# HTTP

<!--introduced_in=v0.10.0-->

> Stability: 2 - Stable

To use the HTTP server and client one must `require('http')`.

The HTTP interfaces in Node.js are designed to support many features
of the protocol which have been traditionally difficult to use.
In particular, large, possibly chunk-encoded, messages. The interface is
careful to never buffer entire requests or responses — the
user is able to stream data.

HTTP message headers are represented by an object like this:

<!-- eslint-skip -->
```js
{ 'content-length': '123',
  'content-type': 'text/plain',
  'connection': 'keep-alive',
  'host': 'mysite.com',
  'accept': '*/*' }
```

Keys are lowercased. Values are not modified.

In order to support the full spectrum of possible HTTP applications, Node.js's
HTTP API is very low-level. It deals with stream handling and message
parsing only. It parses a message into headers and body but it does not
parse the actual headers or the body.

See [`message.headers`][] for details on how duplicate headers are handled.

The raw headers as they were received are retained in the `rawHeaders`
property, which is an array of `[key, value, key2, value2, ...]`. For
example, the previous message header object might have a `rawHeaders`
list like the following:

<!-- eslint-disable semi -->
```js
[ 'ConTent-Length', '123456',
  'content-LENGTH', '123',
  'content-type', 'text/plain',
  'CONNECTION', 'keep-alive',
  'Host', 'mysite.com',
  'accepT', '*/*' ]
```

## Class: http.Agent
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.4
-->

An `Agent` is responsible for managing connection persistence
and reuse for HTTP clients. It maintains a queue of pending requests
for a given host and port, reusing a single socket connection for each
until the queue is empty, at which time the socket is either destroyed
or put into a pool where it is kept to be used again for requests to the
same host and port. Whether it is destroyed or pooled depends on the
`keepAlive` [option](#http_new_agent_options).

Pooled connections have TCP Keep-Alive enabled for them, but servers may
still close idle connections, in which case they will be removed from the
pool and a new connection will be made when a new HTTP request is made for
that host and port. Servers may also refuse to allow multiple requests
over the same connection, in which case the connection will have to be
remade for every request and cannot be pooled. The `Agent` will still make
the requests to that server, but each one will occur over a new connection.

When a connection is closed by the client or the server, it is removed
from the pool. Any unused sockets in the pool will be unrefed so as not
to keep the Node.js process running when there are no outstanding requests.
(see [`socket.unref()`]).

It is good practice, to [`destroy()`][] an `Agent` instance when it is no
longer in use, because unused sockets consume OS resources.

Sockets are removed from an agent when the socket emits either
a `'close'` event or an `'agentRemove'` event. When intending to keep one
HTTP request open for a long time without keeping it in the agent, something
like the following may be done:

```js
http.get(options, (res) => {
  // Do stuff
}).on('socket', (socket) => {
  socket.emit('agentRemove');
});
```

An agent may also be used for an individual request. By providing
`{agent: false}` as an option to the `http.get()` or `http.request()`
functions, a one-time use `Agent` with default options will be used
for the client connection.

`agent:false`:

```js
http.get({
  hostname: 'localhost',
  port: 80,
  path: '/',
  agent: false  // Create a new agent just for this one request
}, (res) => {
  // Do stuff with response
});
```

### new Agent([options])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.4
-->

* `options` {Object} Set of configurable options to set on the agent.
  Can have the following fields:
  * `keepAlive` {boolean} Keep sockets around even when there are no
    outstanding requests, so they can be used for future requests without
    having to reestablish a TCP connection. **Default:** `false`.
  * `keepAliveMsecs` {number} When using the `keepAlive` option, specifies
    the [initial delay](net.html#net_socket_setkeepalive_enable_initialdelay)
    for TCP Keep-Alive packets. Ignored when the
    `keepAlive` option is `false` or `undefined`. **Default:** `1000`.
  * `maxSockets` {number} Maximum number of sockets to allow per
    host. **Default:** `Infinity`.
  * `maxFreeSockets` {number} Maximum number of sockets to leave open
    in a free state. Only relevant if `keepAlive` is set to `true`.
    **Default:** `256`.
  * `timeout` {number} Socket timeout in milliseconds.
    This will set the timeout when the socket is created.

`options` in [`socket.connect()`][] are also supported.

The default [`http.globalAgent`][] that is used by [`http.request()`][] has all
of these values set to their respective defaults.

To configure any of them, a custom [`http.Agent`][] instance must be created.

```js
const http = require('http');
const keepAliveAgent = new http.Agent({ keepAlive: true });
options.agent = keepAliveAgent;
http.request(options, onResponseCallback);
```

### agent.createConnection(options[, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.4
-->

* `options` {Object} Options containing connection details. Check
  [`net.createConnection()`][] for the format of the options
* `callback` {Function} Callback function that receives the created socket
* Returns: {net.Socket}

Produces a socket/stream to be used for HTTP requests.

By default, this function is the same as [`net.createConnection()`][]. However,
custom agents may override this method in case greater flexibility is desired.

A socket/stream can be supplied in one of two ways: by returning the
socket/stream from this function, or by passing the socket/stream to `callback`.

`callback` has a signature of `(err, stream)`.

### agent.keepSocketAlive(socket)
<!-- YAML
added: v8.1.0
-->

* `socket` {net.Socket}

Called when `socket` is detached from a request and could be persisted by the
`Agent`. Default behavior is to:

```js
socket.setKeepAlive(true, this.keepAliveMsecs);
socket.unref();
return true;
```

This method can be overridden by a particular `Agent` subclass. If this
method returns a falsy value, the socket will be destroyed instead of persisting
it for use with the next request.

### agent.reuseSocket(socket, request)
<!-- YAML
added: v8.1.0
-->

* `socket` {net.Socket}
* `request` {http.ClientRequest}

Called when `socket` is attached to `request` after being persisted because of
the keep-alive options. Default behavior is to:

```js
socket.ref();
```

This method can be overridden by a particular `Agent` subclass.

### agent.destroy()
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.4
-->

Destroy any sockets that are currently in use by the agent.

It is usually not necessary to do this. However, if using an
agent with `keepAlive` enabled, then it is best to explicitly shut down
the agent when it will no longer be used. Otherwise,
sockets may hang open for quite a long time before the server
terminates them.

### agent.freeSockets
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.4
-->

* {Object}

An object which contains arrays of sockets currently awaiting use by
the agent when `keepAlive` is enabled. Do not modify.

### agent.getName(options)
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.4
-->

* `options` {Object} A set of options providing information for name generation
  * `host` {string} A domain name or IP address of the server to issue the
    request to
  * `port` {number} Port of remote server
  * `localAddress` {string} Local interface to bind for network connections
    when issuing the request
  * `family` {integer} Must be 4 or 6 if this doesn't equal `undefined`.
* Returns: {string}

Get a unique name for a set of request options, to determine whether a
connection can be reused. For an HTTP agent, this returns
`host:port:localAddress` or `host:port:localAddress:family`. For an HTTPS agent,
the name includes the CA, cert, ciphers, and other HTTPS/TLS-specific options
that determine socket reusability.

