Python docs not accessible from IDLE

[Wolfgang Maier]

On 09/17/2014 01:15 PM, Peter Otten wrote:
> Wolfgang Maier wrote:
>
>> On 09/17/2014 11:45 AM, Peter Otten wrote:
>>> Wolfgang Maier wrote:
>>>
>>>> since a few days, when I select Help -> Python Docs from the IDLE menu,
>>>> the link to the documentation that it tries to open in my browser isn't
>>>> working anymore.
>>>> The URL IDLE uses (copied from the browser address bar) is :
>>>> docs.python.org/3.4
>>>> and you have to add a terminal slash for it to work.
>>>> Now I don't know why it stopped working
>>>> (browser update, change on the python docs server, others?
>>>> I'm running idle-python3.4 on Ubuntu 14.04 and Firefox 32.0),
>>>> but a possible fix may be to simply make IDLE add the slash.
>>>>
>>>> Is there anyone else experiencing the same problem ?
>>>
>>> I have a similar configuration (Linux Mint 17 which is based on Ubuntu
>>> 14.04) and I cannot reproduce the problem.
>>>
>>
>> Hmm, what happens if you just copy/paste
>>
>> docs.python.org/3.4
>>
>> into your browser ?
>
> Works without problem.
>
>> Looks like some browsers (like the Ubuntu standard
>> browser) automatically add the trailing slash and others (like my
>> Firefox 32.0) don't.
>
> The webpage redirects twice:
>
> $ curl --head http://docs.python.org/3.4
> HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
> ...
> Location: https://docs.python.org/3.4
> ...
>
> $ curl --head https://docs.python.org/3.4
> HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
> ...
> Location: https://docs.python.org/3.4/
> ...
>
> $ curl --head https://docs.python.org/3.4/
> HTTP/1.1 200 OK
> ...
>
> When in firefox' about:config I set
>
> network.http.redirection-limit 1
>
> (the original value is 20 over here) I get an "Umleitungsfehler"
> (redirection error in german). Maybe you should have a look at this setting.
> If that's not the cause -- is there any error message that firefox displays
> when you enter docs.python.org/3.4 ?
>

Ok, I confirmed your curl output, checked my firefox settings and tried 
other browsers on different platforms.
Result: the redirection works fine on every platform/browser combination 
I could find (i.e., the problem is neither Ubuntu- nor firefox 
32.0-specific).
network.http.redirection-limit is set to its default of 20.


I noticed two things, however:

1) If you wait long enough, firefox finally reports:

Unable to connect

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at docs.python.org:9000.

So it somehow seems to have picked up a port number during redirection, 
no idea why.


2) curl shows that the first redirect (from http://docs.python.org/3.4)
gives HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently as the first response from the 
server, but the second redirect (from https://docs.python.org/3.4) gives:

HTTP/1.1 200 Connection established

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently

which looks a bit weird (but as I said no other browser I've tested 
seems to have a problem with that).

So it looks like this is not really a Python issue though I'd still like 
to find out how to solve it.

Thanks for your help,
Wolfgang