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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00132000000000000000000">
11.20 <tt class="module">cookielib</tt> --
         Cookie handling for HTTP clients</A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="module-cookielib"></A>

<P>

<P>
The <tt class="module">cookielib</tt> module defines classes for automatic handling
of HTTP cookies.  It is useful for accessing web sites that require
small pieces of data - <i class="dfn">cookies</i> - to be set on the client
machine by an HTTP response from a web server, and then returned to
the server in later HTTP requests.

<P>
Both the regular Netscape cookie protocol and the protocol defined by
<a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90488' xml:id='rfcref-90488'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2965.html">RFC 2965</a> are handled.  RFC 2965 handling is switched off by default.
<a class="rfc" id='rfcref-90490' xml:id='rfcref-90490'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2109.html">RFC 2109</a> cookies are parsed as Netscape cookies and subsequently
treated as RFC 2965 cookies.  Note that the great majority of cookies
on the Internet are Netscape cookies.  <tt class="module">cookielib</tt> attempts to
follow the de-facto Netscape cookie protocol (which differs
substantially from that set out in the original Netscape
specification), including taking note of the <code>max-age</code> and
<code>port</code> cookie-attributes introduced with RFC 2109.  <span class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
The
various named parameters found in <span class="mailheader">Set-Cookie:</span> and
<span class="mailheader">Set-Cookie2:</span> headers (eg. <code>domain</code> and
<code>expires</code>) are conventionally referred to as <i class="dfn">attributes</i>.
To distinguish them from Python attributes, the documentation for this
module uses the term <i class="dfn">cookie-attribute</i> instead</span>.

<P>
The module defines the following exception:

<P>
<dl><dt><b><span class="typelabel">exception</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-3615' xml:id='l2h-3615' class="exception">LoadError</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
Instances of <tt class="class">FileCookieJar</tt> raise this exception on failure to
load cookies from a file.
</dd></dl>

<P>
The following classes are provided:

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-3616' xml:id='l2h-3616' class="class">CookieJar</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>policy=<tt class="constant">None</tt></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
<var>policy</var> is an object implementing the <tt class="class">CookiePolicy</tt>
interface.

<P>
The <tt class="class">CookieJar</tt> class stores HTTP cookies.  It extracts cookies
from HTTP requests, and returns them in HTTP responses.
<tt class="class">CookieJar</tt> instances automatically expire contained cookies
when necessary.  Subclasses are also responsible for storing and
retrieving cookies from a file or database.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-3617' xml:id='l2h-3617' class="class">FileCookieJar</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>filename, delayload=<tt class="constant">None</tt>,
 policy=<tt class="constant">None</tt></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
<var>policy</var> is an object implementing the <tt class="class">CookiePolicy</tt>
interface.  For the other arguments, see the documentation for the
corresponding attributes.

<P>
A <tt class="class">CookieJar</tt> which can load cookies from, and perhaps save
cookies to, a file on disk.  Cookies are <strong>NOT</strong> loaded from the
named file until either the <tt class="method">load()</tt> or <tt class="method">revert()</tt>
method is called.  Subclasses of this class are documented in section
<A href="file-cookie-jar-classes.html#file-cookie-jar-classes">11.20.2</A>.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-3618' xml:id='l2h-3618' class="class">CookiePolicy</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
This class is responsible for deciding whether each cookie should be
accepted from / returned to the server.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-3619' xml:id='l2h-3619' class="class">DefaultCookiePolicy</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>
    blocked_domains=<tt class="constant">None</tt>,
    allowed_domains=<tt class="constant">None</tt>,
    netscape=<tt class="constant">True</tt>, rfc2965=<tt class="constant">False</tt>,
    hide_cookie2=<tt class="constant">False</tt>,
    strict_domain=<tt class="constant">False</tt>,
    strict_rfc2965_unverifiable=<tt class="constant">True</tt>,
    strict_ns_unverifiable=<tt class="constant">False</tt>,
    strict_ns_domain=<tt class="constant">DefaultCookiePolicy.DomainLiberal</tt>,
    strict_ns_set_initial_dollar=<tt class="constant">False</tt>,
    strict_ns_set_path=<tt class="constant">False</tt>
  </var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>

<P>
Constructor arguments should be passed as keyword arguments only.
<var>blocked_domains</var> is a sequence of domain names that we never
accept cookies from, nor return cookies to. <var>allowed_domains</var> if
not <tt class="constant">None</tt>, this is a sequence of the only domains for which
we accept and return cookies.  For all other arguments, see the
documentation for <tt class="class">CookiePolicy</tt> and <tt class="class">DefaultCookiePolicy</tt>
objects.

