:mod:`nntplib` --- NNTP protocol client ======================================= .. module:: nntplib :synopsis: NNTP protocol client (requires sockets). .. index:: pair: NNTP; protocol single: Network News Transfer Protocol This module defines the class :class:`NNTP` which implements the client side of the Network News Transfer Protocol. It can be used to implement a news reader or poster, or automated news processors. It is compatible with :rfc:`3977` as well as the older :rfc:`977` and :rfc:`2980`. Here are two small examples of how it can be used. To list some statistics about a newsgroup and print the subjects of the last 10 articles:: >>> s = nntplib.NNTP('news.gmane.org') >>> resp, count, first, last, name = s.group('gmane.comp.python.committers') >>> print('Group', name, 'has', count, 'articles, range', first, 'to', last) Group gmane.comp.python.committers has 1096 articles, range 1 to 1096 >>> resp, overviews = s.over((last - 9, last)) >>> for id, over in overviews: ... print(id, nntplib.decode_header(over['subject'])) ... 1087 Re: Commit privileges for Łukasz Langa 1088 Re: 3.2 alpha 2 freeze 1089 Re: 3.2 alpha 2 freeze 1090 Re: Commit privileges for Łukasz Langa 1091 Re: Commit privileges for Łukasz Langa 1092 Updated ssh key 1093 Re: Updated ssh key 1094 Re: Updated ssh key 1095 Hello fellow committers! 1096 Re: Hello fellow committers! >>> s.quit() '205 Bye!' To post an article from a binary file (this assumes that the article has valid headers, and that you have right to post on the particular newsgroup):: >>> s = nntplib.NNTP('news.gmane.org') >>> f = open('/tmp/article.txt', 'rb') >>> s.post(f) '240 Article posted successfully.' >>> s.quit() '205 Bye!' The module itself defines the following classes: .. class:: NNTP(host, port=119, user=None, password=None, readermode=None, usenetrc=True, [timeout]) Return a new instance of the :class:`NNTP` class, representing a connection to the NNTP server running on host *host*, listening at port *port*. An optional *timeout* can be specified for the socket connection. If the optional *user* and *password* are provided, or if suitable credentials are present in :file:`/.netrc` and the optional flag *usenetrc* is true (the default), the ``AUTHINFO USER`` and ``AUTHINFO PASS`` commands are used to identify and authenticate the user to the server. If the optional flag *readermode* is true, then a ``mode reader`` command is sent before authentication is performed. Reader mode is sometimes necessary if you are connecting to an NNTP server on the local machine and intend to call reader-specific commands, such as ``group``. If you get unexpected :exc:`NNTPPermanentError`\ s, you might need to set *readermode*. *readermode* defaults to ``None``. *usenetrc* defaults to ``True``. .. exception:: NNTPError Derived from the standard exception :exc:`Exception`, this is the base class for all exceptions raised by the :mod:`nntplib` module. Instances of this class have the following attribute: .. attribute:: response The response of the server if available, as a :class:`str` object. .. exception:: NNTPReplyError Exception raised when an unexpected reply is received from the server. .. exception:: NNTPTemporaryError Exception raised when a response code in the range 400--499 is received. .. exception:: NNTPPermanentError Exception raised when a response code in the range 500--599 is received. .. exception:: NNTPProtocolError Exception raised when a reply is received from the server that does not begin with a digit in the range 1--5. .. exception:: NNTPDataError Exception raised when there is some error in the response data. .. _nntp-objects: NNTP Objects ------------ :class:`NNTP` instances have the following methods. The *response* that is returned as the first item in the return tuple of almost all methods is the server's response: a string beginning with a three-digit code. If the server's response indicates an error, the method raises one of the above exceptions. .. note:: Many of the following methods take an optional keyword-only argument *file*. When the *file* argument is supplied, it must be either a :term:`file object` opened for binary writing, or the name of an on-disk file to be written to. The method will then write any data returned by the server (except for the response line and the terminating dot) to the file; any list of lines, tuples or objects that the method normally returns will be empty. .. versionchanged:: 3.2 Many of the following methods have been reworked and fixed, which makes them incompatible with their 3.1 counterparts. .. method:: NNTP.quit() Send a ``QUIT`` command and close the connection. Once this method has been called, no other methods of the NNTP object should be called. .. method:: NNTP.getwelcome() Return the welcome message sent by the server in reply to the initial connection. (This message sometimes contains disclaimers or help information that may be relevant to the user.) .. method:: NNTP.getcapabilities() Return the :rfc:`3977` capabilities advertised by the server, as a :class:`dict` instance mapping capability names to (possibly empty) lists of values. On legacy servers which don't understand the ``CAPABILITIES`` command, an empty dictionary is returned instead. >>> s = NNTP('news.gmane.org') >>> 'POST' in s.getcapabilities() True .. versionadded:: 3.2 .. method:: NNTP.newgroups(date, *, file=None) Send a ``NEWGROUPS`` command. The *date* argument should be a :class:`datetime.date` or :class:`datetime.datetime` object. Return a pair ``(response, groups)`` where *groups* is a list representing the groups that are new since the given *date*. If *file* is supplied, though, then *groups* will be empty. >>> from datetime import date, timedelta >>> resp, groups = s.newgroups(date.today() - timedelta(days=3)) >>> len(groups) 85 >>> groups[0] GroupInfo(group='gmane.network.tor.devel', last='4', first='1', flag='m') .. method:: NNTP.newnews(group, date, *, file=None) Send a ``NEWNEWS`` command. Here, *group* is a group name or ``'*'``, and *date* has the same meaning as for :meth:`newgroups`. Return a pair ``(response, articles)`` where *articles* is a list of message ids. This command is frequently disabled by NNTP server administrators. .. method:: NNTP.list(*, file=None) Send a ``LIST`` command. Return a pair ``(response, list)`` where *list* is a list of tuples representing all the groups available from this NNTP server. Each tuple has the form ``(group, last, first, flag)``, where *group* is a group name, *last* and *first* are the last and first article numbers, and *flag* is ``'y'`` if posting is allowed, ``'n'`` if not, and ``'m'`` if the newsgroup is moderated. (Note the ordering: *last*, *first*.) This command will often return very large results. It is best to cache the results offline unless you really need to refresh them. .. method:: NNTP.descriptions(grouppattern) Send a ``LIST NEWSGROUPS`` command, where *grouppattern* is a wildmat string as specified in :rfc:`3977` (it's essentially the same as DOS or UNIX shell wildcard strings). Return a pair ``(response, descriptions)``, where *descriptions* is a dictionary mapping group names to textual descriptions. >>> resp, descs = s.descriptions('gmane.comp.python.*') >>> len(descs) 295 >>> descs.popitem() ('gmane.comp.python.bio.general', 'BioPython discussion list (Moderated)') .. method:: NNTP.description(group) Get a description for a single group *group*. If more than one group matches (if 'group' is a real wildmat string), return the first match. If no group matches, return an empty string. This elides the response code from the server. If the response code is needed, use :meth:`descriptions`. .. method:: NNTP.group(name) Send a ``GROUP`` command, where *name* is the group name. The group is selected as the current group, if it exists. Return a tuple ``(response, count, first, last, name)`` where *count* is the (estimated) number of articles in the group, *first* is the first article number in the group, *last* is the last article number in the group, and *name* is the group name. .. method:: NNTP.over(message_spec, *, file=None) Send a ``OVER`` command, or a ``XOVER`` command on legacy servers. *message_spec* can be either a string representing a message id, or a ``(first, last)`` tuple of numbers indicating a range of articles in the current group, or a ``(first, None)`` tuple indicating a range of articles starting from *first* to the last article in the current group, or :const:`None` to select the current article in the current group. Return a pair ``(response, overviews)``. *overviews* is a list of ``(article_number, overview)`` tuples, one for each article selected by *message_spec*. Each *overview* is a dictionary with the same number of items, but this number depends on the server. These items are either message headers (the key is then the lower-cased header name) or metadata items (the key is then the metadata name prepended with ``":"``). The following items are guaranteed to be present by the NNTP specification: * the ``subject``, ``from``, ``date``, ``message-id`` and ``references`` headers * the ``:bytes`` metadata: the number of bytes in the entire raw article (including headers and body) * the ``:lines`` metadata: the number of lines in the article body It is advisable to use the :func:`decode_header` function on header values when they may contain non-ASCII characters:: >>> _, _, first, last, _ = s.group('gmane.comp.python.devel') >>> resp, overviews = s.over((last, last)) >>> art_num, over = overviews[0] >>> art_num 117216 >>> list(over.keys()) ['xref', 'from', ':lines', ':bytes', 'references', 'date', 'message-id', 'subject'] >>> over['from'] '=?UTF-8?B?Ik1hcnRpbiB2LiBMw7Z3aXMi?= ' >>> nntplib.decode_header(over['from']) '"Martin v. Löwis" ' .. versionadded:: 3.2 .. method:: NNTP.help(*, file=None) Send a ``HELP`` command. Return a pair ``(response, list)`` where *list* is a list of help strings. .. method:: NNTP.stat(message_spec=None) Send a ``STAT`` command, where *message_spec* is either a message id (enclosed in ``'<'`` and ``'>'``) or an article number in the current group. If *message_spec* is omitted or :const:`None`, the current article in the current group is considered. Return a triple ``(response, number, id)`` where *number* is the article number and *id* is the message id. >>> _, _, first, last, _ = s.group('gmane.comp.python.devel') >>> resp, number, message_id = s.stat(first) >>> number, message_id (9099, '<20030112190404.GE29873@epoch.metaslash.com>') .. method:: NNTP.next() Send a ``NEXT`` command. Return as for :meth:`stat`. .. method:: NNTP.last() Send a ``LAST`` command. Return as for :meth:`stat`. .. method:: NNTP.article(message_spec=None, *, file=None) Send an ``ARTICLE`` command, where *message_spec* has the same meaning as for :meth:`stat`. Return a tuple ``(response, info)`` where *info* is a :class:`~collections.namedtuple` with three members *number*, *message_id* and *lines* (in that order). *number* is the article number in the group (or 0 if the information is not available), *message_id* the message id as a string, and *lines* a list of lines (without terminating newlines) comprising the raw message including headers and body. >>> resp, info = s.article('<20030112190404.GE29873@epoch.metaslash.com>') >>> info.number 0 >>> info.message_id '<20030112190404.GE29873@epoch.metaslash.com>' >>> len(info.lines) 65 >>> info.lines[0] b'Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail' >>> info.lines[1] b'From: Neal Norwitz ' >>> info.lines[-3:] [b'There is a patch for 2.3 as well as 2.2.', b'', b'Neal'] .. method:: NNTP.head(message_spec=None, *, file=None) Same as :meth:`article()`, but sends a ``HEAD`` command. The *lines* returned (or written to *file*) will only contain the message headers, not the body. .. method:: NNTP.body(message_spec=None, *, file=None) Same as :meth:`article()`, but sends a ``BODY`` command. The *lines* returned (or written to *file*) will only contain the message body, not the headers. .. method:: NNTP.post(data) Post an article using the ``POST`` command. The *data* argument is either a :term:`file object` opened for binary reading, or any iterable of bytes objects (representing raw lines of the article to be posted). It should represent a well-formed news article, including the required headers. The :meth:`post` method automatically escapes lines beginning with ``.`` and appends the termination line. If the method succeeds, the server's response is returned. If the server refuses posting, a :class:`NNTPReplyError` is raised. .. method:: NNTP.ihave(message_id, data) Send an ``IHAVE`` command. *message_id* is the id of the message to send to the server (enclosed in ``'<'`` and ``'>'``). The *data* parameter and the return value are the same as for :meth:`post()`. .. method:: NNTP.date() Return a pair ``(response, date)``. *date* is a :class:`~datetime.datetime` object containing the current date and time of the server. .. method:: NNTP.slave() Send a ``SLAVE`` command. Return the server's *response*. .. method:: NNTP.set_debuglevel(level) Set the instance's debugging level. This controls the amount of debugging output printed. The default, ``0``, produces no debugging output. A value of ``1`` produces a moderate amount of debugging output, generally a single line per request or response. A value of ``2`` or higher produces the maximum amount of debugging output, logging each line sent and received on the connection (including message text). The following are optional NNTP extensions defined in :rfc:`2980`. Some of them have been superseded by newer commands in :rfc:`3977`. .. method:: NNTP.xhdr(header, string, *, file=None) Send an ``XHDR`` command. The *header* argument is a header keyword, e.g. ``'subject'``. The *string* argument should have the form ``'first-last'`` where *first* and *last* are the first and last article numbers to search. Return a pair ``(response, list)``, where *list* is a list of pairs ``(id, text)``, where *id* is an article number (as a string) and *text* is the text of the requested header for that article. If the *file* parameter is supplied, then the output of the ``XHDR`` command is stored in a file. If *file* is a string, then the method will open a file with that name, write to it then close it. If *file* is a :term:`file object`, then it will start calling :meth:`write` on it to store the lines of the command output. If *file* is supplied, then the returned *list* is an empty list. .. method:: NNTP.xover(start, end, *, file=None) Send an ``XOVER`` command. *start* and *end* are article numbers delimiting the range of articles to select. The return value is the same of for :meth:`over()`. It is recommended to use :meth:`over()` instead, since it will automatically use the newer ``OVER`` command if available. .. method:: NNTP.xpath(id) Return a pair ``(resp, path)``, where *path* is the directory path to the article with message ID *id*. Most of the time, this extension is not enabled by NNTP server administrators. .. XXX deprecated: .. method:: NNTP.xgtitle(name, *, file=None) Process an ``XGTITLE`` command, returning a pair ``(response, list)``, where *list* is a list of tuples containing ``(name, title)``. If the *file* parameter is supplied, then the output of the ``XGTITLE`` command is stored in a file. If *file* is a string, then the method will open a file with that name, write to it then close it. If *file* is a :term:`file object`, then it will start calling :meth:`write` on it to store the lines of the command output. If *file* is supplied, then the returned *list* is an empty list. This is an optional NNTP extension, and may not be supported by all servers. RFC2980 says "It is suggested that this extension be deprecated". Use :meth:`descriptions` or :meth:`description` instead. Utility functions ----------------- The module also defines the following utility function: .. function:: decode_header(header_str) Decode a header value, un-escaping any escaped non-ASCII characters. *header_str* must be a :class:`str` object. The unescaped value is returned. Using this function is recommended to display some headers in a human readable form:: >>> decode_header("Some subject") 'Some subject' >>> decode_header("=?ISO-8859-15?Q?D=E9buter_en_Python?=") 'Débuter en Python' >>> decode_header("Re: =?UTF-8?B?cHJvYmzDqG1lIGRlIG1hdHJpY2U=?=") 'Re: problème de matrice'