net/http: Go 1.6 http.Client doesn't support http2 by default

[kron4eg]

go version go1.6 darwin/amd64

It's said in documentation that http2 is enabled by default in release 1.6 for server and client, but client refuses to communicate http2.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "io/ioutil"
    "log"
    "net/http"
)

func main() {
    response, err := http.Get("https://http2.golang.org/reqinfo")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("is HTTP2: %v (%s)\n\n", response.ProtoAtLeast(2, 0), response.Proto)
    body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

returns

is HTTP2: false (HTTP/1.1)

Method: GET
Protocol: HTTP/1.1
Host: http2.golang.org
RemoteAddr: REMOVED:33882
RequestURI: "/reqinfo"
URL: &url.URL{Scheme:"", Opaque:"", User:(*url.Userinfo)(nil), Host:"", Path:"/reqinfo", RawPath:"", RawQuery:"", Fragment:""}
Body.ContentLength: 0 (-1 means unknown)
Close: false (relevant for HTTP/1 only)
TLS: &tls.ConnectionState{Version:0x303, HandshakeComplete:true, DidResume:false, CipherSuite:0xc02f, NegotiatedProtocol:"", NegotiatedProtocolIsMutual:true, ServerName:"http2.golang.org", PeerCertificates:[]*x509.Certificate(nil), VerifiedChains:[][]*x509.Certificate(nil), SignedCertificateTimestamps:[][]uint8(nil), OCSPResponse:[]uint8(nil), TLSUnique:[]uint8{0xcf, 0x67, 0x6b, 0xfb, 0x3c, 0xc2, 0xc6, 0xc2, 0xb9, 0xfb, 0x1b, 0x24}}

Headers:
Accept-Encoding: gzip
User-Agent: Go-http-client/1.1

[bradfitz]

Well, crap. :-(

I broke it at the last second in 79d9f48 with the ExpectContinueTimeout because the http.DefaultTransport defines an ExpectContinueTimeout.

And the unit test to check for automatic http2 upgrade doesn't use DefaultTransport:

func TestTransportAutomaticHTTP2(t *testing.T) {
        testTransportAutoHTTP(t, &Transport{}, true)
}

func TestTransportAutomaticHTTP2_TLSNextProto(t *testing.T) {
        testTransportAutoHTTP(t, &Transport{
                TLSNextProto: make(map[string]func(string, *tls.Conn) RoundTripper),
        }, false)
}

func TestTransportAutomaticHTTP2_TLSConfig(t *testing.T) {
        testTransportAutoHTTP(t, &Transport{
                TLSClientConfig: new(tls.Config),
        }, false)
}

func TestTransportAutomaticHTTP2_ExpectContinueTimeout(t *testing.T) {
        testTransportAutoHTTP(t, &Transport{
                ExpectContinueTimeout: 1 * time.Second,
        }, false)
}

I think DefaultTransport should have it enabled, regardless of its ExpectContinueTimeout.

[FiloSottile]

I'm not 100% convinced by the fix. I would not expect a copy of DefaultTransport to behave differently from DefaultTransport. It's potentially really surprising.

[bradfitz]

Got an alternative proposal?

Note that ExpectContinueTimeout was only added in Go 1.6 also, so nobody will have a copy of this DefaultTransport in their code already.

[FiloSottile]

Not really, I'm doing some serious peanut gallery here.

However, I did copy paste the DefaultTransport before, or I could see why someone would type assert it and dereference it to get a "future-proof" copy of the DefaultTransport. Those users would unexpectedly get no HTTP/2. Even worse, I can see a small change moving some code from DefaultTransport to a copy of DefaultTransport passing code review as "sure that does not change anything", and instead degrading service. And I see no good way to figure out why two identical Transport behave differently.

Maybe just plainly documenting that ExpectContinueTimeout does not apply to HTTP/2 connections and always ignoring it is more clean and simple. Also considering that ExpectContinueTimeout is new and no one is relying on it yet.

[bradfitz]

I agree that it's weird that two identical DefaultTransports would behave differently. I mentioned the same concern in some earlier review. (hotel wifi too terrible for me to find it at the moment)

Yeah, perhaps some documentation on ExpectContinueTimeout would be better for now. I do intend to make it work for Go 1.7.

@rsc, opinions?

[gripedthumbtacks]

I am told it is confirmed that go v1.6 initial release does not work with http2, by default, but that it is currently planned for v1.6.1. Looking forward to it :)

[elithrar]

@kristian-hermansen To clarify: Go 1.6 supports ("works with") HTTP/2, but requires you to modify the Transport. You don't have to wait until Go 1.6.1.

[gripedthumbtacks]

Right, but not by default, which I guess was what brought me here googling. In a golang support chat, someone told me to wait until v1.6.1 or I might have to change the code again. Is that true, or will modifying the Transport work even after v1.6.1 is out? And if so, do you have some example code that would be forward compatible (since we don't know what changes are planned)? Thanks much! :)

[mdevan]

As a workaround, for Go1.6, do this before you use the client:

if tr, ok := http.DefaultTransport.(*http.Transport); ok {
    tr.ExpectContinueTimeout = 0
}

IMHO, the HTTP/2 code should just be ignoring ExpectContinueTimeout if it is not relevant for HTTP/2, and the documentation of ExpectContinueTimeout should say that it's applicable only for HTTP/1.x.

[FiloSottile]

This weekend I found myself copying the DefaultTransport twice, and I thought about this again. One very common example is defining a TLSClientConfig (without losing the timeouts).

Not sure if I like typeassert-dereference-copy or copy-paste more, but both will break HTTP/2 if DefaultTransport is special-cased.

@bradfitz @rsc, did any discussion happen on simply ignoring ExpectContinueTimeout to avoid magic behavior?

[adg]

I'd like this to go into 1.6.1 but I am concerned on springing a major change on unsuspecting users. They thought they were getting http2 in 1.6, but then didn't, and if we turn it on now I worry things will break. Was http2 working in the release candidates? That would go some way to assuaging my fears.

[bradfitz]

@adg, 1.6.1 is for security stuff only. This could go into Go 1.6.2, which might happen at about the same time. Yes, this worked in rc releases. I worried about the surprise change, but there are already at least two surprise elements to this as-is:

1. new(Transport) and http.Get can differ.
2. new(Transport) to foo.com can do one thing today, and a different thing tomorrow, regardless of your Go version, just because foo.com added HTTP/2 support. So people were already making major codepath changes somewhat outside of their control. (but they could force-override it to HTTP/1)

[rsc]

Also, if Go 1.6.2's correct use of HTTP/2 in the default client breaks something, they've already got the environment variable to turn it off. We should make that clear in the point release notes.

[gopherbot]

CL https://golang.org/cl/22035 mentions this issue.