### agent.maxFreeSockets
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.7
-->

* {number}

By default set to 256. For agents with `keepAlive` enabled, this
sets the maximum number of sockets that will be left open in the free
state.

### agent.maxSockets
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.6
-->

* {number}

By default set to `Infinity`. Determines how many concurrent sockets the agent
can have open per origin. Origin is the returned value of [`agent.getName()`][].

### agent.requests
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.9
-->

* {Object}

An object which contains queues of requests that have not yet been assigned to
sockets. Do not modify.

### agent.sockets
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.6
-->

* {Object}

An object which contains arrays of sockets currently in use by the
agent. Do not modify.

## Class: http.ClientRequest
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.17
-->

This object is created internally and returned from [`http.request()`][]. It
represents an _in-progress_ request whose header has already been queued. The
header is still mutable using the [`setHeader(name, value)`][],
 [`getHeader(name)`][], [`removeHeader(name)`][] API. The actual header will
be sent along with the first data chunk or when calling [`request.end()`][].

To get the response, add a listener for [`'response'`][] to the request object.
[`'response'`][] will be emitted from the request object when the response
headers have been received. The [`'response'`][] event is executed with one
argument which is an instance of [`http.IncomingMessage`][].

During the [`'response'`][] event, one can add listeners to the
response object; particularly to listen for the `'data'` event.

If no [`'response'`][] handler is added, then the response will be
entirely discarded. However, if a [`'response'`][] event handler is added,
then the data from the response object **must** be consumed, either by
calling `response.read()` whenever there is a `'readable'` event, or
by adding a `'data'` handler, or by calling the `.resume()` method.
Until the data is consumed, the `'end'` event will not fire. Also, until
the data is read it will consume memory that can eventually lead to a
'process out of memory' error.

Node.js does not check whether Content-Length and the length of the
body which has been transmitted are equal or not.

The request inherits from [Stream][], and additionally implements the
following:

### Event: 'abort'
<!-- YAML
added: v1.4.1
-->

Emitted when the request has been aborted by the client. This event is only
emitted on the first call to `abort()`.

### Event: 'connect'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.7.0
-->

* `response` {http.IncomingMessage}
* `socket` {net.Socket}
* `head` {Buffer}

Emitted each time a server responds to a request with a `CONNECT` method. If
this event is not being listened for, clients receiving a `CONNECT` method will
have their connections closed.

A client and server pair demonstrating how to listen for the `'connect'` event:

```js
const http = require('http');
const net = require('net');
const url = require('url');

// Create an HTTP tunneling proxy
const proxy = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('okay');
});
proxy.on('connect', (req, cltSocket, head) => {
  // connect to an origin server
  const srvUrl = url.parse(`http://${req.url}`);
  const srvSocket = net.connect(srvUrl.port, srvUrl.hostname, () => {
    cltSocket.write('HTTP/1.1 200 Connection Established\r\n' +
                    'Proxy-agent: Node.js-Proxy\r\n' +
                    '\r\n');
    srvSocket.write(head);
    srvSocket.pipe(cltSocket);
    cltSocket.pipe(srvSocket);
  });
});

// now that proxy is running
proxy.listen(1337, '127.0.0.1', () => {

  // make a request to a tunneling proxy
  const options = {
    port: 1337,
    host: '127.0.0.1',
    method: 'CONNECT',
    path: 'www.google.com:80'
  };

  const req = http.request(options);
  req.end();

  req.on('connect', (res, socket, head) => {
    console.log('got connected!');

    // make a request over an HTTP tunnel
    socket.write('GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n' +
                 'Host: www.google.com:80\r\n' +
                 'Connection: close\r\n' +
                 '\r\n');
    socket.on('data', (chunk) => {
      console.log(chunk.toString());
    });
    socket.on('end', () => {
      proxy.close();
    });
  });
});
```

### Event: 'continue'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.2
-->

Emitted when the server sends a '100 Continue' HTTP response, usually because
the request contained 'Expect: 100-continue'. This is an instruction that
the client should send the request body.

### Event: 'information'
<!-- YAML
added: v10.0.0
-->

Emitted when the server sends a 1xx response (excluding 101 Upgrade). This
event is emitted with a callback containing an object with a status code.

```js
const http = require('http');

const options = {
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 8080,
  path: '/length_request'
};

// Make a request
const req = http.request(options);
req.end();

req.on('information', (res) => {
  console.log(`Got information prior to main response: ${res.statusCode}`);
});
```

101 Upgrade statuses do not fire this event due to their break from the
traditional HTTP request/response chain, such as web sockets, in-place TLS
upgrades, or HTTP 2.0. To be notified of 101 Upgrade notices, listen for the
[`'upgrade'`][] event instead.

### Event: 'response'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.0
-->

* `response` {http.IncomingMessage}

Emitted when a response is received to this request. This event is emitted only
once.

### Event: 'socket'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.3
-->

* `socket` {net.Socket}

Emitted after a socket is assigned to this request.

### Event: 'timeout'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.7.8
-->

Emitted when the underlying socket times out from inactivity. This only notifies
that the socket has been idle. The request must be aborted manually.

See also: [`request.setTimeout()`][].

### Event: 'upgrade'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.94
-->

* `response` {http.IncomingMessage}
* `socket` {net.Socket}
* `head` {Buffer}

Emitted each time a server responds to a request with an upgrade. If this
event is not being listened for and the response status code is 101 Switching
Protocols, clients receiving an upgrade header will have their connections
closed.

A client server pair demonstrating how to listen for the `'upgrade'` event.

```js
const http = require('http');

// Create an HTTP server
const srv = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('okay');
});
srv.on('upgrade', (req, socket, head) => {
  socket.write('HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake\r\n' +
               'Upgrade: WebSocket\r\n' +
               'Connection: Upgrade\r\n' +
               '\r\n');

  socket.pipe(socket); // echo back
});

// now that server is running
srv.listen(1337, '127.0.0.1', () => {

  // make a request
  const options = {
    port: 1337,
    host: '127.0.0.1',
    headers: {
      'Connection': 'Upgrade',
      'Upgrade': 'websocket'
    }
  };

  const req = http.request(options);
  req.end();

  req.on('upgrade', (res, socket, upgradeHead) => {
    console.log('got upgraded!');
    socket.end();
    process.exit(0);
  });
});
```

### request.abort()
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.8
-->

Marks the request as aborting. Calling this will cause remaining data
in the response to be dropped and the socket to be destroyed.

### request.aborted
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.14
changes:
  - version: v11.0.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/20230
    description: The `aborted` property is no longer a timestamp number.
-->

* {boolean}

The `request.aborted` property will be `true` if the request has
been aborted.

### request.connection
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {net.Socket}

See [`request.socket`][].

### request.end([data[, encoding]][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.90
changes:
  - version: v10.0.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/18780
    description: This method now returns a reference to `ClientRequest`.
-->

* `data` {string|Buffer}
* `encoding` {string}
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {this}

Finishes sending the request. If any parts of the body are
unsent, it will flush them to the stream. If the request is
chunked, this will send the terminating `'0\r\n\r\n'`.

