RestClient.head

lib/restclient.rb

@@ -31,10 +31,14 @@ require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/restclient/exceptions'
 #   # DELETE
 #   RestClient.delete 'http://example.com/resource'
 #
-#   # retreive the response headers
+#   # retreive the response http code and headers
 #   res = RestClient.get 'http://example.com/some.jpg'
+#   res.code                    # => 200
 #   res.headers[:content_type]  # => 'image/jpg'
 #
+#   # HEAD
+#   RestClient.head('http://example.com').headers
+#
 # To use with a proxy, just set RestClient.proxy to the proper http proxy:
 #
 #   RestClient.proxy = "http://proxy.example.com/"
@@ -65,6 +69,10 @@ module RestClient
 		Request.execute(:method => :delete, :url => url, :headers => headers)
 	end
 
+	def self.head(url, headers={})
+		Request.execute(:method => :head, :url => url, :headers => headers)
+	end
+
 	class << self
 		attr_accessor :proxy
 	end

lib/restclient/request.rb

@@ -97,12 +97,15 @@ module RestClient
 			net.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
 			net.read_timeout = @timeout if @timeout
 			net.open_timeout = @open_timeout if @open_timeout
+
 			display_log request_log
+
 			net.start do |http|
 				res = http.request(req, payload)
 				display_log response_log(res)
 				string = process_result(res)
-				if string
+
+				if string or @method == :head
 					Response.new(string, res)
 				else
 					nil

lib/restclient/response.rb

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ module RestClient
 
 		def initialize(string, net_http_res)
 			@net_http_res = net_http_res
-			super string
+			super(string || "")
 		end
 
 		# HTTP status code, always 200 since RestClient throws exceptions for

spec/request_spec.rb

@@ -325,5 +325,4 @@ describe RestClient::Request do
 		
 		@request.transmit(@uri, 'req', nil)
 	end
-	
 end

spec/response_spec.rb

@@ -38,4 +38,8 @@ describe RestClient::Response do
 	it "can access the net http result directly" do
 		@response.net_http_res.should == @net_http_res
 	end
+
+	it "accepts nil strings and sets it to empty for the case of HEAD" do
+		RestClient::Response.new(nil, @net_http_res).should == ""
+	end
 end

spec/restclient_spec.rb

@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ describe RestClient do
 			RestClient::Request.should_receive(:execute).with(:method => :delete, :url => 'http://some/resource', :headers => {})
 			RestClient.delete('http://some/resource')
 		end
+
+		it "HEAD" do
+			RestClient::Request.should_receive(:execute).with(:method => :head, :url => 'http://some/resource', :headers => {})
+			RestClient.head('http://some/resource')
+		end
 	end
 
 	describe "logging" do