Error Codes From a URLError

[Fuzzyman]

I've written a CGI proxy that remotely fetches web pages. I use the
urlopen function in CLientCookie which replaces (and ultimately uses)
the urlopen function in urllib2. What I'd like to do is give a more
useful message to the user when the page fetch fails.

My understanding was that a URLError exception had a 'code' attribute
which was the error code.

I trap the error with a simple : (excuse the horrible indentation,
this is from the middle of a program)

        try:
            req = urllib2.Request(theurl, txdata, txheaders)
            if data['name'] and data['pass']:
                import base64
                base64string = base64.encodestring('%s:%s' %
(data['name'], data['pass']))[:-1]
                req.add_header("Authorization", "Basic %s" %
base64string)
            u = openfun(req)
.....
        except IOError, e:                      # an error in fetching
the page will raise a URLError which is a subclass of IOError
            if not cdone:
                print "Content-type: text/html"         # this is the
header to the server
                print                                   # so is this
blank line
            if not hasattr(e, 'code'):                  # If it's not
an http error - raise it as an error
                raise

            elif e.code  == 401:                        #
authorisation
                print authmess % (theurl, data['mod']) 
                print authend  

            elif e.code in errorlist:                   # standard
http errors
                the_err = errorlist[e.code]
                print err_mes % (the_err[0], the_err[0], the_err[1])
                
            else:                                       # any others
                raise

openfun is urlopen function from ClientCookie (if available) or from
urllib2.

What ought to happen in my limied understanding, is that the exception
(e) should have the attribute 'code' if it a URLError - and that value
ought to tell me what type of error it is... (the error message is
then ina dictionary called errorlist which I nicked from
BaseHTTPServer).

*However*, when I use it to try to fetch a non-existent page
(expecting a 404 error) - it falls at the first raise statement.
Evidently the exception *is* an IOError, but doesn't have the code
attribute.


*However* - you see the explicit test for a 401 (authentication)
error. I have code that can handle authentication... if I go to a page
that requires authentication it picks it up fine...... (so the
URLError in that case does have the code attribute).

The exact error traceback is below - and you can see where urllib2
raises the URLError - because of what it sees as a socket problem...
but it obviously isn't returning the error code properly. Any
suggestions ?

URLError Python 2.2.2: /usr/bin/python
Fri Jul 23 11:06:39 2004 

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of
function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.

 /home/buildin/public_html/cgi-bin/approx.py  
  280                 print "Content-type: text/html"         # this
is the header to the server
 
  281                 print                                   # so is
this blank line
 
  282             if not hasattr(e, 'code'):                  # If
it's not an http error - raise it as an error
 
  283                 raise
 
  284 
 
hasattr undefined, e = <urllib2.URLError instance> 


 /home/buildin/public_html/cgi-bin/ClientCookie/_urllib2_support.py in
urlopen(url=<urllib2.Request instance>, data=None)
  969             finally:
 
  970                 urlopen_lock.release()
 
  971         return _opener.open(url, data)
 
  972 
 
  973     def urlretrieve(url, filename=None, reporthook=None,
data=None):
 
global _opener = <ClientCookie._urllib2_support.OpenerDirector
instance>, _opener.open = <bound method OpenerDirector.open of
<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.OpenerDirector instance>>, url =
<urllib2.Request instance>, data = None


 /home/buildin/public_html/cgi-bin/ClientCookie/_urllib2_support.py in
open(self=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.OpenerDirector instance>,
fullurl=<urllib2.Request instance>, data=None)
  567                 req = meth(req)
 
  568 
 
  569             response = urllib2.OpenerDirector.open(self, req,
data)
 
  570 
 
  571             # post-process response
 
response undefined, global urllib2 = <module 'urllib2' from
'/usr/lib/python2.2/urllib2.pyc'>, urllib2.OpenerDirector = <class
urllib2.OpenerDirector>, urllib2.OpenerDirector.open = <unbound method
OpenerDirector.open>, self =
<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.OpenerDirector instance>, req =
<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance>, data = None


 /usr/lib/python2.2/urllib2.py in
open(self=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.OpenerDirector instance>,
fullurl=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance>, data=None)
  320         type_ = req.get_type()
 
  321         result = self._call_chain(self.handle_open, type_, type_
+ \
 
  322                                   '_open', req)
 
  323         if result:
 
  324             return result
 
req = <ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance> 


 /usr/lib/python2.2/urllib2.py in
_call_chain(self=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.OpenerDirector
instance>, chain={'file': [<urllib2.FileHandler instance>], 'ftp':
[<urllib2.FTPHandler instance>], 'http':
[<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPHandler instance>], 'https':
[<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPSHandler instance>], 'unknown':
[<urllib2.UnknownHandler instance>]}, kind='http',
meth_name='http_open', *args=(<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request
instance>,))
  299             func = getattr(handler, meth_name)
 
  300 
 
  301             result = func(*args)
 
  302             if result is not None:
 
  303                 return result
 
result undefined, func = <bound method HTTPHandler.http_open of
<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPHandler instance>>, args =
(<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance>,)


 /home/buildin/public_html/cgi-bin/ClientCookie/_urllib2_support.py in
http_open(self=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPHandler instance>,
req=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance>)
  883     class HTTPHandler(AbstractHTTPHandler):
 
  884         def http_open(self, req):
 
  885             return self.do_open(httplib.HTTP, req)
 
  886 
 
  887         http_request = AbstractHTTPHandler.do_request_
 
self = <ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPHandler instance>,
self.do_open = <bound method HTTPHandler.do_open of
<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPHandler instance>>, global httplib
= <module 'httplib' from '/usr/lib/python2.2/httplib.pyc'>,
httplib.HTTP = <class httplib.HTTP>, req =
<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance>


 /home/buildin/public_html/cgi-bin/ClientCookie/_urllib2_support.py in
do_open(self=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.HTTPHandler instance>,
http_class=<class httplib.HTTP>,
req=<ClientCookie._urllib2_support.Request instance>)
  728                 h.endheaders()
 
  729             except socket.error, err:
 
  730                 raise URLError(err)
 
  731             if req.has_data():
 
  732                 h.send(req.get_data())
 
global URLError = <class urllib2.URLError>, err = <socket.gaierror
instance>


URLError: 
      __doc__ = None 
      __getitem__ = <bound method URLError.__getitem__ of
<urllib2.URLError instance>>
      __init__ = <bound method URLError.__init__ of <urllib2.URLError
instance>>
      __module__ = 'urllib2' 
      __str__ = <bound method URLError.__str__ of <urllib2.URLError
instance>>
      reason = <socket.gaierror instance> 

Regards,


Fuzzy

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/atlantibots/pythonutils.html