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(python2.1-lib.info)Cookie

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HTTP state management
=====================

Support for HTTP state management (cookies).  This module was written
by Timothy O'Malley <timo@alum.mit.edu>.
This manual section was written by Moshe Zadka
<moshez@zadka.site.co.il>.
The `Cookie' module defines classes for abstracting the concept of
cookies, an HTTP state management mechanism. It supports both simple
string-only cookies, and provides an abstraction for having any
serializable data-type as cookie value.

The module formerly strictly applied the parsing rules described in in
the RFC 2109 and RFC 2068 specifications.  It has since been discovered
that MSIE 3.0x doesn't follow the character rules outlined in those
specs.  As a result, the parsing rules used are a bit less strict.

`CookieError'
     Exception failing because of RFC 2109 invalidity: incorrect
     attributes, incorrect `Set-Cookie' header, etc.

`BaseCookie([input])'
     This class is a dictionary-like object whose keys are strings and
     whose values are `Morsel's. Note that upon setting a key to a
     value, the value is first converted to a `Morsel' containing the
     key and the value.

     If INPUT is given, it is passed to the `load()' method.

`SimpleCookie([input])'
     This class derives from `BaseCookie' and overrides
     `value_decode()' and `value_encode()' to be the identity and
     `str()' respectively.

`SerialCookie([input])'
     This class derives from `BaseCookie' and overrides
     `value_decode()' and `value_encode()' to be the `pickle.loads()'
     and `pickle.dumps()'.

     Do not use this class.  Reading pickled values from a cookie is a
     security hole, as arbitrary client-code can be run on
     `pickle.loads()'.  It is supported for backwards compatibility.

`SmartCookie([input])'
     This class derives from `BaseCookie'. It overrides
     `value_decode()' to be `pickle.loads()' if it is a valid pickle,
     and otherwise the value itself. It overrides `value_encode()' to
     be `pickle.dumps()' unless it is a string, in which case it
     returns the value itself.

     The same security warning from `SerialCookie' applies here.

See also:
    *RFC2109 HTTP State Management Mechanism*
          This is the state management specification implemented by
          this module.

Cookie Objects

Morsel Objects

Example 7