httpdbg

httpdbg is a tool for Python developers to easily debug the HTTP(S) client requests in a Python program.

To use it, execute your program using the pyhttpdbg command instead of python and that's it. Open a browser to http://localhost:4909 to view the requests:

Full documentation => https://httpdbg.readthedocs.io/

installation

pip install httpdbg

usage

interactive console

Open an interactive console using the command pyhttpdbg.

(venv) dev@host:~/dir$ pyhttpdbg 
.... - - .--. -.. -... --. .... - - .--. -.. -... --. .... - - .--. -.. -... --.
  httpdbg - HTTP(S) requests available at http://localhost:4909/
.... - - .--. -.. -... --. .... - - .--. -.. -... --. .... - - .--. -.. -... --.
Python 3.10.6 (main, Aug 10 2022, 11:40:04) [GCC 11.3.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
(InteractiveConsole)
>>>

Perform HTTP requests.

You can inspect the HTTP requests directly in your web browser at http://localhost:4909.

script

You can trace all the HTTP requests performed by a script

pyhttpdbg --script filename.py [arg1 --arg2 ...]

pytest

You can trace all the HTTP requests performed during your tests

pyhttpdbg -m pytest [arg1 --arg2 ...]

If you use the pytest-xdist plugin to execute your tests in parallel, then you must install the pytest-httpdbg plugin if you want to trace the requests done by the pytest workers.

pip install httpdbg[pytest]

module

You can trace all the HTTP requests performed by a library module run as a script using the -m command line argument.

For example, you can view which HTTP requests are performed by pip when you install a package.

pyhttpdbg -m pip install hookdns --upgrade

Initiators

An initiator is the function/method that is at the origin of the HTTP requests. By default, we already support some packages but you can add your own initiators.

To add a new package in the list of initiators, you can use the -i command line argument:

pyhttpdbg -i api_client_pck --script my_script.py

You can use any package as an initiator, this is not limited to HTTP requests.

Already supported packages

packages	status
requests	supported
urllib3	supported
httpx	supported
aiohttp	supported
pytest	supported
your_package	yes, with the arg -i your_package

configuration

No configuration is necessary to start but some few settings are available for particular use.

command line

usage: pyhttpdbg [-h] [--port PORT] [--version] [--initiator INITIATOR] [--keep-up | --force-quit]
                 [--console | --module MODULE | --script SCRIPT]

httdbg - a very simple tool to debug HTTP(S) client requests

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --port PORT, -p PORT  the web interface port
  --version, -v         print the httpdbg version
  --initiator INITIATOR, -i INITIATOR
                        add a new initiator (package)
  --keep-up, -k         keep the server up even if the requests have been read
  --force-quit, -q      stop the server even if the requests have not been read
  --console             run a python console (default)
  --module MODULE, -m MODULE
                        run library module as a script (the next args are passed to pytest as is)
  --script SCRIPT       run a script (the next args are passed to the script as is)

web interace

Clic on the ⚙ button on the top right of the page.

Some options are available:

Hide the netloc in the url
Hide the initiator rows

To keep your configuration, bookmark the page with the full search query.

Fox example, if you want to hide the initiator rows by default, the url will be:

http://localhost:4909/?hi=on

web interface

All the requests recorded are available on the web interface.

The requests:

are still available in the web page even if the python process stopped (except if you force quit before the requests have been loaded by the web page).
are automatically cleaned if a new execution is detected.

documentation

https://httpdbg.readthedocs.io

cle-b/httpdbg