Provided by: libhttp-proxy-perl_0.304-3_all 
NAME
HTTP::Proxy - A pure Perl HTTP proxy
SYNOPSIS
use HTTP::Proxy;
# initialisation
my $proxy = HTTP::Proxy->new( port => 3128 );
# alternate initialisation
my $proxy = HTTP::Proxy->new;
$proxy->port( 3128 ); # the classical accessors are here!
# this is a MainLoop-like method
$proxy->start;
DESCRIPTION
This module implements an HTTP proxy, using an HTTP::Daemon to accept client connections,
and an LWP::UserAgent to ask for the requested pages.
The most interesting feature of this proxy object is its ability to filter the HTTP
requests and responses through user-defined filters.
Once the proxy is created, with the "new()" method, it is possible to alter its behaviour
by adding so-called "filters." This is done by the "push_filter()" method. Once the filter
is ready to run, it can be launched, with the "start()" method. This method does not
normally return until the proxy is killed or otherwise stopped.
An important thing to note is that the proxy is (except when running the "NoFork" engine)
a forking proxy: it doesn't support passing information between child processes, and you
can count on reliable information passing only during a single HTTP connection (request +
response).
FILTERS
You can alter the way the default HTTP::Proxy works by plugging callbacks (filter objects,
actually) at different stages of the request/response handling.
When a request is received by the HTTP::Proxy object, it is filtered through a standard
filter that transforms the request according to RFC 2616 (by adding the "Via:" header, and
other transformations). This is the default, bare minimum behaviour.
The response is also filtered in the same manner. There is a total of four filter chains:
"request-headers", "request-body", "response-headers" and "response-body".
You can add your own filters to the default ones with the "push_filter()" method. The
method pushes a filter on the appropriate filter stack.
$proxy->push_filter( response => $filter );
The headers/body category is determined by the base class of the filter. There are two
base classes for filters, which are HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter and HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter
(the names are self-explanatory). See the documentation of those two classes to find out
how to write your own header and body filters.
The named parameter is used to determine the request/response part.
It is possible to push the same filter on the request and response stacks, as in the
following example:
$proxy->push_filter( request => $filter, response => $filter );
If several filters match the message, they will be applied in the order they were pushed
on their filter stack.
Named parameters can be used to create the match routine. They are:
method - the request method
scheme - the URI scheme
host - the URI authority (host:port)
path - the URI path
query - the URI query string
mime - the MIME type (for a response-body filter)
The filters are applied only when all the the parameters match the request or the
response. All these named parameters have default values, which are:
method => 'OPTIONS,GET,HEAD,POST,PUT,DELETE,TRACE,CONNECT'
scheme => 'http'
host => ''
path => ''
query => ''
mime => 'text/*'
The "mime" parameter is a glob-like string, with a required "/" character and a "*" as a
wildcard. Thus, "*/*" matches all responses, and "" those with no "Content-Type:" header.
To match any repines (with or without a "Content-Type:" header), use "undef".
The "mime" parameter is only meaningful with the "response-body" filter stack. It is
ignored if passed to any other filter stack.
The "method" and "scheme" parameters are strings consisting of comma-separated values. The
"host" and "path" parameters are regular expressions.
A match routine is compiled by the proxy and used to check if a particular request or
response must be filtered through a particular filter.
It is also possible to push several filters on the same stack with the same match
subroutine:
# convert italics to bold
$proxy->push_filter(
mime => 'text/html',
response => HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::tags->new(),
response => HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::simple->new(
sub { ${ $_[1] } =~ s!(</?)i>!$1b>!ig }
)
);
For more details regarding the creation of new filters, check the
HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter and HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter documentation.
Here's an example of subclassing a base filter class:
# fixes a common typo ;-)
# but chances are that this will modify a correct URL
{
package FilterPerl;
use base qw( HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter );
sub filter {
my ( $self, $dataref, $message, $protocol, $buffer ) = @_;
$$dataref =~ s/PERL/Perl/g;
}
}
$proxy->push_filter( response => FilterPerl->new() );
Other examples can be found in the documentation for HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter,
HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter, HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter::simple,
HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::simple.
# a simple anonymiser
# see eg/anonymiser.pl for the complete code
$proxy->push_filter(
mime => undef,
request => HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter::simple->new(
sub { $_[1]->remove_header(qw( User-Agent From Referer Cookie )) },
),
response => HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter::simple->new(
sub { $_[1]->remove_header(qw( Set-Cookie )); },
)
);
IMPORTANT: If you use your own LWP::UserAgent, you must install it before your calls to
"push_filter()", otherwise the match method will make wrong assumptions about the schemes
your agent supports.
NOTE: It is likely that possibility of changing the agent or the daemon may disappear in
future versions.
