NE_SESSION_CREATE(3)

NAME
ne_session_create, ne_close_connection, ne_session_destroy - set up HTTP sessions

SYNOPSIS

#include <ne_session.h>

ne_session *ne_session_create(const char *scheme, const char *host, unsigned int port);

void ne_close_connection(ne_session *session);

void ne_session_destroy(ne_session *session);

DESCRIPTION

An ne_session object represents an HTTP session - a logical grouping of a sequence of HTTP requests made to a certain server. Any requests made using the session can use a persistent connection, share cached authentication credentials and any other common attributes.

A new HTTP session is created using the ne_session_create function; the host and port parameters specify the origin server to use, along with the scheme (usually "http"). Before the first use of ne_session_create in a process, ne_sock_init(3) must have been called to perform any global initialization needed by any libraries used by neon.

To enable SSL/TLS for the session, pass the string "https" as the scheme, and either register a certificate verification function (see ne_ssl_set_verify(3)) or trust the appropriate certificate (see ne_ssl_trust_cert(3), ne_ssl_trust_default_ca(3)).

The host parameter must follow the "host" grammar in Section 3.2.2 of RFC 3986[1], which can be an IP-literal or registered (DNS) hostname. Valid examples of each: "198.51.100.42" (IPv4 literal address), "[2001:db8::42]" (IPv6 literal, which MUST be enclosed in square brackets), or "www.example.com" (DNS hostname). The RFC 6874[2] syntax for scoped IPv6 link-local literal addresses is also permitted, for example "[fe80::1%25eth0]".

The scheme parameter is used to determine the URI for resources identified during request handling. Other than special handling of the string "https", no other interpretation or checking of the scheme is performed. For example, if an HTTP-to-FTP proxy is configured, a scheme of "ftp" could be used to access resources.

To use a proxy server for the session, it must be configured (see ne_session_proxy(3)) before any requests are created from session object.

Further per-session options may be changed using the ne_set_session_flag(3) interface.

If it is known that the session will not be used for a significant period of time, ne_close_connection can be called to close the connection, if one remains open. Use of this function is entirely optional, but it must not be called if there is a request active using the session.

Once a session has been completed, ne_session_destroy must be called to destroy the resources associated with the session. Any subsequent use of the session pointer produces undefined behaviour. The session object must not be destroyed until after all associated request objects have been destroyed.

NOTES

If a hostname is passed to ne_session_create, it will be resolved when the first request using the session is dispatched; a DNS resolution failure can only be detected at that time (using the NE_LOOKUP error code); see ne_request_dispatch(3) for details.

RETURN VALUES

ne_session_create will return a pointer to a new session object (and never NULL).

EXAMPLES

Create and destroy a session:

    ne_session *sess;
    sess = ne_session_create("http", "host.example.com", 80);
    /* ... use sess ... */
    ne_session_destroy(sess);

HISTORY

The scheme passed to ne_session_create is lower-cased internally from neon 0.37.0 onward, so passing "HtTpS" and "https" are equivalent. In earlier releases, the scheme is case-sensitive.

SEE ALSO

ne_ssl_set_verify(3), ne_ssl_trust_cert(3), ne_sock_init(3), ne_set_session_flag(3), ne_session_proxy(3)

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2001-2026 Joe Orton

REFERENCES

1.  Section 3.2.2 of RFC 3986
    https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#section-3.2.2

2.  RFC 6874
    https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6874