Why am I getting this error in python ? (httplib)

Question

if theurl.startswith("http://"): theurl = theurl[7:]
    head = theurl[:theurl.find('/')]
    tail = theurl[theurl.find('/'):]
response_code = 0
import httplib
conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(head)
conn.request("HEAD",tail)
res = conn.getresponse()
response_code = int(res.status)

http://www.garageband.com/mp3cat/.UZCKbS6N4qk/01_Saraenglish.mp3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "check_data_404.py", line 51, in <module>
    run()
  File "check_data_404.py", line 35, in run
    res = conn.getresponse()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/httplib.py", line 950, in getresponse
    response.begin()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/httplib.py", line 390, in begin
    version, status, reason = self._read_status()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/httplib.py", line 354, in _read_status
    raise BadStatusLine(line)
httplib.BadStatusLine

Does anyone know what "Bad Status Line" is?

Edit: I tried this for many servers, and many URL's and I still get this error?

Answer 1

From the documentation for httplib:

exception httplib.BadStatusLine
A subclass of HTTPException. Raised if a server responds with a HTTP status code that we don’t understand.

I ran the same code and did not receive an error:

>>> theurl = 'http://www.garageband.com/mp3cat/.UZCKbS6N4qk/01_Saraenglish.mp3'
>>> if theurl.startswith("http://"):
...     theurl = theurl[7:]
...     head = theurl[:theurl.find('/')]
...     tail = theurl[theurl.find('/'):]
... 
>>> head
'www.garageband.com'
>>> tail
'/mp3cat/.UZCKbS6N4qk/01_Saraenglish.mp3'
>>> response_code = 0
>>> import httplib
>>> conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(head)
>>> conn.request("HEAD", tail)
>>> res = conn.getresponse()
>>> res.status
302
>>> response_code = int(res.status)

I guess just double-check everything and try again?

Answer 2

The Python Standard Library: httplib

exception httplib.BadStatusLine
A subclass of HTTPException. Raised if a server responds with a HTTP status code that we don’t understand.

Answer 3

Are you using a proxy?

If so, perhaps the proxy server is rejecting HEAD requests.

Do you get the same problem if you issue a GET request? If GET works I'd suspect that there is a proxy in your way.

You can see what's going on in more detail by calling conn.set_debuglevel(1) prior to calling conn.request(...).