Ocamlnet 3 Reference Manual : Http_fs

# Module Http_fs

    module Http_fs: sig .. end

HTTP filesystem

This module makes an HTTP file server accessible via a `Netfs.stream_fs` object, supporting

- reading files
- identifying and reading directories (if the server generates index pages for directories, see below for more information)
- writing files (if the server implements PUT)
- removing files (if the server implements DELETE)

One has to specify a base URL `b`, and the access of a file with path `p` is translated to the URL `b ^ p`. Note that `p` cannot include web parameters ("?" strings), and hash marks are also not supported.

A directory is recognized by appending a slash to the URL, and checking whether the URL exists.

The contents of a directory are determined by loading the directory URL, analyzing the HTML page, and checking for the presence of hyperlinks that do not contain slashes (or at most a trailing slash). Only hyperlinks of "A" elements are accepted.

Almost every web server can be configured to generate directory listings that conform to this format. For example, Apache provides this through the module `mod_autoindex`.

There is an extension to this class for WebDAV:

- Webdav provides an extension of `Http_fs` for the full WebDAV set of filesystem operations

## Examples

Read an HTTP directory:

           let fs = new http_fs ~streaming:true "http://localhost/~gerd"
           let files = fs # readdir [] "/"

Download a file into a string:

           let ch = fs # read [] "/file"
           let s = Netchannels.string_of_in_obj_channels ch

Copy a file hierarchy to the local disk:

           let lfs = Netfs.local_fs()
           Netfs.copy_into (fs :> Netfs.stream_fs) "/tree" lfs "/tmp"

Use globbing:

           let fsys = Netglob.of_stream_fs (fs :> Netfs.stream_fs)
           let files = Netglob.glob ~fsys (`String "/*.gif")

## Extended `stream_fs` type

There is the new flag ``Header` for `read` and `write`, and the new method `last_response_header` for getting the response header of the most recently executed operation.

    type read_flag = [ `Binary
           | `Dummy
           | `Header of (string * string) list
           | `Skip of int64
           | `Streaming ]

    type read_file_flag = [ `Binary | `Dummy | `Header of (string * string) list ]

    type write_flag = [ `Binary
           | `Create
           | `Dummy
           | `Exclusive
           | `Header of (string * string) list
           | `Streaming
           | `Truncate ]

    type write_file_flag = [ `Binary
           | `Create
           | `Dummy
           | `Exclusive
           | `Header of (string * string) list
           | `Link
           | `Truncate ]

    class type http_stream_fs = object .. end

## The class

    class http_fs : ?config_pipeline:Http_client.pipeline -> unit -> ?streaming:bool -> ?tmp_directory:string -> ?tmp_prefix:string -> ?path_encoding:Netconversion.encoding -> ?enable_read_for_directories:bool -> ?enable_ftp:bool -> string -> http_stream_fs

`http_fs base_url`: Accesses the HTTP file system rooted at `base_url`.

    val http_fs : ?config_pipeline:(Http_client.pipeline -> unit) ->
           ?streaming:bool ->
           ?tmp_directory:string ->
           ?tmp_prefix:string ->
           ?path_encoding:Netconversion.encoding ->
           ?enable_read_for_directories:bool ->
           ?enable_ftp:bool -> string -> http_stream_fs

Same as normal function