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timeout python post request

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 1 min read

Timeout Python Post Request

When working with Python requests library, it is possible that a post request may take longer than expected to complete. This can occur due to various reasons, such as slow connection speed, unresponsive server, or large amounts of data being transferred. A timeout error can occur if the post request takes too long to complete, leading to frustration and potential loss of data.

Timeout Parameter

One way to avoid timeout errors when making post requests is to set the timeout parameter. The timeout parameter specifies the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that a request can take to complete. If the request takes longer than the specified timeout period, a Timeout exception will be raised.


import requests

url = 'https://example.com'

try:
    response = requests.post(url, timeout=5)
    print(response.status_code)
    
except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
    print("Timeout error occurred")

In the above code snippet, the timeout parameter is set to 5 seconds. If the post request takes more than 5 seconds to complete, a Timeout exception will be raised.

Retry Mechanism

An alternative way to handle timeout errors is to implement a retry mechanism. This involves retrying the post request a certain number of times before giving up. This can be useful when dealing with unstable connections or servers.


import requests
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from requests.packages.urllib3.util.retry import Retry

url = 'https://example.com'

retry_strategy = Retry(
    total=3,
    status_forcelist=[429, 500, 502, 503, 504],
    backoff_factor=1
)

adapter = HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry_strategy)

with requests.Session() as session:
    session.mount(url, adapter)
    try:
        response = session.post(url)
        print(response.status_code)
        
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
        print("An error occurred while making the request")

In the above code snippet, a retry mechanism is implemented using the requests library. The Retry object is created with the total number of retries set to 3, and a list of HTTP status codes that should be retried. The backoff_factor parameter is used to specify the amount of time to wait between retries, in this case, it is set to 1 second.

The HTTPAdapter is then created with the retry_strategy as its argument. The session is mounted on the URL, and the post request is made within the session. If the post request fails, it will be retried up to 3 times before an error message is displayed.

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