cowboy_stream(3)

NAME

cowboy_stream - Stream handlers

DESCRIPTION

The module cowboy_stream defines a callback interface and a protocol for handling HTTP streams.

An HTTP request and its associated response is called a stream. A connection may have many streams. In HTTP/1.1 they are executed sequentially, while in HTTP/2 they are executed concurrently.

Cowboy calls the stream handler for nearly all events related to a stream. Exceptions vary depending on the protocol.

Extra care must be taken when implementing stream handlers to ensure compatibility. While some modification of the events and commands is allowed, it is generally not a good idea to completely discard them.

CALLBACKS

Stream handlers must implement the following interface:

    init(StreamID, Req, Opts) -> {Commands, State}
    data(StreamID, IsFin, Data, State) -> {Commands, State}
    info(StreamID, Info, State) -> {Commands, State}
    terminate(StreamID, Reason, State) -> any()
    early_error(StreamID, Reason, PartialReq, Resp, Opts) -> Resp

    StreamID   :: cowboy_stream:streamid()
    Req        :: cowboy_req:req()
    Opts       :: cowboy:opts()
    Commands   :: cowboy_stream:commands()
    State      :: any()
    IsFin      :: cowboy_stream:fin()
    Data       :: binary()
    Info       :: any()
    Reason     :: cowboy_stream:reason()
    PartialReq  - cowboy_req:req(), except all fields are optional
    Resp       :: cowboy_stream:resp_command()

HTTP/1.1 will initialize a stream only when the request-line and all headers have been received. When errors occur before that point Cowboy will call the callback early_error/5 with a partial request, the error reason and the response Cowboy intends to send. All other events go through the stream handler using the normal callbacks.

HTTP/2 will initialize the stream when the HEADERS block has been fully received and decoded. Any protocol error occurring before that will not result in a response being sent and will therefore not go through the stream handler. In addition Cowboy may terminate streams without sending an HTTP response back.

The stream is initialized by calling init/3. All streams that are initialized will eventually be terminated by calling terminate/3.

When Cowboy receives data for the stream it will call data/4. The data given is the request body after any transfer decoding has been applied.

When Cowboy receives a message addressed to a stream, or when Cowboy needs to inform the stream handler that an internal event has occurred, it will call info/3.

COMMANDS

Stream handlers can return a list of commands to be executed from the init/3, data/4 and info/3 callbacks. In addition, the early_error/5 callback must return a response command.

The order in which the commands are given matters. For example, when sending a response and at the same time creating a new child process, the first command should be the spawn and the second the response. The reason for that is that the sending of the response may result in a socket error which leads to the termination of the connection before the rest of the commands are executed.

The following commands are defined:

  inform

Send an informational response to the client.

    {inform, cowboy:http_status(), cowboy:http_headers()}

Any number of informational responses may be sent, but only until the final response is sent.

  response

Send a response to the client.

    {response, cowboy:http_status(), cowboy:http_headers(),
        cowboy_req:resp_body()}

No more data can be sent after this command.

Note that in Cowboy it is the cowboy_req module that sets the date and server headers. When using the command directly those headers will not be added.

  headers

Initiate a response to the client.

    {headers, cowboy:http_status(), cowboy:http_headers()}

This initiates a response to the client. The stream will end when a data command with the fin flag or a trailer command is returned.

Note that in Cowboy it is the cowboy_req module that sets the date and server headers. When using the command directly those headers will not be added.

  data

Send data to the client.

    {data, fin(), cowboy_req:resp_body()}

  trailers

Send response trailers to the client.

    {trailers, cowboy:http_headers()}

  push

Push a resource to the client.

    {push, Method, Scheme, Host, inet:port_number(),
        Path, Qs, cowboy:http_headers()}

    Method = Scheme = Host = Path = Qs = binary()

The command will be ignored if the protocol does not provide any server push mechanism.

  flow
    {flow, pos_integer()}

Request more data to be read from the request body. The exact behavior depends on the protocol.

  spawn

Inform Cowboy that a process was spawned and should be supervised.

    {spawn, pid(), timeout()}

  error_response

Send an error response if no response was sent previously.

    {error_response, cowboy:http_status(), cowboy:http_headers(), iodata()}

  switch_protocol

Switch to a different protocol.

