Source code: Lib/asyncio/streams.py
Streams are high-level async/await-ready primitives to work with network connections. Streams allow sending and receiving data without using callbacks or low-level protocols and transports.
Here is an example of a TCP echo client written using asyncio streams:
import asyncio
async def tcp_echo_client(message):
reader, writer = await asyncio.open_connection(
'127.0.0.1', 8888)
print(f'Send: {message!r}')
writer.write(message.encode())
await writer.drain()
data = await reader.read(100)
print(f'Received: {data.decode()!r}')
print('Close the connection')
writer.close()
await writer.wait_closed()
asyncio.run(tcp_echo_client('Hello World!'))
See also the Examples section below.
Stream Functions
The following top-level asyncio functions can be used to create and work with streams:
Establish a network connection and return a pair of
(reader, writer) objects.
The returned reader and writer objects are instances of
StreamReader and StreamWriter classes.
limit determines the buffer size limit used by the
returned StreamReader instance. By default the limit
is set to 64 KiB.
The rest of the arguments are passed directly to
loop.create_connection().
Note
The sock argument transfers ownership of the socket to the
StreamWriter created. To close the socket, call its
close() method.
Changed in version 3.7: Added the ssl_handshake_timeout parameter.
Changed in version 3.8: Added the happy_eyeballs_delay and interleave parameters.
Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter.
Changed in version 3.11: Added the ssl_shutdown_timeout parameter.
Start a socket server.
The client_connected_cb callback is called whenever a new client
connection is established. It receives a (reader, writer) pair
as two arguments, instances of the StreamReader and
StreamWriter classes.
client_connected_cb can be a plain callable or a
coroutine function; if it is a coroutine function,
it will be automatically scheduled as a Task.
limit determines the buffer size limit used by the
returned StreamReader instance. By default the limit
is set to 64 KiB.
The rest of the arguments are passed directly to
loop.create_server().
Note
The sock argument transfers ownership of the socket to the
server created. To close the socket, call the server’s
close() method.
Changed in version 3.7: Added the ssl_handshake_timeout and start_serving parameters.
Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter.
Changed in version 3.11: Added the ssl_shutdown_timeout parameter.
Changed in version 3.13: Added the keep_alive parameter.
Unix Sockets
Establish a Unix socket connection and return a pair of
(reader, writer).
Similar to open_connection() but operates on Unix sockets.
See also the documentation of loop.create_unix_connection().
Note
The sock argument transfers ownership of the socket to the
StreamWriter created. To close the socket, call its
close() method.
Availability: Unix.
Changed in version 3.7: Added the ssl_handshake_timeout parameter. The path parameter can now be a path-like object
Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter.
Changed in version 3.11: Added the ssl_shutdown_timeout parameter.
Start a Unix socket server.
Similar to start_server() but works with Unix sockets.
If cleanup_socket is true then the Unix socket will automatically be removed from the filesystem when the server is closed, unless the socket has been replaced after the server has been created.
See also the documentation of loop.create_unix_server().
Note
The sock argument transfers ownership of the socket to the
server created. To close the socket, call the server’s
close() method.
Availability: Unix.
Changed in version 3.7: Added the ssl_handshake_timeout and start_serving parameters. The path parameter can now be a path-like object.
Changed in version 3.10: Removed the loop parameter.
Changed in version 3.11: Added the ssl_shutdown_timeout parameter.
Changed in version 3.13: Added the cleanup_socket parameter.
Represents a reader object that provides APIs to read data
from the IO stream. As an asynchronous iterable, the
object supports the async for statement.
It is not recommended to instantiate StreamReader objects
directly; use open_connection() and start_server()
instead.
Acknowledge the EOF.
Read up to n bytes from the stream.
If n is not provided or set to -1,
read until EOF, then return all read bytes.
If EOF was received and the internal buffer is empty,
return an empty bytes object.
If n is 0, return an empty bytes object immediately.
If n is positive, return at most n available bytes
as soon as at least 1 byte is available in the internal buffer.
If EOF is received before any byte is read, return an empty
bytes object.
Read one line, where “line” is a sequence of bytes
ending with \n.
If EOF is received and \n was not found, the method
returns partially read data.
If EOF is received and the internal buffer is empty,
return an empty bytes object.
Read exactly n bytes.
Raise an IncompleteReadError if EOF is reached before n
can be read. Use the IncompleteReadError.partial
attribute to get the partially read data.
Read data from the stream until separator is found.
On success, the data and separator will be removed from the internal buffer (consumed). Returned data will include the separator at the end.
If the amount of data read exceeds the configured stream limit, a
LimitOverrunError exception is raised, and the data
is left in the internal buffer and can be read again.
If EOF is reached before the complete separator is found,
an IncompleteReadError exception is raised, and the internal
buffer is reset. The IncompleteReadError.partial attribute
may contain a portion of the separator.
The separator may also be a tuple of separators. In this
case the return value will be the shortest possible that has any
separator as the suffix. For the purposes of LimitOverrunError,
the shortest possible separator is considered to be the one that
matched.
Added in version 3.5.2.
Changed in version 3.13: The separator parameter may now be a tuple of
separators.
Return True if the buffer is empty and feed_eof()
was called.
