Python requests - print entire http request (raw)?

Question

While using the requests module, is there any way to print the raw HTTP request?

I don't want just the headers, I want the request line, headers, and content printout. Is it possible to see what ultimately is constructed from HTTP request?

Answer 1

Since v1.2.3 Requests added the PreparedRequest object. As per the documentation "it contains the exact bytes that will be sent to the server".

One can use this to pretty print a request, like so:

import requests

req = requests.Request('POST','http://stackoverflow.com',headers={'X-Custom':'Test'},data='a=1&b=2')
prepared = req.prepare()

def pretty_print_POST(req):
    """
    At this point it is completely built and ready
    to be fired; it is "prepared".

    However pay attention at the formatting used in 
    this function because it is programmed to be pretty 
    printed and may differ from the actual request.
    """
    print('{}\n{}\r\n{}\r\n\r\n{}'.format(
        '-----------START-----------',
        req.method + ' ' + req.url,
        '\r\n'.join('{}: {}'.format(k, v) for k, v in req.headers.items()),
        req.body,
    ))

pretty_print_POST(prepared)

which produces:

-----------START-----------
POST http://stackoverflow.com/
Content-Length: 7
X-Custom: Test

a=1&b=2

Then you can send the actual request with this:

s = requests.Session()
s.send(prepared)

These links are to the latest documentation available, so they might change in content: Advanced - Prepared requests and API - Lower level classes