Content-Length not being set for POST requests?

[bsodmike]

Hi,

I was integrating reCaptcha today and can into something curious, HTTP.post('https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify', params: { secret: secret, response: response }) and got

<p><b>411.</b> <ins>That’s an error.</ins>\n  <p>POST requests require a <code>Content-length</code> header.  <ins>That’s all we know.</ins>\n"

I tried setting the content length to some random value but I found it would hang of I did,

HTTP['Content-Length': 500].post('https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify', params: { secret: secret, response: response })

#...or

HTTP[content_length: 500].post('https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify', params: { secret: secret, response: response })

I suppose, this is because the content length is invalid; I didn't have time prying into the library to figure this out as I've gotten HTTParty working just fine.

Thanks!

[tarcieri]

You're correct we should be sending Content-Length if the length of the request body is known in advance. That said, in your case the request body is empty, so sending an arbitrary length like that will hang the remote server as it waits for the rest of the body.

[bsodmike]

Ah no wonder, it's just strange that the reCaptcha server has this set. I wonder if we could add some log notification if the gem if waiting for rest of the body and there isn't any response after a certain timeout? It's just to potentially prevent others seeing something similar, even though I'd agree this is not a typical use-case.

Cheers @tarcieri

[tarcieri]

This gem has extensive timeout support: https://github.com/httprb/http/wiki/Timeouts

[bsodmike]

Ooh fantastic, thanks.

[bsodmike]

This does the trick, thanks!

HTTP[content_length: 0]. \
  timeout(write: 2, connect: 5, read: 20). \
  post('https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify', params: {
  secret: secret, response: response 
})

=> {"success"=>true,
 "challenge_ts"=>"2016-04-25T15:53:14Z",
 "hostname"=>"localhost"}

[tarcieri]

Reopening as we should probably set the request Content-Length if it's known in advance.

[ixti]

Resolved by #360