If `data` is specified, it is equivalent to calling
[`request.write(data, encoding)`][] followed by `request.end(callback)`.

If `callback` is specified, it will be called when the request stream
is finished.

### request.finished
<!-- YAML
added: v0.0.1
-->

* {boolean}

The `request.finished` property will be `true` if [`request.end()`][]
has been called. `request.end()` will automatically be called if the
request was initiated via [`http.get()`][].

### request.flushHeaders()
<!-- YAML
added: v1.6.0
-->

Flush the request headers.

For efficiency reasons, Node.js normally buffers the request headers until
`request.end()` is called or the first chunk of request data is written. It
then tries to pack the request headers and data into a single TCP packet.

That's usually desired (it saves a TCP round-trip), but not when the first
data is not sent until possibly much later. `request.flushHeaders()` bypasses
the optimization and kickstarts the request.

### request.getHeader(name)
<!-- YAML
added: v1.6.0
-->

* `name` {string}
* Returns: {any}

Reads out a header on the request. Note that the name is case insensitive.
The type of the return value depends on the arguments provided to
[`request.setHeader()`][].

```js
request.setHeader('content-type', 'text/html');
request.setHeader('Content-Length', Buffer.byteLength(body));
request.setHeader('Cookie', ['type=ninja', 'language=javascript']);
const contentType = request.getHeader('Content-Type');
// contentType is 'text/html'
const contentLength = request.getHeader('Content-Length');
// contentLength is of type number
const cookie = request.getHeader('Cookie');
// cookie is of type string[]
```

### request.maxHeadersCount

* {number} **Default:** `2000`

Limits maximum response headers count. If set to 0, no limit will be applied.

### request.path
<!-- YAML
added: v0.4.0
-->

* {string} The request path.

### request.removeHeader(name)
<!-- YAML
added: v1.6.0
-->

* `name` {string}

Removes a header that's already defined into headers object.

```js
request.removeHeader('Content-Type');
```

### request.setHeader(name, value)
<!-- YAML
added: v1.6.0
-->

* `name` {string}
* `value` {any}

Sets a single header value for headers object. If this header already exists in
the to-be-sent headers, its value will be replaced. Use an array of strings
here to send multiple headers with the same name. Non-string values will be
stored without modification. Therefore, [`request.getHeader()`][] may return
non-string values. However, the non-string values will be converted to strings
for network transmission.

```js
request.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
```

or

```js
request.setHeader('Cookie', ['type=ninja', 'language=javascript']);
```

### request.setNoDelay([noDelay])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.9
-->

* `noDelay` {boolean}

Once a socket is assigned to this request and is connected
[`socket.setNoDelay()`][] will be called.

### request.setSocketKeepAlive([enable][, initialDelay])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.9
-->

* `enable` {boolean}
* `initialDelay` {number}

Once a socket is assigned to this request and is connected
[`socket.setKeepAlive()`][] will be called.

### request.setTimeout(timeout[, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.9
changes:
  - version: v9.0.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/8895
    description: Consistently set socket timeout only when the socket connects.
-->

* `timeout` {number} Milliseconds before a request times out.
* `callback` {Function} Optional function to be called when a timeout occurs.
  Same as binding to the `'timeout'` event.
* Returns: {http.ClientRequest}

Once a socket is assigned to this request and is connected
[`socket.setTimeout()`][] will be called.

### request.socket
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {net.Socket}

Reference to the underlying socket. Usually users will not want to access
this property. In particular, the socket will not emit `'readable'` events
because of how the protocol parser attaches to the socket. The `socket`
may also be accessed via `request.connection`.

```js
const http = require('http');
const options = {
  host: 'www.google.com',
};
const req = http.get(options);
req.end();
req.once('response', (res) => {
  const ip = req.socket.localAddress;
  const port = req.socket.localPort;
  console.log(`Your IP address is ${ip} and your source port is ${port}.`);
  // consume response object
});
```

### request.write(chunk[, encoding][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.29
-->

* `chunk` {string|Buffer}
* `encoding` {string}
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {boolean}

Sends a chunk of the body. By calling this method
many times, a request body can be sent to a
server — in that case it is suggested to use the
`['Transfer-Encoding', 'chunked']` header line when
creating the request.

The `encoding` argument is optional and only applies when `chunk` is a string.
Defaults to `'utf8'`.

The `callback` argument is optional and will be called when this chunk of data
is flushed, but only if the chunk is non-empty.

Returns `true` if the entire data was flushed successfully to the kernel
buffer. Returns `false` if all or part of the data was queued in user memory.
`'drain'` will be emitted when the buffer is free again.

When `write` function is called with empty string or buffer, it does
nothing and waits for more input.

## Class: http.Server
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.17
-->

This class inherits from [`net.Server`][] and has the following additional
events:

### Event: 'checkContinue'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* `request` {http.IncomingMessage}
* `response` {http.ServerResponse}

Emitted each time a request with an HTTP `Expect: 100-continue` is received.
If this event is not listened for, the server will automatically respond
with a `100 Continue` as appropriate.

Handling this event involves calling [`response.writeContinue()`][] if the
client should continue to send the request body, or generating an appropriate
HTTP response (e.g. 400 Bad Request) if the client should not continue to send
the request body.

Note that when this event is emitted and handled, the [`'request'`][] event will
not be emitted.

### Event: 'checkExpectation'
<!-- YAML
added: v5.5.0
-->

* `request` {http.IncomingMessage}
* `response` {http.ServerResponse}

Emitted each time a request with an HTTP `Expect` header is received, where the
value is not `100-continue`. If this event is not listened for, the server will
automatically respond with a `417 Expectation Failed` as appropriate.

Note that when this event is emitted and handled, the [`'request'`][] event will
not be emitted.

### Event: 'clientError'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.94
changes:
  - version: v6.0.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/4557
    description: The default action of calling `.destroy()` on the `socket`
                 will no longer take place if there are listeners attached
                 for `'clientError'`.
  - version: v9.4.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/17672
    description: The `rawPacket` is the current buffer that just parsed. Adding
                 this buffer to the error object of `'clientError'` event is to
                 make it possible that developers can log the broken packet.
-->

* `exception` {Error}
* `socket` {net.Socket}

If a client connection emits an `'error'` event, it will be forwarded here.
Listener of this event is responsible for closing/destroying the underlying
socket. For example, one may wish to more gracefully close the socket with a
custom HTTP response instead of abruptly severing the connection.

Default behavior is to close the socket with an HTTP '400 Bad Request' response
if possible, otherwise the socket is immediately destroyed.

`socket` is the [`net.Socket`][] object that the error originated from.

```js
const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.end();
});
server.on('clientError', (err, socket) => {
  socket.end('HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request\r\n\r\n');
});
server.listen(8000);
```

When the `'clientError'` event occurs, there is no `request` or `response`
object, so any HTTP response sent, including response headers and payload,
*must* be written directly to the `socket` object. Care must be taken to
ensure the response is a properly formatted HTTP response message.

