# Problem with open-uri

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-open-uri/105854>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 3, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-open-uri/105854 "2007-06-03T21:16:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/a88e4f/32.png) [@ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ngng)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-open-uri/105854/1 "2007-06-03T21:16:12Z")

</div>

Hello,

```
I'm trying to use open-uri on yahoo mail's login page. If I do the

```

following:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require ‘open-uri’  
require ‘uri’

f = open(“[http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com)”)

* * *

```
I get the following error:

```

/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:174:in `open_loop': redirection forbidden: http://mail.yahoo.com/ -> https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?&.src=ym (RuntimeError) from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:132:in `open\_uri’  
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:528:in `open' from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open’  
from ./readForms.rb:11

* * *

```
I've tried to use mechanize instead, but I can't seem to figure out

```

how to emulate the base\_uri functionality in open-uri. Any ideas?

Regards,

jon

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/a88e4f/32.png) [@ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ngng)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 9:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-open-uri/105854/2 "2007-06-03T21:24:55Z")

</div>

On 6/3/07, Jonathan N. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> f = open(“[http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com)”)  
> from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open’  
> from ./readForms.rb:11
> 
> * * *
> 
> ```
> I've tried to use mechanize instead, but I can't seem to figure out
> 
> ```
> 
> how to emulate the base\_uri functionality in open-uri. Any ideas?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> jon

You’re being redirected. Try the redirect url (and you can leave the  
?&.src=ym off depending on what you want to do)

require ‘open-uri’  
document = open( “[Yahoo](https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2)” ).read

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/a88e4f/32.png) [@ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ngng)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-open-uri/105854/3 "2007-06-03T22:34:48Z")

</div>

Hi Todd,

```
Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, I need to have the 

```

ability to take a simple uri and follow the redirections. open-uri  
works for some uris, but not for yahoo for some reason. If you do  
open(“[https://mail.google.com](https://mail.google.com)”), it will follow the redirects and  
successfully download the html at the redirected uri, which is  
[https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin](https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin). this looks like a bug in  
open-uri to me, as mechanize (and firefox) is able to follow the  
redirects for yahoo.

```
I can't find a way to report bugs for open-uri. Anybody know how to 

```

do this?

Regards,

jon

Todd B. wrote:

> On 6/3/07, Jonathan N. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > f = open(“[http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com)”)  
> > from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open’  
> > from ./readForms.rb:11
> > 
> > * * *
> > 
> > ```
> > I've tried to use mechanize instead, but I can't seem to figure out
> > 
> > ```
> > 
> > how to emulate the base\_uri functionality in open-uri. Any ideas?
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > jon
> 
> You’re being redirected. Try the redirect url (and you can leave the  
> ?&.src=ym off depending on what you want to do)
> 
> require ‘open-uri’  
> document = open( “[Yahoo](https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2)” ).read

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/a88e4f/32.png) [@ngng](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ngng)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 10:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-open-uri/105854/4 "2007-06-05T10:36:07Z")

</div>

I think I figured this out. The following is the code that generates  
the exception:

* * *

## def OpenURI.redirectable?(uri1, uri2) # :nodoc: # This test is intended to forbid a redirection from http://… to # file:///etc/passwd. # However this is ad hoc. It should be extensible/configurable. uri1.scheme.downcase == uri2.scheme.downcase || (/\A(?:http|ftp)\z/i =~ uri1.scheme && /\A(?:http|ftp)\z/i =~ uri2.scheme) end

This code is telling us that if there’s a redirection, it will only work  
if the protocols are the same (http → http, or https → https), or if  
both the first and the second uris are either http or ftp. This logic  
prohibits a redirect from http to https, which is what the yahoo mail  
uri does. Changing the last line to

```
(/\A(?:http|ftp|https)\z/i =~ uri1.scheme && 

```

/\A(?:http|ftp|https)\z/i =~ uri2.scheme)

will do the trick. Seems like this fix should get incorporated into  
open-uri. Anyone out there on the open-uri team listening?

-jon

Jonathan N. wrote:

> Hi Todd,
> 
> ```
> Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, I need to have the 
> 
> ```
> 
> ability to take a simple uri and follow the redirections. open-uri  
> works for some uris, but not for yahoo for some reason. If you do  
> open(“[https://mail.google.com](https://mail.google.com)”), it will follow the redirects and  
> successfully download the html at the redirected uri, which is  
> [https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin](https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin). this looks like a bug in  
> open-uri to me, as mechanize (and firefox) is able to follow the  
> redirects for yahoo.
> 
> ```
> I can't find a way to report bugs for open-uri. Anybody know how to 
> 
> ```
> 
> do this?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> jon
> 
> Todd B. wrote:
> 
> > On 6/3/07, Jonathan N. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> > 
> > > f = open(“[http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com)”)  
> > > from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open’  
> > > from ./readForms.rb:11
> > > 
> > > * * *
> > > 
> > > ```
> > > I've tried to use mechanize instead, but I can't seem to figure out
> > > 
> > > ```
> > > 
> > > how to emulate the base\_uri functionality in open-uri. Any ideas?
> > > 
> > > Regards,
> > > 
> > > jon
> > 
> > You’re being redirected. Try the redirect url (and you can leave the  
> > ?&.src=ym off depending on what you want to do)
> > 
> > require ‘open-uri’  
> > document = open( “[Yahoo](https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2)” ).read