remove http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler and --cgi flag

Author: picnixz

Doc/deprecations/pending-removal-in-3.15.rst

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Pending removal in Python 3.15
 
 * :mod:`http.server`:
 
-  * The obsolete and rarely used :class:`~http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler`
+  * The obsolete and rarely used :class:`!http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler`
     has been deprecated since Python 3.13.
     No direct replacement exists.
     *Anything* is better than CGI to interface

Doc/library/http.server.rst

@@ -459,55 +459,6 @@ such as using different index file names by overriding the class attribute
 :attr:`index_pages`.
 
 
-.. class:: CGIHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server)
-
-   This class is used to serve either files or output of CGI scripts from the
-   current directory and below. Note that mapping HTTP hierarchic structure to
-   local directory structure is exactly as in :class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler`.
-
-   .. note::
-
-      CGI scripts run by the :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` class cannot execute
-      redirects (HTTP code 302), because code 200 (script output follows) is
-      sent prior to execution of the CGI script.  This pre-empts the status
-      code.
-
-   The class will however, run the CGI script, instead of serving it as a file,
-   if it guesses it to be a CGI script.  Only directory-based CGI are used ---
-   the other common server configuration is to treat special extensions as
-   denoting CGI scripts.
-
-   The :func:`do_GET` and :func:`do_HEAD` functions are modified to run CGI scripts
-   and serve the output, instead of serving files, if the request leads to
-   somewhere below the ``cgi_directories`` path.
-
-   The :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` defines the following data member:
-
-   .. attribute:: cgi_directories
-
-      This defaults to ``['/cgi-bin', '/htbin']`` and describes directories to
-      treat as containing CGI scripts.
-
-   The :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` defines the following method:
-
-   .. method:: do_POST()
-
-      This method serves the ``'POST'`` request type, only allowed for CGI
-      scripts.  Error 501, "Can only POST to CGI scripts", is output when trying
-      to POST to a non-CGI url.
-
-   Note that CGI scripts will be run with UID of user nobody, for security
-   reasons.  Problems with the CGI script will be translated to error 403.
-
-   .. deprecated-removed:: 3.13 3.15
-
-      :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` is being removed in 3.15.  CGI has not
-      been considered a good way to do things for well over a decade. This code
-      has been unmaintained for a while now and sees very little practical use.
-      Retaining it could lead to further :ref:`security considerations
-      <http.server-security>`.
-
-
 .. _http-server-cli:
 
 Command-line interface
@@ -564,24 +515,6 @@ The following options are accepted:
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.11
 
-.. option:: --cgi
-
-   :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` can be enabled in the command line by passing
-   the ``--cgi`` option::
-
-      python -m http.server --cgi
-
-   .. deprecated-removed:: 3.13 3.15
-
-      :mod:`http.server` command line ``--cgi`` support is being removed
-      because :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` is being removed.
-
-.. warning::
-
-   :class:`CGIHTTPRequestHandler` and the ``--cgi`` command-line option
-   are not intended for use by untrusted clients and may be vulnerable
-   to exploitation. Always use within a secure environment.
-
 .. option:: --tls-cert
 
    Specifies a TLS certificate chain for HTTPS connections::

Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst

@@ -1871,7 +1871,7 @@ New Deprecations
 
 * :mod:`http.server`:
 
-  * Deprecate :class:`~http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler`,
+  * Deprecate :class:`!http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler`,
     to be removed in Python 3.15.
     Process-based CGI HTTP servers have been out of favor for a very long time.
     This code was outdated, unmaintained, and rarely used.

Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst

@@ -118,10 +118,13 @@ Deprecated
 Removed
 =======
 
-module_name
+http.server
 -----------
 
-* TODO
+* The :class:`!http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler` class and
+  the ``--cgi`` flag to the :program:`python -m http.server`
+  command-line interface. Those are deprecated since 3.13.
+  (Contributed by Bénédikt Tran in :gh:`133810`.)
 
 
 Porting to Python 3.15

Lib/http/client.py

@@ -181,11 +181,10 @@ def _strip_ipv6_iface(enc_name: bytes) -> bytes:
     return enc_name
 
 class HTTPMessage(email.message.Message):
-    # XXX The only usage of this method is in
-    # http.server.CGIHTTPRequestHandler.  Maybe move the code there so
-    # that it doesn't need to be part of the public API.  The API has
-    # never been defined so this could cause backwards compatibility
-    # issues.
+
+    # The getallmatchingheaders() method was only used in by the CGI handler
+    # that was removed in Python 3.15. However, since the public API was not
+    # properly defined, it will be kept for backwards compatibility reasons.
 
     def getallmatchingheaders(self, name):
         """Find all header lines matching a given header name.