METHODS
Constructor and initialisation
new()
The "new()" method creates a new HTTP::Proxy object. All attributes can be passed as
parameters to replace the default.
Parameters that are not HTTP::Proxy attributes will be ignored and passed to the
chosen HTTP::Proxy::Engine object.
init()
"init()" initialise the proxy without starting it. It is usually not needed.
This method is called by "start()" if needed.
push_filter()
The "push_filter()" method is used to add filters to the proxy. It is fully described
in section FILTERS.
Accessors and mutators
HTTP::Proxy class has several accessors and mutators.
Called with arguments, the accessor returns the current value. Called with a single
argument, it sets the current value and returns the previous one, in case you want to keep
it.
If you call a read-only accessor with a parameter, this parameter will be ignored.
The defined accessors are (in alphabetical order):
agent
The LWP::UserAgent object used internally to connect to remote sites.
chunk
The chunk size for the LWP::UserAgent callbacks.
client_socket (read-only)
The socket currently connected to the client. Mostly useful in filters.
client_headers
This attribute holds a reference to the client headers set up by LWP::UserAgent
("Client-Aborted", "Client-Bad-Header-Line", "Client-Date", "Client-Junk",
"Client-Peer", "Client-Request-Num", "Client-Response-Num", "Client-SSL-Cert-Issuer",
"Client-SSL-Cert-Subject", "Client-SSL-Cipher", "Client-SSL-Warning",
"Client-Transfer-Encoding", "Client-Warning").
They are removed by the filter HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter::standard from the request
and response objects received by the proxy.
If a filter (such as a SSL certificate verification filter) need to access them, it
must do it through this accessor.
conn (read-only)
The number of connections processed by this HTTP::Proxy instance.
daemon
The HTTP::Daemon object used to accept incoming connections. (You usually never need
this.)
engine
The HTTP::Proxy::Engine object that manages the child processes.
hop_headers
This attribute holds a reference to the hop-by-hop headers ("Connection",
"Keep-Alive", "Proxy-Authenticate", "Proxy-Authorization", "TE", "Trailers",
"Transfer-Encoding", "Upgrade").
They are removed by the filter HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter::standard from the request
and response objects received by the proxy.
If a filter (such as a proxy authorisation filter) need to access them, it must do it
through this accessor.
host
The proxy HTTP::Daemon host (default: 'localhost').
This means that by default, the proxy answers only to clients on the local machine.
You can pass a specific interface address or ""/"undef" for any interface.
This default prevents your proxy to be used as an anonymous proxy by script kiddies.
known_methods( @groups ) (read-only)
This method returns all HTTP (and extensions to HTTP) known to "HTTP::Proxy". Methods
are grouped by type. Known method groups are: "HTTP", "WebDAV" and "DeltaV".
Called with an empty list, this method will return all known methods. This method is
case-insensitive, and will "carp()" if an unknown group name is passed.
logfh
A filehandle to a logfile (default: *STDERR).
logmask( [$mask] )
Be verbose in the logs (default: "NONE").
Here are the various elements that can be added to the mask (their values are powers
of 2, starting from 0 and listed here in ascending order):
NONE - Log only errors
PROXY - Proxy information
STATUS - Requested URL, response status and total number
of connections processed
PROCESS - Subprocesses information (fork, wait, etc.)
SOCKET - Information about low-level sockets
HEADERS - Full request and response headers are sent along
FILTERS - Filter information
DATA - Data received by the filters
CONNECT - Data transmitted by the CONNECT method
ENGINE - Engine information
ALL - Log all of the above
If you only want status and process information, you can use:
$proxy->logmask( STATUS | PROCESS );
Note that all the logging constants are not exported by default, but by the ":log"
tag. They can also be exported one by one.
loop (read-only)
Internal. False when the main loop is about to be broken.
max_clients
maxchild
The maximum number of child process the HTTP::Proxy object will spawn to handle client
requests (default: depends on the engine).
This method is currently delegated to the HTTP::Proxy::Engine object.
"maxchild" is deprecated and will disappear.
max_connections
maxconn
The maximum number of TCP connections the proxy will accept before returning from
start(). 0 (the default) means never stop accepting connections.
"maxconn" is deprecated.
Note: "max_connections" will be deprecated soon, for two reasons: 1) it is more of an
HTTP::Proxy::Engine attribute, 2) not all engines will support it.
max_keep_alive_requests
maxserve
The maximum number of requests the proxy will serve in a single connection. (same as
"MaxRequestsPerChild" in Apache)
"maxserve" is deprecated.
port
The proxy HTTP::Daemon port (default: 8080).
request
The request originally received by the proxy from the user-agent, which will be
modified by the request filters.
response
The response received from the origin server by the proxy. It is normally "undef"
until the proxy actually receives the beginning of a response from the origin server.
