Re: is_success() returning tru even though server was down

James Cloos <cloos@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> I have some code that does:
> 
>     my $req = HTTP::Request->new(GET => "http://$foo/bar";);
>     my $res = $ua->request($req);
>     push @good, $foo if ($res->is_success);
> 
> in a loop.
> 
> I tested that is_success did the right thing if the file bar was not
> in teh server's $SERVER_ROOT, and I presumed it would return false
> if $foo was not up.
> 
> But in fact, $res->_rc is 200 when the remote box is down just like
> when the file bar exists.
> 
> Tested on gentoo w/ latest ebuilds of perl and libwww, and freebsd
> 5.2.1 w/ their ports.
> 
> Why does _rc == 200 when their was no reply from the server?

I've never seen that happen.  Can you provide me with the full
$res->as_string output in this case.  It might also be instructive to
strace the client as it runs to see what happens at the syscall level.
If you get a 200 response it must mean that the connection to the
server succeeded.

> I presume part of the problem is that it appears to be sending a HTTP
> 0.9 GET rather than a 1.0 GET.  I don't see anything in the docs
> about forcing the latter.  How is that done?

LWP always sends HTTP/1.1 GETs.

> Or should I do a HEAD instead of a GET, given that I'm only testing
> for the existence of the file and the network connection between the
> two boxen?

The HEAD might be cheaper, but not all servers implement it for all
resources.

Regards,
Gisle