HTTP server should allow custom methods

[aspyct]

Hello,

While working with the "http" module, and specifically the http server, I noticed that the server closes the connection instantly if the client attempts to use a custom method (i.e. something else than GET, HEAD...).

I think we should allow custom methods for this server:

1. it would allow to use node for specific requirements
2. custom methods are allowed by the HTTP standard.
3. I don't think a lot of work is required to allow this behavior.

On my side, I currently need to use custom methods. Is there any way I could allow a method of my own with your HTTP server without having to hack the code ?

Regards,

Antoine

[bnoordhuis]

Related to nodejs/http-parser#92.

1. I don't think a lot of work is required to allow this behavior.

You may be surprised. Support for arbitrary request methods would first need to be added to joyent/http-parser in a way that a) doesn't suck (it should have a nice API) and b) imposes no performance penalty. I won't be working on that anytime soon but I will consider pull requests.

[bnoordhuis]

On my side, I currently need to use custom methods. Is there any way I could allow a method of my own with your HTTP server without having to hack the code ?

Not in non-brittle ways. There are a number of pure JS HTTP parsers out there, e.g. https://github.com/substack/node-parsley

[aspyct]

I actually ended up adding the required method in the http_parser and node_http_parser sources, and it works fine, but for one specific method only.

I'll try to find some time to fork and provide something more generic. Thx for your help.

[soletan]

+1

I agree to have a proper parser reading HTTP method in compliance with RFC2616 5.1.1 with:

extension-method = token

and the latter produced as (defined in RFC2616 2.2):

token          = 1*<any CHAR except CTLs or separators>
separators     = "(" | ")" | "<" | ">" | "@"
                      | "," | ";" | ":" | "\" | <">
                      | "/" | "[" | "]" | "?" | "="
                      | "{" | "}" | SP | HT

This is a very limited set of excluded values. And since HTTP's method is contained in very leading octets of a request message there might be simple method reading octet by octet to the first separator or CTL. Obviously, penalty on performance isn't considerable due to coding this byte-wise parser sufficiently working without any state processing in C++.

I haven't checked the http_parser.cc in detail, but isn't there such a tokenizer to be reused here for sake of simplicity?

[isaacs]

Revisit for 0.12.

[buschtoens]

Just to bring this up again, as 0.12 is on it's way (as far as I can see).
Would it be possible to completely get rid of the C++ bindings and do the HTTP module in JS only or would that be too much of a performance bottleneck? Maybe we could borrow some of node-parsley's code?

Skipping through the source I get the feeling, that the HTTP module deserves a rewrite anyway.

[isaacs]

Yes, the http module needs a lot of work. That's planned for 0.12.

Moving the parser to JS is an interesting idea, but not one that'll probably happen for 0.12.

[pfrazee]

Hi, just wanted to 👍 this update

[jasnell]

@jezell .. thank you for linking issue #6078 to this. I had missed this existing issue when I opened it. There are a few issues that I'm seeing in this code. The GEM/PUN -> GET/PUT is definitely one (i see there was already a pull request to cover that one); dropping the connection rather than returning a 405 or other error code is another; the complete lack of support for parsing perfectly valid methods is only part of it.

[isaacs]

If nodejs/http-parser#158 lands, then this is trivial to do. If not, then it's impossible.

Closing this issue. Please take any discussion over to nodejs/http-parser#158. If/when that lands, we'll do this.