    {switch_protocol, cowboy:http_headers(), module(), state()}

Contains the headers that will be sent in the 101 response, along with the module implementing the protocol we are switching to and its initial state.

Note that the 101 informational response will not be sent after a final response.

  stop

Stop the stream.

    stop

While no more data can be sent after the fin flag was set, the stream is still tracked by Cowboy until it is stopped by the handler.

The behavior when stopping a stream for which no response has been sent will vary depending on the protocol. The stream will end successfully as far as the client is concerned.

To indicate that an error occurred, either use error_response before stopping, or use internal_error.

No other command can be executed after the stop command.

  internal_error

Stop the stream with an error.

    {internal_error, Reason, HumanReadable}

    Reason        = any()
    HumanReadable = atom()

This command should be used when the stream cannot continue because of an internal error. An error_response command may be sent before that to advertise to the client why the stream is dropped.

  log

Log a message.

    {log, logger:level(), io:format(), list()}

This command can be used to log a message using the configured logger module.

  set_options

Set protocol options.

    {set_options, map()}

This can also be used to override stream handler options. For example this is supported by cowboy_compress_h(3).

Not all options can be overridden. Please consult the relevant option's documentation for details.

PREDEFINED EVENTS

Cowboy will forward all messages sent to the stream to the info/3 callback. To send a message to a stream, the function cowboy_req:cast(3) can be used.

Cowboy will also forward the exit signals for the processes that the stream spawned.

When Cowboy needs to send a response it will trigger an event that looks exactly like the corresponding command. This event must be returned to be processed by Cowboy (which is done automatically when using cowboy_stream_h(3)).

Cowboy may trigger the following events on its own, regardless of the stream handlers configured: inform (to send a 101 informational response when upgrading to HTTP/2 or Websocket), response, headers, data and switch_protocol.

EXPORTS

The following function should be called by modules implementing stream handlers to execute the next stream handler in the list:

    • cowboy_stream:init(3) - Initialize a stream
    • cowboy_stream:data(3) - Handle data for a stream
    • cowboy_stream:info(3) - Handle a message for a stream
    • cowboy_stream:terminate(3) - Terminate a stream
    • cowboy_stream:early_error(3) - Handle an early error for a stream

TYPES

  commands()
    commands() :: [Command]

See the list of commands for details.

  fin()
    fin() :: fin | nofin

Used in commands and events to indicate that this is the end of a direction of a stream.

  partial_req()
    req() :: #{
        method  => binary(),               %% case sensitive
        version => cowboy:http_version() | atom(),
        scheme  => binary(),               %% lowercase; case insensitive
        host    => binary(),               %% lowercase; case insensitive
        port    => inet:port_number(),
        path    => binary(),               %% case sensitive
        qs      => binary(),               %% case sensitive
        headers => cowboy:http_headers(),
        peer    => {inet:ip_address(), inet:port_number()}
    }

Partial request information received when an early error is detected.

  reason()
    reason() :: normal | switch_protocol
        | {internal_error, timeout | {error | exit | throw, any()}, HumanReadable}
        | {socket_error, closed | atom(), HumanReadable}
        | {stream_error, Error, HumanReadable}
        | {connection_error, Error, HumanReadable}
        | {stop, cow_http2:frame() | {exit, any()}, HumanReadable}

    Error         = atom()
    HumanReadable = atom()

Reason for the stream termination.

  resp_command()
    resp_command() :: {response, cowboy:http_status(),
        cowboy:http_headers(), cowboy_req:resp_body()}

See the response command for details.

  streamid()
    streamid() :: any()

The identifier for this stream.

The identifier is unique over the connection process. It is possible to form a unique identifier node-wide and cluster-wide by wrapping it in a {self(), StreamID} tuple.

CHANGELOG
    • 2.7: The log and set_options commands were introduced.
    • 2.6: The data command can now contain a sendfile tuple.
    • 2.6: The {stop, {exit, any()}, HumanReadable} terminate reason was added.
    • 2.2: The trailers command was introduced.
    • 2.0: Module introduced.

SEE ALSO

cowboy(7), cowboy_http(3), cowboy_http2(3), cowboy_req:cast(3)