<P>
<tt class="class">DefaultCookiePolicy</tt> implements the standard accept / reject
rules for Netscape and RFC 2965 cookies.  RFC 2109 cookies
(ie. cookies received in a <span class="mailheader">Set-Cookie:</span> header with a
version cookie-attribute of 1) are treated according to the RFC 2965
rules.  <tt class="class">DefaultCookiePolicy</tt> also provides some parameters to
allow some fine-tuning of policy.
</dl>

<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-3620' xml:id='l2h-3620' class="class">Cookie</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
This class represents Netscape, RFC 2109 and RFC 2965 cookies.  It is
not expected that users of <tt class="module">cookielib</tt> construct their own
<tt class="class">Cookie</tt> instances.  Instead, if necessary, call
<tt class="method">make_cookies()</tt> on a <tt class="class">CookieJar</tt> instance.
</dl>

<P>
<div class="seealso">
  <p class="heading">See Also:</p>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-urllib2.html">urllib2</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>URL opening with automatic cookie handling.
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-Cookie.html">Cookie</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>HTTP cookie classes, principally useful for
server-side code.  The <tt class="module">cookielib</tt> and <tt class="module">Cookie</tt> modules
do not depend on each other.
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seeurl">
    <dt><a href="http://wwwsearch.sf.net/ClientCookie/"
        class="url">http://wwwsearch.sf.net/ClientCookie/</a></dt>
    <dd>Extensions to this
module, including a class for reading Microsoft Internet Explorer
cookies on Windows.</dd>
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seeurl">
    <dt><a href="http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html"
        class="url">http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html</a></dt>
    <dd>The
specification of the original Netscape cookie protocol.  Though this
is still the dominant protocol, the 'Netscape cookie protocol'
implemented by all the major browsers (and <tt class="module">cookielib</tt>) only
bears a passing resemblance to the one sketched out in
<code>cookie_spec.html</code>.</dd>
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seerfc">
    <dt><a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2109.html"
        title="HTTP State Management Mechanism"
        >RFC 2109, <em>HTTP State Management Mechanism</em></a>
    <dd>Obsoleted by RFC 2965.
Uses <span class="mailheader">Set-Cookie:</span> with version=1.
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seerfc">
    <dt><a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2965.html"
        title="HTTP State Management Mechanism"
        >RFC 2965, <em>HTTP State Management Mechanism</em></a>
    <dd>The Netscape protocol
with the bugs fixed.  Uses <span class="mailheader">Set-Cookie2:</span> in place of
<span class="mailheader">Set-Cookie:</span>.  Not widely used.
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seeurl">
    <dt><a href="http://kristol.org/cookie/errata.html"
        class="url">http://kristol.org/cookie/errata.html</a></dt>
    <dd>Unfinished errata to
RFC 2965.</dd>
  </dl>

<P>
<dl compact="compact" class="seerfc">
    <dt><a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2964.html"
        title="Use of HTTP State Management"
        >RFC 2964, <em>Use of HTTP State Management</em></a>
    <dd>
  </dl>

<P>
</div>

<P>

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<div class='online-navigation'>
<!--Table of Child-Links-->
<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a>

<UL CLASS="ChildLinks">
<LI><A href="node542.html">11.20.1 CookieJar and FileCookieJar Objects</a>
<LI><A href="file-cookie-jar-classes.html">11.20.2 FileCookieJar subclasses and co-operation with web browsers</a>
<LI><A href="cookie-policy-objects.html">11.20.3 CookiePolicy Objects</a>
<LI><A href="default-cookie-policy-objects.html">11.20.4 DefaultCookiePolicy Objects</a>
<LI><A href="cookie-jar-objects.html">11.20.5 Cookie Objects</a>
<LI><A href="cookielib-examples.html">11.20.6 Examples</a>
</ul>
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