Requests - Handling History

Requests - Understanding Response History

The response.history attribute in the Requests library provides valuable insight into the redirection process of an HTTP request. It records each step of a redirect chain.

The response.history Attribute

When a request results in one or more redirections, response.history will be a list of Response objects. Each object in this list represents a request-response cycle that occurred before the final response was received. The list is sorted from the oldest redirect to the most recent one, just before the final response.

If there were no redirections, response.history will be an empty list [].

Example: Inspecting Redirection History

Let’s use a URL that we know will redirect multiple times to examine its history.

import requests

# This URL will redirect 3 times before landing on /get
url = 'http://httpbin.org/redirect/3'
response = requests.get(url)

print(f"Final URL: {response.url}")
print(f"Final Status Code: {response.status_code}")

print("\nRedirection History:")
if response.history:
    for i, resp_in_history in enumerate(response.history):
        print(f"  Step {i+1}:")
        print(f"    Status Code: {resp_in_history.status_code}")
        print(f"    URL: {resp_in_history.url}")
        print(f"    Redirected from: {resp_in_history.headers.get('Location', 'N/A') if resp_in_history.is_redirect else 'N/A (not a redirect response)'}")
else:
    print("No redirections occurred.")

print(f"\nRaw history list: {response.history}")

Output

Final URL: http://httpbin.org/get
Final Status Code: 200

Redirection History:
  Step 1:
    Status Code: 302
    URL: http://httpbin.org/redirect/3
    Redirected from: /relative-redirect/2
  Step 2:
    Status Code: 302
    URL: http://httpbin.org/relative-redirect/2
    Redirected from: /relative-redirect/1
  Step 3:
    Status Code: 302
    URL: http://httpbin.org/relative-redirect/1
    Redirected from: /get

Raw history list: [<Response [302]>, <Response [302]>, <Response [302]>]

By iterating through response.history, you can trace the entire path of redirections, including the status codes and intermediate URLs. This is particularly useful for debugging redirection issues or understanding how a specific URL resolves.

Each element in response.history is a full Response object, meaning you can access its headers, content (though usually empty for redirects), etc., just like the final response object.