NAME

HTTP::XSHeaders - Fast XS Header library, replacing HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast.

VERSION

Version 0.200000

SYNOPSIS

# load once
use HTTP::XSHeaders;

# keep using HTTP::Headers or HTTP::Headers::Fast as you wish

ALPHA RELEASE

This is a work in progress. Once we feel it is stable, the version will be bumped to 1.0. Until then, feel free to use and try and submit tickets, but do this at your own risk.

DESCRIPTION

By loading HTTP::XSHeaders anywhere, you replace any usage of HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast with a fast C implementation.

You can continue to use HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast and any other module that depends on them just like you did before. It's just faster now.

WHY

First there was HTTP::Headers. It's good, stable, and ubiquitous. However, it's slow.

Along came HTTP::Headers::Fast. Gooder, stable, and used internally by Plack, so you know it means business.

Not fast enough, we implemented an XS version of it, released under the name HTTP::Headers::Fast::XS. It was a successful experiment. However, we thought we could do better.

HTTP::XSHeaders provides a complete rework of the headers library with the intent of being fast, lean, and clear. It does not attempt to implement the original algorithm, but instead uses its own C-level implementation with an interface that is mostly compatible with both HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast.

This module attempts to replace HTTP::Headers, HTTP::Headers::Fast, and the XS imeplemntation of it, HTTP::Headers::Fast::XS. We attempt to continue developing this module and perhaps deprecate HTTP::Headers::Fast::XS.

COMPATIBILITY

While we keep compatibility with the interfaces of HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast, we've taken the liberty to make several changes that were deemed reasonable and sane:

• Aligning in as_string method

  as_string method does weird stuff in order to keep the original indentation. This is unnecessary and unhelpful. We simply add one space as indentation after the first newline.

• No messing around in header names and casing

  The headers are stored as given (MY-HeaDER stays MY-HeaDER) and compared as lowercase. We do not uppercase or lowercase anything (other than for comparing header names internally).

• Case normalization using leading colon is not supported

  Following the previous item, we also do not normalize based on leading colon.

• $TRANSLATE_UNDERSCORE is not supported

  $TRANSLATE_UNDERSCORE (which controls whether underscores are translated or not) is not supported. It's barely documented (or isn't at all), it isn't used by anything on CPAN, nor can we find any use-case other than the tests. So, instead, we always convert underscores to dashes.

• Storable is loaded but not used

  Both HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast use Storable for cloning. While HTTP::Headers loads it automatically, HTTP::Headers::Fast loads it lazily.

  Since we override both, we load Storable always. However, we do not use it for cloning and instead implemented our C-level struct cloning.

BENCHMARKS

HTTP::Headers 6.05, HTTP::Headers::Fast 0.19, HTTP::XSHeaders 0.200000

-- as_string
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.00468778222396934
fast            0.0964434631535363
orig            0.105793242864311

-- as_string_without_sort
Implementation            Time
xsheaders_as_str          0.00475378949036912
xsheaders_as_str_wo       0.00484256407093758
fast_as_str               0.0954295831126767
fast_as_str_wo            0.0736790240349744
orig                      0.105823918835043

-- get_content_length
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.0105355231679
fast            0.0121647090348415
orig            0.0574727505777773

-- get_date
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.077750453123065
fast            0.0826203668485442
orig            0.101090469267193

-- get_header
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.00505807073565111
fast            0.0612525710276364
orig            0.0820842156588862

-- push_header
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.00271070907120684
fast            0.0178986201816726
orig            0.0242003530752845

-- push_header_many
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.00426636619488888
fast            0.0376390665501822
orig            0.0503843871625857

-- scan
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.0142865143596716
fast            0.061759048917916
orig            0.0667217048891246

-- set_date
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.114970609213125
fast            0.130542749562301
orig            0.168121156055091

-- set_header
Implementation  Time
xsheaders       0.0456117003715809
fast            0.0868535344701981
orig            0.135920422020881

METHODS

These match the API described in HTTP::Headers and HTTP::Headers::Fast, with caveats described above in COMPATIBILITY.

new

Create a new object.

clone

Create a new object from this object's headers.

header

Get or set a header.

clear

Clears all headers.

push_header

Add a header value.

init_header

Initialize a header.

remove_header

Removes a header.

remove_content_headers

Removes all content headers.

as_string

Returns a sorted string representation of all headers.

as_string_without_sort

Returns a non-sorted string representation of all headers.

header_field_names

Returns all header field names.

scan

Apply a function to each header value.

content_type

Get the content type header.

content_type_charset

Get the content type charset header.

referer

Get or set the referer header.

referrer

Same as referer but in proper English (unlike the HTTP spec).

AUTHORS

• Gonzalo Diethelm gonzus AT cpan DOT org

• Sawyer X xsawyerx AT cpan DOT org

THANKS

• Rafaël Garcia-Suarez

• p5pclub

cpanm HTTP::XSHeaders

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install HTTP::XSHeaders