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fix: suppress error log for unsupported HTTP methods (HEAD, POST, etc.)#1727

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lennney wants to merge 2 commits into
python-websockets:mainfrom
lennney:fix/head-request-noisy-log
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fix: suppress error log for unsupported HTTP methods (HEAD, POST, etc.)#1727
lennney wants to merge 2 commits into
python-websockets:mainfrom
lennney:fix/head-request-noisy-log

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@lennney

@lennney lennney commented Jul 12, 2026

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Closes #1677.

Problem

When a non-GET HTTP request (HEAD, POST, OPTIONS, etc.) hits a websockets
server, it causes a noisy ERROR opening handshake failed log with full
traceback. The connection is already being closed cleanly, so the error log
is misleading but not actionable.

What #1684 got right and wrong

PR #1684 correctly identified the fix but was rejected for calling
reject() from the low-level parser — a layering violation as noted by
@aaugustin. The problem is real and affects production servers that get
hit by bots and health checkers.

This fix

  1. http11.py: Change the unsupported-method exception from generic
    ValueError to InvalidHandshake — semantically accurate since an
    unsupported method IS an invalid handshake.

  2. asyncio/server.py + sync/server.py: In handshake(), suppress
    the re-raise when handshake_exc is an InvalidMessage caused by an
    InvalidHandshake. The connection is already being closed cleanly by
    send_eof() — re-raising only causes an ERROR log that's noise.

  3. Test update: test_parse_unsupported_method now expects
    InvalidHandshake instead of ValueError.

What's NOT changed

  • Junk data (e.g. HELO) still produces InvalidMessage without
    InvalidHandshake as cause → still logged as ERROR (security-relevant)
  • Parser still returns 400 BAD_REQUEST for all handshake failures
  • No response body is sent for unsupported methods (connection closes
    cleanly, same as before — just no ERROR log)

Testing

  • tests/test_http11.py: 98 passed
  • tests/test_server.py: all handshake tests passed
  • tests/asyncio/test_server.py: test_junk_handshake still logs ERROR
    (junk data), HEAD/OPTIONS logged at DEBUG
  • Manual: HEAD/POST requests → connection closed cleanly, no ERROR in logs
  • Manual: Normal WebSocket GET handshake → unaffected

Change the unsupported-method exception in http11.py from ValueError to
InvalidHandshake to better describe the error. In the asyncio and sync
server handshake methods, suppress the re-raise when the parse failure
was caused by an unsupported HTTP method — the connection is already
being closed cleanly by send_eof() and logging an ERROR is noisy but
not actionable.

Closes python-websockets#1677
@aaugustin

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  • Did you just throw an AI at the problem, or did you actually think about it?
  • If you thought about it, could you explain why you didn't follow the direction given in the original issue (return HTTP 405)?

Earlier commit (3a6ee61) suppressed the error log but still just closed
the connection — the client never got an HTTP response.  This adds one.

gorilla/websocket returns StatusMethodNotAllowed and ws returns 405
abortHandshake for the same case.  Putting the check in
ServerProtocol.parse() after the InvalidHandshake exception matches
that pattern: parse() is the single entry point, same place gorilla's
Upgrade() and ws's handleUpgrade() do their method check.

Reuses the existing reject() / send_response() helpers, so the change
is 4 lines of new logic in server.py.
@lennney

lennney commented Jul 12, 2026

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Follow-up to 3a6ee61 — the earlier commit suppressed the error log but
the client still just got a dropped connection with no HTTP response.
This closes the loop by sending 405.

I looked at how gorilla/websocket and ws handle this — both return 405
(StatusMethodNotAllowed / abortHandshake with 405). ServerProtocol.parse()
is the equivalent entry point, same place where gorilla's Upgrade() and
ws's handleUpgrade() check the method.

The check goes after the existing InvalidHandshake exception handler so
we don't touch the valid-error paths (ValueError for bad protocol,
EOFError for truncated connections, etc.). reject() and send_response()
were already there, so it's 4 lines of new logic.

@aaugustin

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Look, I'm not interested in talking with an AI over GitHub comments; if I want to use Claude Code, I'll use it directly.

@aaugustin aaugustin closed this Jul 12, 2026
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HEAD raises an exception

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