If one of the request filters sets this attribute, it "short-circuits" the
request/response scheme, and the proxy will return this response (which is NOT
filtered through the response filter stacks) instead of the expected origin server
response. This is useful for caching (though Squid does it much better) and proxy
authentication, for example.
stash
The stash is a hash where filters can store data to share between them.
The stash() method can be used to set the whole hash (with a HASH reference). To
access individual keys simply do:
$proxy->stash( 'bloop' );
To set it, type:
$proxy->stash( bloop => 'owww' );
It's also possibly to get a reference to the stash:
my $s = $filter->proxy->stash();
$s->{bang} = 'bam';
# $proxy->stash( 'bang' ) will now return 'bam'
Warning: since the proxy forks for each TCP connection, the data is only shared
between filters in the same child process.
timeout
The timeout used by the internal LWP::UserAgent (default: 60).
url (read-only)
The url where the proxy can be reached.
via The content of the Via: header. Setting it to an empty string will prevent its
addition. (default: "$hostname (HTTP::Proxy/$VERSION)")
x_forwarded_for
If set to a true value, the proxy will send the "X-Forwarded-For:" header. (default:
true)
Connection handling methods
start()
This method works like Tk's "MainLoop": you hand over control to the HTTP::Proxy
object you created and configured.
If "maxconn" is not zero, "start()" will return after accepting at most that many
connections. It will return the total number of connexions.
serve_connections()
This is the internal method used to handle each new TCP connection to the proxy.
Other methods
log( $level, $prefix, $message )
Adds $message at the end of "logfh", if $level matches "logmask". The "log()" method
also prints a timestamp.
The output looks like:
[Thu Dec 5 12:30:12 2002] ($$) $prefix: $message
where $$ is the current process's id.
If $message is a multiline string, several log lines will be output, each line
starting with $prefix.
is_protocol_supported( $scheme )
Returns a boolean indicating if $scheme is supported by the proxy.
This method is only used internally.
It is essential to allow HTTP::Proxy users to create "pseudo-schemes" that LWP doesn't
know about, but that one of the proxy filters can handle directly. New schemes are
added as follows:
$proxy->init(); # required to get an agent
$proxy->agent->protocols_allowed(
[ @{ $proxy->agent->protocols_allowed }, 'myhttp' ] );
new_connection()
Increase the proxy's TCP connections counter. Only used by HTTP::Proxy::Engine
objects.
Apache-like attributes
HTTP::Proxy has several Apache-like attributes that control the way the HTTP and TCP
connections are handled.
The following attributes control the TCP connection. They are passed to the underlying
HTTP::Proxy::Engine, which may (or may not) use them to change its behaviour.
start_servers
Number of child process to fork at the beginning.
max_clients
Maximum number of concurrent TCP connections (i.e. child processes).
max_requests_per_child
Maximum number of TCP connections handled by the same child process.
min_spare_servers
Minimum number of inactive child processes.
max_spare_servers
Maximum number of inactive child processes.
Those attributes control the HTTP connection:
keep_alive
Support for keep alive HTTP connections.
max_keep_alive_requests
Maximum number of HTTP connections within a single TCP connection.
keep_alive_timeout
Timeout for keep-alive connection.
EXPORTED SYMBOLS
No symbols are exported by default. The ":log" tag exports all the logging constants.
BUGS
This module does not work under Windows, but I can't see why, and do not have a
development platform under that system. Patches and explanations very welcome.
I guess it is because "fork()" is not well supported.
$proxy->maxchild(0);
However, David Fishburn says:
This did not work for me under WinXP - ActiveState Perl 5.6, but it DOES work on WinXP
ActiveState Perl 5.8.
Several people have tried to help, but we haven't found a way to make it work correctly
yet.
As from version 0.16, the default engine is HTTP::Proxy::Engine::NoFork. Let me know if
it works better.
SEE ALSO
HTTP::Proxy::Engine, HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter, HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter, the examples in
eg/.
AUTHOR
Philippe "BooK" Bruhat, <book@cpan.org>.
There is also a mailing-list: http-proxy@mongueurs.net for general discussion about
HTTP::Proxy.
THANKS
Many people helped me during the development of this module, either on mailing-lists, IRC
or over a beer in a pub...
So, in no particular order, thanks to the libwww-perl team for such a terrific suite of
modules, perl-qa (tips for testing), the French Perl Mongueurs (for code tricks, beers and
encouragements) and my growing user base... ";-)"
I'd like to particularly thank Dan Grigsby, who's been using HTTP::Proxy since 2003
(before the filter classes even existed). He is apparently making a living from a product
based on HTTP::Proxy. Thanks a lot for your confidence in my work!
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2002-2015, Philippe Bruhat.
LICENSE
This module is free software; you can redistribute it or modify it under the same terms as
Perl itself.