Port70: Async Gopher Protocol Client Library

Port70 is an async-first, fully type-hinted Python client library for the Gopher protocol (RFC 1436 / RFC 4266).

Features

• Async First: Built on top of Python's standard asyncio networking loop.
• RFC 1436 & RFC 4266 Support: Full support for standard Gopher item types, selectors, search queries, and URIs.
• Type Safe: Fully typed API passing strict static type checking (mypy --strict).
• GopherURI Representation: Rich URI class to parse, inspect, validate, manipulate, and resolve Gopher URIs and query targets.
• Zero Dependencies: Built entirely on Python's standard library.
• CLI Utility: Includes a port70 command-line interface out of the box.

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Installation

port70 requires Python 3.12 or later and can be installed with your package manager of choice.

With pip:

pip install port70

With uv:

uv add port70

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Quick Start

1. Make a Simple Request

Use Client with standard async context managers to query a Gopher server:

import asyncio
from port70 import Client, Port70Error

async def main():
    async with Client() as client:
        try:
            # Query a Gopher menu or document
            response = await client.request("gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/")

            print(f"Target host: {response.uri.host}")
            print(f"Item type: {response.item_type}")
            print(f"Content length: {len(response.content)} bytes")
            print("--- Response Text ---")
            print(response.text)
        except Port70Error as error:
            print(f"Request failed: {error}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

2. Working with GopherURI

The GopherURI class parses both full URI strings (gopher://host/1/selector) and target format strings:

from port70 import GopherURI

# Parse from Gopher URI string
uri = GopherURI.from_string("gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/7/v2/vs?python")

print(uri.host)        # 'gopher.floodgap.com'
print(uri.port)        # 70
print(uri.item_type)   # '7'
print(uri.selector)    # '/v2/vs'
print(uri.query)       # 'python'
print(uri.is_search)   # True

# Create modified copies
custom_port_uri = uri.with_port(7070)
parent_uri = uri.parent
root_uri = uri.root

3. Search Queries and Response Inspection

You can issue search queries for item type 7 search engines or inspect item types on responses:

async with Client() as client:
    # Send a search request with query terms
    response = await client.request(
        "gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/7/v2/vs",
        query_terms="python",
    )
    assert response.is_text

    # Access text response split into lines
    for line in response.lines[:5]:
        print(line)

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Command Line Interface (CLI)

port70 includes a command-line client:

# Query a Gopher target (defaults to gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/)
uv run port70 gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/

# Perform a search request
uv run port70 -q python gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/7/v2/vs

# Query on a custom port
uv run port70 -p 7070 gopher://example.com/1/

# Output raw binary content to stdout
uv run port70 -r gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/gopher/readdata

# Display CLI help
uv run port70 --help

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Licence

MIT