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requests.request python timeout

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

How to Set a Timeout for Python Requests Library?

If you are using the requests library in Python to send HTTP requests and receive responses, you might want to set a timeout for the request in case the server takes too long to respond, or if there is no response at all. In this case, you can use the timeout parameter in the requests.request() method to specify the number of seconds to wait for a response. Here's how:

Using timeout Parameter in requests.request()

You can set the timeout value in seconds by passing it as a parameter to the requests.request() method. For example:


import requests

response = requests.request("GET", "https://www.example.com", timeout=5)

In this example, the request will wait for a maximum of 5 seconds for a response from the server. If the server does not respond within 5 seconds, a TimeoutError will be raised.

Handling Timeout Errors

If a timeout error occurs, you can catch it using a try-except block and handle it accordingly. For example:


import requests

try:
    response = requests.request("GET", "https://www.example.com", timeout=5)
    response.raise_for_status()
except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
    print("The request timed out!")
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as error:
    print(f"HTTP error occurred: {error}")
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as error:
    print(f"An error occurred: {error}")

In this example, if a TimeoutError occurs, the message "The request timed out!" will be printed. If any other error occurs, such as an HTTP error or a general request exception, a message with the error details will be printed instead.

Using Session Object with Timeout

If you are sending multiple requests to the same server, it might be more efficient to use a Session object instead of making individual requests. You can set a default timeout value for the session object by passing the timeout parameter when creating the session. For example:


import requests

session = requests.Session()
session.timeout = 5

response1 = session.get("https://www.example.com")
response2 = session.post("https://www.example.com/login", data={"username": "user", "password": "pass"})

In this example, the session object will use a default timeout value of 5 seconds for all requests made using the session object. You can override this value for individual requests by passing a timeout parameter to the request method, just like before.

Conclusion

By setting a timeout value for your Python requests, you can ensure that your program does not get stuck waiting for a response that may never come. Whether you are making a single request or multiple requests using a session object, it is important to consider the possibility of a timeout and handle it gracefully in your code.

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