`err` is an instance of `Error` with two extra columns:

+ `bytesParsed`: the bytes count of request packet that Node.js may have parsed
  correctly;
+ `rawPacket`: the raw packet of current request.

### Event: 'close'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.4
-->

Emitted when the server closes.

### Event: 'connect'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.7.0
-->

* `request` {http.IncomingMessage} Arguments for the HTTP request, as it is in
  the [`'request'`][] event
* `socket` {net.Socket} Network socket between the server and client
* `head` {Buffer} The first packet of the tunneling stream (may be empty)

Emitted each time a client requests an HTTP `CONNECT` method. If this event is
not listened for, then clients requesting a `CONNECT` method will have their
connections closed.

After this event is emitted, the request's socket will not have a `'data'`
event listener, meaning it will need to be bound in order to handle data
sent to the server on that socket.

### Event: 'connection'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.0
-->

* `socket` {net.Socket}

This event is emitted when a new TCP stream is established. `socket` is
typically an object of type [`net.Socket`][]. Usually users will not want to
access this event. In particular, the socket will not emit `'readable'` events
because of how the protocol parser attaches to the socket. The `socket` can
also be accessed at `request.connection`.

This event can also be explicitly emitted by users to inject connections
into the HTTP server. In that case, any [`Duplex`][] stream can be passed.

If `socket.setTimeout()` is called here, the timeout will be replaced with
`server.keepAliveTimeout` when the socket has served a request (if
`server.keepAliveTimeout` is non-zero).

### Event: 'request'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.0
-->

* `request` {http.IncomingMessage}
* `response` {http.ServerResponse}

Emitted each time there is a request. Note that there may be multiple requests
per connection (in the case of HTTP Keep-Alive connections).

### Event: 'upgrade'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.94
changes:
  - version: v10.0.0
    pr-url: v10.0.0
    description: Not listening to this event no longer causes the socket
                 to be destroyed if a client sends an Upgrade header.
-->

* `request` {http.IncomingMessage} Arguments for the HTTP request, as it is in
  the [`'request'`][] event
* `socket` {net.Socket} Network socket between the server and client
* `head` {Buffer} The first packet of the upgraded stream (may be empty)

Emitted each time a client requests an HTTP upgrade. Listening to this event
is optional and clients cannot insist on a protocol change.

After this event is emitted, the request's socket will not have a `'data'`
event listener, meaning it will need to be bound in order to handle data
sent to the server on that socket.

### server.close([callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.90
-->

* `callback` {Function}

Stops the server from accepting new connections. See [`net.Server.close()`][].

### server.headersTimeout
<!-- YAML
added: v11.3.0
-->

* {number} **Default:** `40000`

Limit the amount of time the parser will wait to receive the complete HTTP
headers.

In case of inactivity, the rules defined in [`server.timeout`][] apply. However,
that inactivity based timeout would still allow the connection to be kept open
if the headers are being sent very slowly (by default, up to a byte per 2
minutes). In order to prevent this, whenever header data arrives an additional
check is made that more than `server.headersTimeout` milliseconds has not
passed since the connection was established. If the check fails, a `'timeout'`
event is emitted on the server object, and (by default) the socket is destroyed.
See [`server.timeout`][] for more information on how timeout behavior can be
customized.

### server.listen()

Starts the HTTP server listening for connections.
This method is identical to [`server.listen()`][] from [`net.Server`][].

### server.listening
<!-- YAML
added: v5.7.0
-->

* {boolean} Indicates whether or not the server is listening for connections.

### server.maxHeadersCount
<!-- YAML
added: v0.7.0
-->

* {number} **Default:** `2000`

Limits maximum incoming headers count. If set to 0, no limit will be applied.

### server.setTimeout([msecs][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.9.12
-->

* `msecs` {number} **Default:** `120000` (2 minutes)
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {http.Server}

Sets the timeout value for sockets, and emits a `'timeout'` event on
the Server object, passing the socket as an argument, if a timeout
occurs.

If there is a `'timeout'` event listener on the Server object, then it
will be called with the timed-out socket as an argument.

By default, the Server's timeout value is 2 minutes, and sockets are
destroyed automatically if they time out. However, if a callback is assigned
to the Server's `'timeout'` event, timeouts must be handled explicitly.

### server.timeout
<!-- YAML
added: v0.9.12
-->

* {number} Timeout in milliseconds. **Default:** `120000` (2 minutes).

The number of milliseconds of inactivity before a socket is presumed
to have timed out.

A value of `0` will disable the timeout behavior on incoming connections.

The socket timeout logic is set up on connection, so changing this
value only affects new connections to the server, not any existing connections.

### server.keepAliveTimeout
<!-- YAML
added: v8.0.0
-->

* {number} Timeout in milliseconds. **Default:** `5000` (5 seconds).

The number of milliseconds of inactivity a server needs to wait for additional
incoming data, after it has finished writing the last response, before a socket
will be destroyed. If the server receives new data before the keep-alive
timeout has fired, it will reset the regular inactivity timeout, i.e.,
[`server.timeout`][].

A value of `0` will disable the keep-alive timeout behavior on incoming
connections.
A value of `0` makes the http server behave similarly to Node.js versions prior
to 8.0.0, which did not have a keep-alive timeout.

The socket timeout logic is set up on connection, so changing this value only
affects new connections to the server, not any existing connections.

## Class: http.ServerResponse
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.17
-->

This object is created internally by an HTTP server — not by the user. It is
passed as the second parameter to the [`'request'`][] event.

The response inherits from [Stream][], and additionally implements the
following:

### Event: 'close'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.6.7
-->

Indicates that the underlying connection was terminated.

### Event: 'finish'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.6
-->

Emitted when the response has been sent. More specifically, this event is
emitted when the last segment of the response headers and body have been
handed off to the operating system for transmission over the network. It
does not imply that the client has received anything yet.

### response.addTrailers(headers)
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* `headers` {Object}

This method adds HTTP trailing headers (a header but at the end of the
message) to the response.

Trailers will **only** be emitted if chunked encoding is used for the
response; if it is not (e.g. if the request was HTTP/1.0), they will
be silently discarded.

Note that HTTP requires the `Trailer` header to be sent in order to
emit trailers, with a list of the header fields in its value. E.g.,

```js
response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain',
                          'Trailer': 'Content-MD5' });
response.write(fileData);
response.addTrailers({ 'Content-MD5': '7895bf4b8828b55ceaf47747b4bca667' });
response.end();
```

Attempting to set a header field name or value that contains invalid characters
will result in a [`TypeError`][] being thrown.

### response.connection
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {net.Socket}

See [`response.socket`][].

### response.end([data][, encoding][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.90
changes:
  - version: v10.0.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/18780
    description: This method now returns a reference to `ServerResponse`.
-->

* `data` {string|Buffer}
* `encoding` {string}
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {this}

This method signals to the server that all of the response headers and body
have been sent; that server should consider this message complete.
The method, `response.end()`, MUST be called on each response.

