Python in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Chapter 19. Client-Side Network Protocol Modules

Python’s standard library supplies several modules to simplify the use of internet protocols on both the client and server sides. These days, the Python Package Index, best known as PyPI, offers many more such packages. Because many of the standard library modules date back to the previous century, you will find that nowadays third-party packages support a wider array of protocols, and several offer better APIs than the standard library’s equivalents. When you need to use a network protocol that’s missing from the standard library, or covered by the standard library in a way you think is not satisfactory, be sure to search PyPI—you’re likely to find better solutions there.

In this chapter, we cover some standard library packages that allow relatively simple uses of network protocols: these let you code without requiring third-party packages, making your application or library easier to install on other machines. You may therefore come across them when dealing with legacy code, and their simplicity also makes them interesting reading for the Python student. We also mention a few third-party packages covering important network protocols not included in the standard library, but we do not cover third-party packages using asynchronous programming.

For the very frequent use case of HTTP clients and other network resources (such as anonymous FTP sites) best accessed via URLs, the third-party requests package is even recommended in the ...