php / php/php-src

Double Content-Type headers added to request if context->http->header is a multiline string

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Category: Streams Feature
Dominant language
C
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Description

Description

When using file_get_contents to post an HTTP/HTTPS request, context->http->header can either be a string or an array of strings. If a string, it may ignore the header containing a Content-Type line and add an additional one.

The following code:

<?php
$header = "Authentication: Bearer XYZ" . PHP_EOL;
$header .= 'Content-Type: application/json' . PHP_EOL;

$httpoptions = [
 'method' => 'POST',
 'ignore_errors' => true,
 'content' => json_encode(["message" => "Hello world"]),
 'header' => $header,
];

$context = stream_context_create(['http' => $httpoptions]);

$result = file_get_contents("http://some-test-url/", false, $context);

Resulted in this request (captured using netcat):

POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: some-test-url
Connection: close
Content-Length: 25
Authentication: Bearer XYZ
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

{"message":"Hello world"}

But I expected this output instead:

POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: some-test-url
Connection: close
Content-Length: 25
Authentication: Bearer XYZ
Content-Type: application/json

{"message":"Hello world"}

Commentary:

There is a warning, "file_get_contents(): Content-type not specified assuming application/x-www-form-urlencoded", that is on some occasions issued (although not, oddly enough, for the code we tracked down this issue as applying to.)

The issue goes away if you build context->http->header as an array.

While arguably building the header as a multiline string seems (always seemed) odd to me, it's frequently quoted in examples across the Internet (which is probably how we ended up doing it) - several examples here: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php

I doubt there are any backward compatibility issues that would be caused by a straight fix to this.

PHP Version

PHP 8.1.2

Operating System

Ubuntu 22.04

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the request with file_get_contents, stream_context_create, and the multiline header shown in the issue, capturing the result with netcat. Trace PHP's HTTP stream handling for string headers and compare it with array headers. Done means the supplied Content-Type is retained without an additional application/x-www-form-urlencoded header.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
networking
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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