If `data` is specified, it is equivalent to calling
[`response.write(data, encoding)`][] followed by `response.end(callback)`.

If `callback` is specified, it will be called when the response stream
is finished.

### response.finished
<!-- YAML
added: v0.0.2
-->

* {boolean}

Boolean value that indicates whether the response has completed. Starts
as `false`. After [`response.end()`][] executes, the value will be `true`.

### response.getHeader(name)
<!-- YAML
added: v0.4.0
-->

* `name` {string}
* Returns: {any}

Reads out a header that's already been queued but not sent to the client.
Note that the name is case insensitive. The type of the return value depends
on the arguments provided to [`response.setHeader()`][].

```js
response.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
response.setHeader('Content-Length', Buffer.byteLength(body));
response.setHeader('Set-Cookie', ['type=ninja', 'language=javascript']);
const contentType = response.getHeader('content-type');
// contentType is 'text/html'
const contentLength = response.getHeader('Content-Length');
// contentLength is of type number
const setCookie = response.getHeader('set-cookie');
// setCookie is of type string[]
```

### response.getHeaderNames()
<!-- YAML
added: v7.7.0
-->

* Returns: {string[]}

Returns an array containing the unique names of the current outgoing headers.
All header names are lowercase.

```js
response.setHeader('Foo', 'bar');
response.setHeader('Set-Cookie', ['foo=bar', 'bar=baz']);

const headerNames = response.getHeaderNames();
// headerNames === ['foo', 'set-cookie']
```

### response.getHeaders()
<!-- YAML
added: v7.7.0
-->

* Returns: {Object}

Returns a shallow copy of the current outgoing headers. Since a shallow copy
is used, array values may be mutated without additional calls to various
header-related http module methods. The keys of the returned object are the
header names and the values are the respective header values. All header names
are lowercase.

The object returned by the `response.getHeaders()` method _does not_
prototypically inherit from the JavaScript `Object`. This means that typical
`Object` methods such as `obj.toString()`, `obj.hasOwnProperty()`, and others
are not defined and *will not work*.

```js
response.setHeader('Foo', 'bar');
response.setHeader('Set-Cookie', ['foo=bar', 'bar=baz']);

const headers = response.getHeaders();
// headers === { foo: 'bar', 'set-cookie': ['foo=bar', 'bar=baz'] }
```

### response.hasHeader(name)
<!-- YAML
added: v7.7.0
-->

* `name` {string}
* Returns: {boolean}

Returns `true` if the header identified by `name` is currently set in the
outgoing headers. Note that the header name matching is case-insensitive.

```js
const hasContentType = response.hasHeader('content-type');
```

### response.headersSent
<!-- YAML
added: v0.9.3
-->

* {boolean}

Boolean (read-only). True if headers were sent, false otherwise.

### response.removeHeader(name)
<!-- YAML
added: v0.4.0
-->

* `name` {string}

Removes a header that's queued for implicit sending.

```js
response.removeHeader('Content-Encoding');
```

### response.sendDate
<!-- YAML
added: v0.7.5
-->

* {boolean}

When true, the Date header will be automatically generated and sent in
the response if it is not already present in the headers. Defaults to true.

This should only be disabled for testing; HTTP requires the Date header
in responses.

### response.setHeader(name, value)
<!-- YAML
added: v0.4.0
-->

* `name` {string}
* `value` {any}

Sets a single header value for implicit headers. If this header already exists
in the to-be-sent headers, its value will be replaced. Use an array of strings
here to send multiple headers with the same name. Non-string values will be
stored without modification. Therefore, [`response.getHeader()`][] may return
non-string values. However, the non-string values will be converted to strings
for network transmission.

```js
response.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
```

or

```js
response.setHeader('Set-Cookie', ['type=ninja', 'language=javascript']);
```

Attempting to set a header field name or value that contains invalid characters
will result in a [`TypeError`][] being thrown.

When headers have been set with [`response.setHeader()`][], they will be merged
with any headers passed to [`response.writeHead()`][], with the headers passed
to [`response.writeHead()`][] given precedence.

```js
// returns content-type = text/plain
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
  res.setHeader('X-Foo', 'bar');
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('ok');
});
```

If [`response.writeHead()`][] method is called and this method has not been
called, it will directly write the supplied header values onto the network
channel without caching internally, and the [`response.getHeader()`][] on the
header will not yield the expected result. If progressive population of headers
is desired with potential future retrieval and modification, use
[`response.setHeader()`][] instead of [`response.writeHead()`][].

### response.setTimeout(msecs[, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.9.12
-->

* `msecs` {number}
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {http.ServerResponse}

Sets the Socket's timeout value to `msecs`. If a callback is
provided, then it is added as a listener on the `'timeout'` event on
the response object.

If no `'timeout'` listener is added to the request, the response, or
the server, then sockets are destroyed when they time out. If a handler is
assigned to the request, the response, or the server's `'timeout'` events,
timed out sockets must be handled explicitly.

### response.socket
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {net.Socket}

Reference to the underlying socket. Usually users will not want to access
this property. In particular, the socket will not emit `'readable'` events
because of how the protocol parser attaches to the socket. After
`response.end()`, the property is nulled. The `socket` may also be accessed
via `response.connection`.

```js
const http = require('http');
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  const ip = res.socket.remoteAddress;
  const port = res.socket.remotePort;
  res.end(`Your IP address is ${ip} and your source port is ${port}.`);
}).listen(3000);
```

### response.statusCode
<!-- YAML
added: v0.4.0
-->

* {number}

When using implicit headers (not calling [`response.writeHead()`][] explicitly),
this property controls the status code that will be sent to the client when
the headers get flushed.

```js
response.statusCode = 404;
```

After response header was sent to the client, this property indicates the
status code which was sent out.

### response.statusMessage
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.8
-->

* {string}

When using implicit headers (not calling [`response.writeHead()`][] explicitly),
this property controls the status message that will be sent to the client when
the headers get flushed. If this is left as `undefined` then the standard
message for the status code will be used.

```js
response.statusMessage = 'Not found';
```

After response header was sent to the client, this property indicates the
status message which was sent out.

### response.write(chunk[, encoding][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.29
-->

* `chunk` {string|Buffer}
* `encoding` {string} **Default:** `'utf8'`
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {boolean}

If this method is called and [`response.writeHead()`][] has not been called,
it will switch to implicit header mode and flush the implicit headers.

This sends a chunk of the response body. This method may
be called multiple times to provide successive parts of the body.

Note that in the `http` module, the response body is omitted when the
request is a HEAD request. Similarly, the `204` and `304` responses
_must not_ include a message body.

`chunk` can be a string or a buffer. If `chunk` is a string,
the second parameter specifies how to encode it into a byte stream.
`callback` will be called when this chunk of data is flushed.

This is the raw HTTP body and has nothing to do with higher-level multi-part
body encodings that may be used.

The first time [`response.write()`][] is called, it will send the buffered
header information and the first chunk of the body to the client. The second
time [`response.write()`][] is called, Node.js assumes data will be streamed,
and sends the new data separately. That is, the response is buffered up to the
first chunk of the body.

