mv_package

http-curl

The HTTP API for MultiValue BASIC, implemented over the curl transport.

your program ──> http  (the API)      ← this package provides it
                   │
                   └──> curl  (the transport)   ← this package depends on it
                          ├── mvx-lang/curl-cmd   the OS `curl` command
                          └── mvx-lang/curl       libcurl, in process

Depend on the virtual name http and you get the same calls on MVX, UniData, UniVerse and jBASE, over whichever transport that platform can actually run.

Why the split

curl is the transport: how bytes get to a host. http is the API: what a program calls. Keeping them apart means the platform-shaped work — shell quoting, jBASE having no shell at all, UniVerse needing SH -c — lives in one place, in the transport, and is not repeated in every consumer.

It also lets the transport differ per platform without the API moving. UniVerse has no in-process route to C, so it uses curl-cmd; UniData and jBASE can use either.

MVX is not supported yet, and that is a missing transport rather than a missing port: nothing provides curl there. mvx-lang/curl carries a libcurl binding — TLS and redirects included — but declares udt only. The MVX arms here are written and unverified, and the manifest leaves MVX out until there is a transport to test them against.

API

      CALL HTTP.GET(URL, RESP)
         RESP<1>  HTTP status  (0 if the transport failed)
         RESP<2>  response headers — reserved, see Limits
         RESP<3>  response body

      CALL HTTP.GETFILE(URL, PATH, RESP)
         RESP<1>  HTTP status  (0 if the transport failed)

HTTP.GET gives you the status and the body, which neither transport call does alone — HTTPGET returns a body with no status, HTTPGETFILE a status with no body.

HTTP.GETFILE is kept separate because a package tarball has no business being assembled in memory first.

Limits, honestly

GET only, and no request headers. The curl transport exposes exactly HTTPGET(url) and HTTPGETFILE(url, path), and neither can express a method or a header. POST, PUT, custom headers and response headers all need the transport surface to grow first; they are not something this layer can add on its own. RESP<2> is reserved for when it does.

Install

MVPKG install mvx-lang/http-curl

which pulls a curl provider if you have none. Or depend on the virtual name from your own mvpkg.json:

  "dependencies": ["http"]

Naming

http-curl reads <virtual>-<implementation>, the same way curl-cmd is the curl virtual implemented with the OS command.

Licence

GPL-2.0-only. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).