Re: How can I upload a file using HTTP POST with Content-Type=multipart/form-data?

[bhess]

Thanks for the feedback... I am looking for the client side HTTP::Request::Common works OK for small files, but I need a solution that can handle very large files (100 MB+). I can upload very large files using a web browser (Netscape and IE). LWP seems to "slurp" the file before writing it to the Content-Disposition section of the HTTP message, thus causing memory woes on the client - this is also very slow. I am looking for some client side Perl that opens a socket and generates the appropriate HTTP to upload any file - no matter the size - here is an example of a very small text file:

POST /cgi-bin/upload.pl HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.ms-excel, application/msword, application/vnd.
+ms-powerpoint, image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, a
+pplication/pdf, */*
Referer: http://deville/cgi-bin/upload.pl
Accept-Language: en-us
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--------------------------
+-7d03135102b8
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT)
Host: deville
Content-Length: 316
Connection: Keep-Alive

-----------------------------7d03135102b8
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="D:\hess\dev\www
+\notes\hello.txt"
Content-Type: text/plain

Hello there

-----------------------------7d03135102b8
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="done"

done
-----------------------------7d03135102b8--

This is an actual header that I sniffed coming from IE 5 on Win NT. I cannot seem to reproduce this header - even hardcoded - to upload t

[merlyn]

Read further down in the LWP::Request::Common:

           If you set the $DYNAMIC_FILE_UPLOAD variable
           (exportable) to some TRUE value, then you get back a
           request object with a subroutine closure as the con-
           tent attribute.  This subroutine will read the content
           of any files on demand and return it in suitable
           chunks.  This allow you to upload arbitrary big files
           without using lots of memory.  You can even upload
           infinite files like /dev/audio if you wish.  Another
           difference is that there will be no Content-Length
           header defined for the request if you use this fea-
           ture.  Not all servers (or server applications) like
           this.

Still no reason to write the code yourself. Remember... LWP has had many many man-years of coding put into it. Don't reinvent the wheel.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[bhess]

I have tried using this with no luck in the past and gave up. I wrote a simple client script using HTTP::Request::Common and had it working with small files and then set the DYNAMIC_FILE_UPLOAD variable at the beginning of the script. And this seemed to break it. Is there something else I need to do? Also, I am using Apache as my server. Is there some setting in Apache that I will need because of no Content-Length? Thanks

[Jouke]

Show your 'simple script' and we might find out what went wrong...

Jouke Visser, Perl 'Adept'

[Anonymous Monk]

Hi, I am looking for this exact solution... Do you have an example I could possibly use? Thanks in advance [e-mail]