Returns `true` if the entire data was flushed successfully to the kernel
buffer. Returns `false` if all or part of the data was queued in user memory.
`'drain'` will be emitted when the buffer is free again.

### response.writeContinue()
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

Sends a HTTP/1.1 100 Continue message to the client, indicating that
the request body should be sent. See the [`'checkContinue'`][] event on
`Server`.

### response.writeHead(statusCode[, statusMessage][, headers])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.30
changes:
  - version: v11.10.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/25974
    description: Return `this` from `writeHead()` to allow chaining with
                 `end()`.
  - version: v5.11.0, v4.4.5
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/6291
    description: A `RangeError` is thrown if `statusCode` is not a number in
                 the range `[100, 999]`.
-->

* `statusCode` {number}
* `statusMessage` {string}
* `headers` {Object}
* Returns: {http.ServerResponse}

Sends a response header to the request. The status code is a 3-digit HTTP
status code, like `404`. The last argument, `headers`, are the response headers.
Optionally one can give a human-readable `statusMessage` as the second
argument.

Returns a reference to the `ServerResponse`, so that calls can be chained.

```js
const body = 'hello world';
response
  .writeHead(200, {
    'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(body),
    'Content-Type': 'text/plain'
  })
  .end(body);
```

This method must only be called once on a message and it must
be called before [`response.end()`][] is called.

If [`response.write()`][] or [`response.end()`][] are called before calling
this, the implicit/mutable headers will be calculated and call this function.

When headers have been set with [`response.setHeader()`][], they will be merged
with any headers passed to [`response.writeHead()`][], with the headers passed
to [`response.writeHead()`][] given precedence.

If this method is called and [`response.setHeader()`][] has not been called,
it will directly write the supplied header values onto the network channel
without caching internally, and the [`response.getHeader()`][] on the header
will not yield the expected result. If progressive population of headers is
desired with potential future retrieval and modification, use
[`response.setHeader()`][] instead.

```js
// returns content-type = text/plain
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
  res.setHeader('X-Foo', 'bar');
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('ok');
});
```

Note that Content-Length is given in bytes not characters. The above example
works because the string `'hello world'` contains only single byte characters.
If the body contains higher coded characters then `Buffer.byteLength()`
should be used to determine the number of bytes in a given encoding.
And Node.js does not check whether Content-Length and the length of the body
which has been transmitted are equal or not.

Attempting to set a header field name or value that contains invalid characters
will result in a [`TypeError`][] being thrown.

### response.writeProcessing()
<!-- YAML
added: v10.0.0
-->

Sends a HTTP/1.1 102 Processing message to the client, indicating that
the request body should be sent.

## Class: http.IncomingMessage
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.17
-->

An `IncomingMessage` object is created by [`http.Server`][] or
[`http.ClientRequest`][] and passed as the first argument to the [`'request'`][]
and [`'response'`][] event respectively. It may be used to access response
status, headers and data.

It implements the [Readable Stream][] interface, as well as the
following additional events, methods, and properties.

### Event: 'aborted'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.8
-->

Emitted when the request has been aborted.

### Event: 'close'
<!-- YAML
added: v0.4.2
-->

Indicates that the underlying connection was closed.

### message.aborted
<!-- YAML
added: v10.1.0
-->

* {boolean}

The `message.aborted` property will be `true` if the request has
been aborted.

### message.complete
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {boolean}

The `message.complete` property will be `true` if a complete HTTP message has
been received and successfully parsed.

This property is particularly useful as a means of determining if a client or
server fully transmitted a message before a connection was terminated:

```js
const req = http.request({
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 8080,
  method: 'POST'
}, (res) => {
  res.resume();
  res.on('end', () => {
    if (!res.complete)
      console.error(
        'The connection was terminated while the message was still being sent');
  });
});
```

### message.destroy([error])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* `error` {Error}

Calls `destroy()` on the socket that received the `IncomingMessage`. If `error`
is provided, an `'error'` event is emitted and `error` is passed as an argument
to any listeners on the event.

### message.headers
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.5
-->

* {Object}

The request/response headers object.

Key-value pairs of header names and values. Header names are lower-cased.

```js
// Prints something like:
//
// { 'user-agent': 'curl/7.22.0',
//   host: '127.0.0.1:8000',
//   accept: '*/*' }
console.log(request.headers);
```

Duplicates in raw headers are handled in the following ways, depending on the
header name:

* Duplicates of `age`, `authorization`, `content-length`, `content-type`,
`etag`, `expires`, `from`, `host`, `if-modified-since`, `if-unmodified-since`,
`last-modified`, `location`, `max-forwards`, `proxy-authorization`, `referer`,
`retry-after`, or `user-agent` are discarded.
* `set-cookie` is always an array. Duplicates are added to the array.
* For duplicate `cookie` headers, the values are joined together with '; '.
* For all other headers, the values are joined together with ', '.

### message.httpVersion
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.1
-->

* {string}

In case of server request, the HTTP version sent by the client. In the case of
client response, the HTTP version of the connected-to server.
Probably either `'1.1'` or `'1.0'`.

Also `message.httpVersionMajor` is the first integer and
`message.httpVersionMinor` is the second.

### message.method
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.1
-->

* {string}

**Only valid for request obtained from [`http.Server`][].**

The request method as a string. Read only. Examples: `'GET'`, `'DELETE'`.

### message.rawHeaders
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.6
-->

* {string[]}

The raw request/response headers list exactly as they were received.

Note that the keys and values are in the same list. It is *not* a
list of tuples. So, the even-numbered offsets are key values, and the
odd-numbered offsets are the associated values.

Header names are not lowercased, and duplicates are not merged.

```js
// Prints something like:
//
// [ 'user-agent',
//   'this is invalid because there can be only one',
//   'User-Agent',
//   'curl/7.22.0',
//   'Host',
//   '127.0.0.1:8000',
//   'ACCEPT',
//   '*/*' ]
console.log(request.rawHeaders);
```

### message.rawTrailers
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.6
-->

* {string[]}

The raw request/response trailer keys and values exactly as they were
received. Only populated at the `'end'` event.

### message.setTimeout(msecs, callback)
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.9
-->

* `msecs` {number}
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {http.IncomingMessage}

Calls `message.connection.setTimeout(msecs, callback)`.

### message.socket
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {net.Socket}

The [`net.Socket`][] object associated with the connection.

With HTTPS support, use [`request.socket.getPeerCertificate()`][] to obtain the
client's authentication details.

### message.statusCode
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.1
-->

* {number}

**Only valid for response obtained from [`http.ClientRequest`][].**

The 3-digit HTTP response status code. E.G. `404`.

### message.statusMessage
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.10
-->

* {string}

**Only valid for response obtained from [`http.ClientRequest`][].**

The HTTP response status message (reason phrase). E.G. `OK` or `Internal Server
Error`.

### message.trailers
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.0
-->

* {Object}

The request/response trailers object. Only populated at the `'end'` event.

