use HTTP.get_response for that purpose.

[pynix (Pynix wang)]

I know，but this is the bad part，they are http verb，but some return response，some return body string.

all verb method should return response object, modify net/http will break compatibility.

so I suggest opt out net/http and webrick, introduce new http/client and http/server based on llhttp that nodejs used.