Represents a writer object that provides APIs to write data to the IO stream.
It is not recommended to instantiate StreamWriter objects
directly; use open_connection() and start_server()
instead.
The method attempts to write the data to the underlying socket immediately. If that fails, the data is queued in an internal write buffer until it can be sent.
The data buffer should be a bytes, bytearray, or C-contiguous one-dimensional memoryview object.
The method should be used along with the drain() method:
stream.write(data)
await stream.drain()
The method writes a list (or any iterable) of bytes to the underlying socket immediately. If that fails, the data is queued in an internal write buffer until it can be sent.
The method should be used along with the drain() method:
stream.writelines(lines)
await stream.drain()
The method closes the stream and the underlying socket.
The method should be used, though not mandatory,
along with the wait_closed() method:
stream.close()
await stream.wait_closed()
Return True if the underlying transport supports
the write_eof() method, False otherwise.
Close the write end of the stream after the buffered write data is flushed.
Return the underlying asyncio transport.
Access optional transport information; see
BaseTransport.get_extra_info() for details.
Wait until it is appropriate to resume writing to the stream. Example:
writer.write(data)
await writer.drain()
This is a flow control method that interacts with the underlying
IO write buffer. When the size of the buffer reaches
the high watermark, drain() blocks until the size of the
buffer is drained down to the low watermark and writing can
be resumed. When there is nothing to wait for, the drain()
returns immediately.
Upgrade an existing stream-based connection to TLS.
Parameters:
sslcontext: a configured instance of SSLContext.
server_hostname: sets or overrides the host name that the target server’s certificate will be matched against.
ssl_handshake_timeout is the time in seconds to wait for the TLS
handshake to complete before aborting the connection. 60.0 seconds
if None (default).
ssl_shutdown_timeout is the time in seconds to wait for the SSL shutdown
to complete before aborting the connection. 30.0 seconds if None
(default).
Added in version 3.11.
Changed in version 3.12: Added the ssl_shutdown_timeout parameter.
Return True if the stream is closed or in the process of
being closed.
Added in version 3.7.
TCP echo client using the asyncio.open_connection() function:
import asyncio
async def tcp_echo_client(message):
reader, writer = await asyncio.open_connection(
'127.0.0.1', 8888)
print(f'Send: {message!r}')
writer.write(message.encode())
await writer.drain()
data = await reader.read(100)
print(f'Received: {data.decode()!r}')
print('Close the connection')
writer.close()
await writer.wait_closed()
asyncio.run(tcp_echo_client('Hello World!'))
See also
The TCP echo client protocol
example uses the low-level loop.create_connection() method.
TCP echo server using the asyncio.start_server() function:
import asyncio
async def handle_echo(reader, writer):
data = await reader.read(100)
message = data.decode()
addr = writer.get_extra_info('peername')
print(f"Received {message!r} from {addr!r}")
print(f"Send: {message!r}")
writer.write(data)
await writer.drain()
print("Close the connection")
writer.close()
await writer.wait_closed()
async def main():
server = await asyncio.start_server(
handle_echo, '127.0.0.1', 8888)
addrs = ', '.join(str(sock.getsockname()) for sock in server.sockets)
print(f'Serving on {addrs}')
async with server:
await server.serve_forever()
asyncio.run(main())
See also
The TCP echo server protocol
example uses the loop.create_server() method.
Simple example querying HTTP headers of the URL passed on the command line:
import asyncio
import urllib.parse
import sys
async def print_http_headers(url):
url = urllib.parse.urlsplit(url)
if url.scheme == 'https':
reader, writer = await asyncio.open_connection(
url.hostname, 443, ssl=True)
else:
reader, writer = await asyncio.open_connection(
url.hostname, 80)
query = (
f"HEAD {url.path or '/'} HTTP/1.0\r\n"
f"Host: {url.hostname}\r\n"
f"\r\n"
)
writer.write(query.encode('latin-1'))
while True:
line = await reader.readline()
if not line:
break
line = line.decode('latin1').rstrip()
if line:
print(f'HTTP header> {line}')
# Ignore the body, close the socket
writer.close()
await writer.wait_closed()
url = sys.argv[1]
asyncio.run(print_http_headers(url))
Usage:
python example.py http://example.com/path/page.html
or with HTTPS:
python example.py https://example.com/path/page.html
Coroutine waiting until a socket receives data using the
open_connection() function:
import asyncio
import socket
async def wait_for_data():
# Get a reference to the current event loop because
# we want to access low-level APIs.
loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
# Create a pair of connected sockets.
rsock, wsock = socket.socketpair()
# Register the open socket to wait for data.
reader, writer = await asyncio.open_connection(sock=rsock)
# Simulate the reception of data from the network
loop.call_soon(wsock.send, 'abc'.encode())
# Wait for data
data = await reader.read(100)
# Got data, we are done: close the socket
print("Received:", data.decode())
writer.close()
await writer.wait_closed()
# Close the second socket
wsock.close()
asyncio.run(wait_for_data())
See also
The register an open socket to wait for data using a protocol example uses a low-level protocol and
the loop.create_connection() method.
The watch a file descriptor for read events example uses the low-level
loop.add_reader() method to watch a file descriptor.