### message.url
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.90
-->

* {string}

**Only valid for request obtained from [`http.Server`][].**

Request URL string. This contains only the URL that is
present in the actual HTTP request. If the request is:

```txt
GET /status?name=ryan HTTP/1.1\r\n
Accept: text/plain\r\n
\r\n
```

Then `request.url` will be:

<!-- eslint-disable semi -->
```js
'/status?name=ryan'
```

To parse the url into its parts `require('url').parse(request.url)`
can be used:

```txt
$ node
> require('url').parse('/status?name=ryan')
Url {
  protocol: null,
  slashes: null,
  auth: null,
  host: null,
  port: null,
  hostname: null,
  hash: null,
  search: '?name=ryan',
  query: 'name=ryan',
  pathname: '/status',
  path: '/status?name=ryan',
  href: '/status?name=ryan' }
```

To extract the parameters from the query string, the
`require('querystring').parse` function can be used, or
`true` can be passed as the second argument to `require('url').parse`:

```txt
$ node
> require('url').parse('/status?name=ryan', true)
Url {
  protocol: null,
  slashes: null,
  auth: null,
  host: null,
  port: null,
  hostname: null,
  hash: null,
  search: '?name=ryan',
  query: { name: 'ryan' },
  pathname: '/status',
  path: '/status?name=ryan',
  href: '/status?name=ryan' }
```

## http.METHODS
<!-- YAML
added: v0.11.8
-->

* {string[]}

A list of the HTTP methods that are supported by the parser.

## http.STATUS_CODES
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.22
-->

* {Object}

A collection of all the standard HTTP response status codes, and the
short description of each. For example, `http.STATUS_CODES[404] === 'Not
Found'`.

## http.createServer([options][, requestListener])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.1.13
changes:
  - version: v9.6.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/15752
    description: The `options` argument is supported now.
-->
* `options` {Object}
  * `IncomingMessage` {http.IncomingMessage} Specifies the `IncomingMessage`
    class to be used. Useful for extending the original `IncomingMessage`.
    **Default:** `IncomingMessage`.
  * `ServerResponse` {http.ServerResponse} Specifies the `ServerResponse` class
    to be used. Useful for extending the original `ServerResponse`. **Default:**
    `ServerResponse`.
* `requestListener` {Function}

* Returns: {http.Server}

Returns a new instance of [`http.Server`][].

The `requestListener` is a function which is automatically
added to the [`'request'`][] event.

## http.get(options[, callback])
## http.get(url[, options][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.6
changes:
  - version: v10.9.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/21616
    description: The `url` parameter can now be passed along with a separate
                 `options` object.
  - version: v7.5.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10638
    description: The `options` parameter can be a WHATWG `URL` object.
-->

* `url` {string | URL}
* `options` {Object} Accepts the same `options` as
  [`http.request()`][], with the `method` always set to `GET`.
  Properties that are inherited from the prototype are ignored.
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {http.ClientRequest}

Since most requests are GET requests without bodies, Node.js provides this
convenience method. The only difference between this method and
[`http.request()`][] is that it sets the method to GET and calls `req.end()`
automatically. Note that the callback must take care to consume the response
data for reasons stated in [`http.ClientRequest`][] section.

The `callback` is invoked with a single argument that is an instance of
[`http.IncomingMessage`][].

JSON fetching example:

```js
http.get('http://nodejs.org/dist/index.json', (res) => {
  const { statusCode } = res;
  const contentType = res.headers['content-type'];

  let error;
  if (statusCode !== 200) {
    error = new Error('Request Failed.\n' +
                      `Status Code: ${statusCode}`);
  } else if (!/^application\/json/.test(contentType)) {
    error = new Error('Invalid content-type.\n' +
                      `Expected application/json but received ${contentType}`);
  }
  if (error) {
    console.error(error.message);
    // consume response data to free up memory
    res.resume();
    return;
  }

  res.setEncoding('utf8');
  let rawData = '';
  res.on('data', (chunk) => { rawData += chunk; });
  res.on('end', () => {
    try {
      const parsedData = JSON.parse(rawData);
      console.log(parsedData);
    } catch (e) {
      console.error(e.message);
    }
  });
}).on('error', (e) => {
  console.error(`Got error: ${e.message}`);
});
```

## http.globalAgent
<!-- YAML
added: v0.5.9
-->

* {http.Agent}

Global instance of `Agent` which is used as the default for all HTTP client
requests.

## http.maxHeaderSize
<!-- YAML
added: v11.6.0
-->

* {number}

Read-only property specifying the maximum allowed size of HTTP headers in bytes.
Defaults to 8KB. Configurable using the [`--max-http-header-size`][] CLI option.

## http.request(options[, callback])
## http.request(url[, options][, callback])
<!-- YAML
added: v0.3.6
changes:
  - version: v10.9.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/21616
    description: The `url` parameter can now be passed along with a separate
                 `options` object.
  - version: v7.5.0
    pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10638
    description: The `options` parameter can be a WHATWG `URL` object.
-->

* `url` {string | URL}
* `options` {Object}
  * `agent` {http.Agent | boolean} Controls [`Agent`][] behavior. Possible
    values:
    * `undefined` (default): use [`http.globalAgent`][] for this host and port.
    * `Agent` object: explicitly use the passed in `Agent`.
    * `false`: causes a new `Agent` with default values to be used.
  * `auth` {string} Basic authentication i.e. `'user:password'` to compute an
    Authorization header.
  * `createConnection` {Function} A function that produces a socket/stream to
    use for the request when the `agent` option is not used. This can be used to
    avoid creating a custom `Agent` class just to override the default
    `createConnection` function. See [`agent.createConnection()`][] for more
    details. Any [`Duplex`][] stream is a valid return value.
  * `defaultPort` {number} Default port for the protocol. **Default:**
    `agent.defaultPort` if an `Agent` is used, else `undefined`.
  * `family` {number} IP address family to use when resolving `host` or
    `hostname`. Valid values are `4` or `6`. When unspecified, both IP v4 and
    v6 will be used.
  * `headers` {Object} An object containing request headers.
  * `host` {string} A domain name or IP address of the server to issue the
    request to. **Default:** `'localhost'`.
  * `hostname` {string} Alias for `host`. To support [`url.parse()`][],
    `hostname` will be used if both `host` and `hostname` are specified.
  * `localAddress` {string} Local interface to bind for network connections.
  * `method` {string} A string specifying the HTTP request method. **Default:**
    `'GET'`.
  * `path` {string} Request path. Should include query string if any.
    E.G. `'/index.html?page=12'`. An exception is thrown when the request path
    contains illegal characters. Currently, only spaces are rejected but that
    may change in the future. **Default:** `'/'`.
  * `port` {number} Port of remote server. **Default:** `defaultPort` if set,
    else `80`.
  * `protocol` {string} Protocol to use. **Default:** `'http:'`.
  * `setHost` {boolean}: Specifies whether or not to automatically add the
    `Host` header. Defaults to `true`.
  * `socketPath` {string} Unix Domain Socket (cannot be used if one of `host`
     or `port` is specified, those specify a TCP Socket).
  * `timeout` {number}: A number specifying the socket timeout in milliseconds.
    This will set the timeout before the socket is connected.
* `callback` {Function}
* Returns: {http.ClientRequest}

Node.js maintains several connections per server to make HTTP requests.
This function allows one to transparently issue requests.

