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python requests post hangs

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests POST Hangs

Have you ever faced a situation where your python requests post method is taking too long to complete and eventually hangs? This is a common issue that many developers face with the requests library in Python.

Reasons for Hanging

There could be several reasons why your requests.post() method is hanging:

  • The server you are trying to connect to is not responding properly.
  • The request payload is too large and the server is unable to handle it.
  • The connection to the server is not stable, resulting in a timeout.
  • The server may have a rate limit on the number of requests it can handle.

Solutions

Here are some solutions you can try to resolve the hanging issue:

1. Increase Timeout

If the server is taking longer than usual to respond, you can increase the timeout value of the requests.post() method. By default, the timeout value is set to None, which means it will wait indefinitely for a response. You can set a specific timeout value in seconds, like this:


import requests

response = requests.post(url, data=payload, timeout=5)

This will set the timeout value to 5 seconds. If the server does not respond within 5 seconds, the request will fail and raise a TimeoutError.

2. Reduce Payload Size

If the request payload is too large, you can try reducing its size by sending only the necessary data. You can also compress the payload using gzip before sending it to the server.


import requests
import gzip

payload = {"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}
headers = {"Content-Encoding": "gzip"}

response = requests.post(url, data=gzip.compress(payload), headers=headers)

This will compress the payload using gzip and the server can then decompress it before processing the request.

3. Check Server Limits

If the server has a rate limit, you can check its limits and make sure you are not exceeding them. You can also try reducing the frequency of requests to avoid hitting the limit.

4. Check Network Stability

If the network connection is unstable, you can try reconnecting to the server or switching to a more stable network.

5. Use Session Object

You can also use a requests.Session() object instead of making individual requests. The Session() object will reuse the same connection for all requests, which can improve performance and stability.


import requests

s = requests.Session()
s.post(url, data=payload)
s.post(url, data=payload)
s.post(url, data=payload)

This will reuse the same connection for all three requests.

Conclusion

By following these solutions, you can resolve the hanging issue with the python requests post method and improve the stability and performance of your application.

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