is there a difference between curl -u and python requests

Question

So there's a web page that I want to retreive with python.Requests

https://ororo.tv/api/v2/episodes/9

which requires basic authentication. If I do it with curl like this

 curl -u test@example.com:password https://ororo.tv/api/v2/episodes/9

I get the response I want, however, when trying to do the same in python with Requests library, like this

>>> r = requests.get('https://ororo.tv/api/v2/episodes/9', auth=('test@example.com', 'password'))
>>> r
<Response [520]>

I always get 520 response. Could someone tell me, what i could be doing wrong ?

Answer 1

Yes, there are subtle differences. There are slight differences in the headers being sent, and those apparently matter to this API.

If you change the URL queried to use http://httpbin.org/get (an end-point of the online HTTP test service HTTPBin.org, you can see the differences in what curl and requests send:

$ curl -u test@example.com:password http://httpbin.org/get
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Authorization": "Basic dGVzdEBleGFtcGxlLmNvbTpwYXNzd29yZA==",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.51.0"
  },
  "origin": "84.92.98.170",
  "url": "http://httpbin.org/get"
}
$ python -c "import requests; print(requests.get('http://httpbin.org/get', auth=('test@example.com', 'password')).text)"
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Accept-Encoding": "gzip, deflate",
    "Authorization": "Basic dGVzdEBleGFtcGxlLmNvbTpwYXNzd29yZA==",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "python-requests/2.11.1"
  },
  "origin": "84.92.98.170",
  "url": "http://httpbin.org/get"
}

To highlight the differences:

• requests sends one extra header, Accept-Encoding, set to gzip, deflate
• The User-Agent header differs; both reflect the current agent.

You'd have to see which one of these headers causes the issue on the https://ororo.tv/api/v2 site. When I correct the URL to use v2 and https, like the curl command, and set the User-Agent header then I get a valid response:

>>> headers = {'User-Agent': 'curl/7.51.0'}
>>> r = requests.get('https://ororo.tv/api/v1/episodes/9',
                     auth=('test@example.com', 'password'), headers=headers)
>>> r
<Response [200]>
>>> from pprint import pprint
>>> pprint(r.json())
{'airdate': '2005-10-13',
 'download_url': 'https://static-uk2.ororo.tv/uploads/video/file/9/Everybody.Hates.Chris.S01E04.DVDRip.Everybody.Hates.Sausage_1480525209.mp4?attachment=true&wmsAuthSign=aWQ9ODAzNDI3Kyt2aWRlbys5JnNlcnZlcl90aW1lPTIvOC8yMDE3IDI6Mjc6MDQgUE0maGFzaF92YWx1ZT1kbEpGM3c1bldSOXBOMUg5V2N1S0NnPT0mdmFsaWRtaW51dGVzPTk2MCZzdHJtX2xlbj05NQ%3D%3D',
 'id': 9,
 'name': 'Everybody Hates Sausage',
 'number': '4',
 'plot': 'When Julius buys a big crate of sausage, he makes everyone eat it '
         'with every meal. But Tonya refuses to, causing friction between the '
         'her and Rochelle. While at school, Chris is sentenced to 3 days of '
         'detention after a rumor goes round about him beating up the school '
         'bully, Joey.',
 'resolution': 'SD',
 'season': 1,
 'show_name': 'Everybody hates Chris',
 'subtitles': [{'lang': 'en',
                'url': 'https://uploads.ororo-mirror.tv/uploads/subtitle/file/4867/Everybody.Hates.Chris.S01E04.DVDRip.Everybody.Hates.Sausage.eng.vtt'},
               {'lang': 'ru',
                'url': 'https://uploads.ororo-mirror.tv/uploads/subtitle/file/28629/Everybody.Hates.Chris.S01E04.DVDRip.Everybody.Hates.Sausage.vtt'},
               {'lang': 'es',
                'url': 'https://uploads.ororo-mirror.tv/uploads/subtitle/file/55744/1x04_EH_Sausage.vtt'},
               {'lang': 'pt',
                'url': 'https://uploads.ororo-mirror.tv/uploads/subtitle/file/124429/Everybody_Hates_Chris_104_-_Everybody_Hates_Sausage.vtt'},
               {'lang': 'cs',
                'url': 'https://uploads.ororo-mirror.tv/uploads/subtitle/file/217213/Everybody_Hates_Chris_104_-_Everybody_Hates_Sausages.vtt'},
               {'lang': 'tr',
                'url': 'https://uploads.ororo-mirror.tv/uploads/subtitle/file/192405/Everybody_Hates_Chris_S01E04_-_Everybody_Hates_Sausages-tur.vtt'}],
 'updated_at': 1480640069,
 'url': 'https://static-gra.ororo.tv/uploads/video/file/9/Everybody.Hates.Chris.S01E04.DVDRip.Everybody.Hates.Sausage_1480525209.smil/playlist.m3u8?wmsAuthSign=aWQ9ODAzNDI3Kyt2aWRlbys5JnNlcnZlcl90aW1lPTIvOC8yMDE3IDI6Mjc6MDQgUE0maGFzaF92YWx1ZT1FajlGK2JPMEd3aU1Lc3lnN1M4NlpBPT0mdmFsaWRtaW51dGVzPTk2MCZzdHJtX2xlbj05Ng%3D%3D'}

Answer 2

It's possible that the api you're trying to use requires you to format your request in a specific way, possibly requiring headers and base64 encoded authentication, when using something like Python's requests.

Check out this example, which will show you how to both send a base64 encoded authentication header, along with some data:

import requests
import base64

username = "some_username"
password = "some_password"

request_url = "https://ororo.tv/api/v2/episodes/9"

# In this example, I'm passing some data along with the request.
# these are generally what you would expect to pass along in an encoded url:
# /api?some_url_param_key=some_url_param_value

data = {}
data["some_url_param_key"] = "some_url_param_value"

# This is an example header, not necessarily what you need, 
# but it should serve as a good starting point.

headers = {}
headers["Authorization"] = "Basic " + base64.encodestring(username + ":" + password).replace('\n', '')
headers["Accept"] = "*/*"
headers["Content-Type"] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
headers["User-Agent"] = "runscope/0.1"

# You can use post() in some cases where you would expect to use get().
# Every API is its own unique snowflake and expects different inputs.
# Try opening up the Chrome console and run the request in the 
# browser, where you know it works. Examine the headers and response
# in cases where the API you're accessing doesn't provide you 
# with the necessary inputs. 

result = requests.post(request_url, headers=headers, data=data)
print result