`url` can be a string or a [`URL`][] object. If `url` is a
string, it is automatically parsed with [`new URL()`][]. If it is a [`URL`][]
object, it will be automatically converted to an ordinary `options` object.

If both `url` and `options` are specified, the objects are merged, with the
`options` properties taking precedence.

The optional `callback` parameter will be added as a one-time listener for
the [`'response'`][] event.

`http.request()` returns an instance of the [`http.ClientRequest`][]
class. The `ClientRequest` instance is a writable stream. If one needs to
upload a file with a POST request, then write to the `ClientRequest` object.

```js
const postData = querystring.stringify({
  'msg': 'Hello World!'
});

const options = {
  hostname: 'www.google.com',
  port: 80,
  path: '/upload',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
    'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(postData)
  }
};

const req = http.request(options, (res) => {
  console.log(`STATUS: ${res.statusCode}`);
  console.log(`HEADERS: ${JSON.stringify(res.headers)}`);
  res.setEncoding('utf8');
  res.on('data', (chunk) => {
    console.log(`BODY: ${chunk}`);
  });
  res.on('end', () => {
    console.log('No more data in response.');
  });
});

req.on('error', (e) => {
  console.error(`problem with request: ${e.message}`);
});

// write data to request body
req.write(postData);
req.end();
```

Note that in the example `req.end()` was called. With `http.request()` one
must always call `req.end()` to signify the end of the request -
even if there is no data being written to the request body.

If any error is encountered during the request (be that with DNS resolution,
TCP level errors, or actual HTTP parse errors) an `'error'` event is emitted
on the returned request object. As with all `'error'` events, if no listeners
are registered the error will be thrown.

There are a few special headers that should be noted.

* Sending a 'Connection: keep-alive' will notify Node.js that the connection to
  the server should be persisted until the next request.

* Sending a 'Content-Length' header will disable the default chunked encoding.

* Sending an 'Expect' header will immediately send the request headers.
  Usually, when sending 'Expect: 100-continue', both a timeout and a listener
  for the `'continue'` event should be set. See RFC2616 Section 8.2.3 for more
  information.

* Sending an Authorization header will override using the `auth` option
  to compute basic authentication.

Example using a [`URL`][] as `options`:

```js
const options = new URL('http://abc:xyz@example.com');

const req = http.request(options, (res) => {
  // ...
});
```

In a successful request, the following events will be emitted in the following
order:

* `'socket'`
* `'response'`
  * `'data'` any number of times, on the `res` object
    (`'data'` will not be emitted at all if the response body is empty, for
    instance, in most redirects)
  * `'end'` on the `res` object
* `'close'`

In the case of a connection error, the following events will be emitted:

* `'socket'`
* `'error'`
* `'close'`

If `req.abort()` is called before the connection succeeds, the following events
will be emitted in the following order:

* `'socket'`
* (`req.abort()` called here)
* `'abort'`
* `'error'` with an error with message `'Error: socket hang up'` and code
  `'ECONNRESET'`
* `'close'`

If `req.abort()` is called after the response is received, the following events
will be emitted in the following order:

* `'socket'`
* `'response'`
  * `'data'` any number of times, on the `res` object
* (`req.abort()` called here)
* `'abort'`
* `'aborted'` on the `res` object
* `'close'`
* `'end'` on the `res` object
* `'close'` on the `res` object

Note that setting the `timeout` option or using the `setTimeout()` function will
not abort the request or do anything besides add a `'timeout'` event.

[`--max-http-header-size`]: cli.html#cli_max_http_header_size_size
[`'checkContinue'`]: #http_event_checkcontinue
[`'request'`]: #http_event_request
[`'response'`]: #http_event_response
[`'upgrade'`]: #http_event_upgrade
[`Agent`]: #http_class_http_agent
[`Duplex`]: stream.html#stream_class_stream_duplex
[`TypeError`]: errors.html#errors_class_typeerror
[`URL`]: url.html#url_the_whatwg_url_api
[`agent.createConnection()`]: #http_agent_createconnection_options_callback
[`agent.getName()`]: #http_agent_getname_options
[`destroy()`]: #http_agent_destroy
[`getHeader(name)`]: #http_request_getheader_name
[`http.Agent`]: #http_class_http_agent
[`http.ClientRequest`]: #http_class_http_clientrequest
[`http.IncomingMessage`]: #http_class_http_incomingmessage
[`http.Server`]: #http_class_http_server
[`http.get()`]: #http_http_get_options_callback
[`http.globalAgent`]: #http_http_globalagent
[`http.request()`]: #http_http_request_options_callback
[`message.headers`]: #http_message_headers
[`net.Server.close()`]: net.html#net_server_close_callback
[`net.Server`]: net.html#net_class_net_server
[`net.Socket`]: net.html#net_class_net_socket
[`net.createConnection()`]: net.html#net_net_createconnection_options_connectlistener
[`new URL()`]: url.html#url_constructor_new_url_input_base
[`removeHeader(name)`]: #http_request_removeheader_name
[`request.end()`]: #http_request_end_data_encoding_callback
[`request.getHeader()`]: #http_request_getheader_name
[`request.setHeader()`]: #http_request_setheader_name_value
[`request.setTimeout()`]: #http_request_settimeout_timeout_callback
[`request.socket.getPeerCertificate()`]: tls.html#tls_tlssocket_getpeercertificate_detailed
[`request.socket`]: #http_request_socket
[`request.write(data, encoding)`]: #http_request_write_chunk_encoding_callback
[`response.end()`]: #http_response_end_data_encoding_callback
[`response.getHeader()`]: #http_response_getheader_name
[`response.setHeader()`]: #http_response_setheader_name_value
[`response.socket`]: #http_response_socket
[`response.write()`]: #http_response_write_chunk_encoding_callback
[`response.write(data, encoding)`]: #http_response_write_chunk_encoding_callback
[`response.writeContinue()`]: #http_response_writecontinue
[`response.writeHead()`]: #http_response_writehead_statuscode_statusmessage_headers
[`server.listen()`]: net.html#net_server_listen
[`server.timeout`]: #http_server_timeout
[`setHeader(name, value)`]: #http_request_setheader_name_value
[`socket.connect()`]: net.html#net_socket_connect_options_connectlistener
[`socket.setKeepAlive()`]: net.html#net_socket_setkeepalive_enable_initialdelay
[`socket.setNoDelay()`]: net.html#net_socket_setnodelay_nodelay
[`socket.setTimeout()`]: net.html#net_socket_settimeout_timeout_callback
[`socket.unref()`]: net.html#net_socket_unref
[`url.parse()`]: url.html#url_url_parse_urlstring_parsequerystring_slashesdenotehost
[Readable Stream]: stream.html#stream_class_stream_readable
[Stream]: stream.html#stream_stream
