# RFuzz 0.7 -- Win32, Bug Fix, Browser Begins

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 4, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460 "2006-08-04T23:13:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/1 "2006-08-04T23:13:32Z")

</div>

Hello Everyone,

Another release of RFuzz to announce:

[http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/](http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/)

DESCRIPTION

RFuzz is an HTTP client library that you can use in combination with a  
random junk generator to conduct fuzzing tests against any HTTP server  
(or web app). It’s not limited to fuzzing, as the HTTP client can work  
as a Net/HTTP replacement, and you can easily just make regular  
requests.

Fuzzing is where you try to give a web application lots of randomly  
generated unexpected inputs in an attempt to break it and find new areas  
to write unit tests. It compliments other testing methods. See  
[Fuzzing - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzing) for additional information.

This is the library I’ll be using in my RubyConf talk.

CHANGES

The 0.7 release fixes a bad bug in the request headers, fixes a rare  
chunked encoding error, and adds a new example that uses the fresh  
RFuzz::Browser class. Look at examples/cl\_watcher.rb for a simple  
script that I’m using to watch apartment listings on craigslist.

This release _also supports win32 precompiled binaries_.

INSTALL

Everyone should be able to install it with:

sudo gem install rfuzz

Or on window just “gem install rfuzz”. Windows people pick the win32  
version as it’s the one that’s precompiled.

EXAMPLE REST CLIENT

This example is from the samples page:  
[http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/sample.html](http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/sample.html)

class RESTClientError \< Exception; end

class RESTClient  
def initialize(host,port, base=“”)  
@host, @port = host, port  
@base = base  
@client = RFuzz::HttpClient.new(host,port)  
end

def target\_uri(symbol)  
uri = @base + “/” + symbol.to\_s.tr(“\_”,“/”)  
end

def method\_missing(symbol, \*args)  
res = @client.get(target\_uri(symbol), :query =\> (args[0] || {}))  
raise\_error\_if(res.http\_status != “200”,  
“Invalid Status #{res.http\_status} from server  
#{@host}:#{@port}”)  
return REXML::Document.new(res.http\_body).root  
end

def raise\_error\_if(test, msg)  
raise RESTClientError.new(msg) if test  
end

end

This example just takes simple:

client.users\_find :name =\> “joe”

And translates them to:

GET /users/find?name=joe

Requests on the fly and then returns an REXML docroot.

Enjoy!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/2 "2006-08-04T23:43:36Z")

</div>

Zed S. wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
> 
> Another release of RFuzz to announce:
> 
> [http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/](http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/)

> Or on window just “gem install rfuzz”. Windows people pick the win32  
> version as it’s the one that’s precompiled.

I just ran ‘gem install rfuzz’ on my WinXP box, and was given the choice  
of installs. Selecting the first one returned a 404:

Select which gem to install for your platform (i386-mswin32)

1. rfuzz 0.7 (mswin32)
2. rfuzz 0.7 (ruby)
3. rfuzz 0.6 (ruby)
4. Cancel installation

> 1  
> ERROR: While executing gem … (OpenURI::HTTPError)  
> 404 Not Found

I checked the [rubyforge.org](http://rubyforge.org) rfuzz download page, which lists the mswin32  
gem, but clicking the link for a manual download also gives a 404

[http://rubyforge.rubyuser.de/rfuzz/rfuzz-0.7-mswin32.gem](http://rubyforge.rubyuser.de/rfuzz/rfuzz-0.7-mswin32.gem) is broken.

–  
James B.

“Blanket statements are over-rated”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 9:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/3 "2006-08-05T09:05:52Z")

</div>

On Sat, Aug 05, 2006 at 06:40:39AM +0900, James B. wrote:

> > Or on window just “gem install rfuzz”. Windows people pick the win32  
> > version as it’s the one that’s precompiled.
> 
> I just ran ‘gem install rfuzz’ on my WinXP box, and was given the choice  
> of installs. Selecting the first one returned a 404:  
> […]
> 
> I checked the [rubyforge.org](http://rubyforge.org) rfuzz download page, which lists the mswin32  
> gem, but clicking the link for a manual download also gives a 404
> 
> [http://rubyforge.rubyuser.de/rfuzz/rfuzz-0.7-mswin32.gem](http://rubyforge.rubyuser.de/rfuzz/rfuzz-0.7-mswin32.gem) is broken.

It takes quite a long time before the packages get propagated to the  
mirrors  
(around 11H when I released rcov yesterday).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/4 "2006-08-05T18:57:20Z")

</div>

On Sat, 2006-08-05 at 16:07 +0900, Alex Y. wrote:

> Zed S. wrote:

> In case anybody’s wondering…  
>   
> Rehearsal -------------------------------------------------------  
> net/http 7.720000 1.470000 9.190000 ( 9.195841)  
> rfuzz 3.040000 1.070000 4.110000 ( 4.119992)  
> --------------------------------------------- total: 13.300000sec
> 
> ```
> user system total real
> 
> ```
> 
> net/http 7.930000 1.370000 9.300000 ( 9.298725)  
> rfuzz 2.950000 1.130000 4.080000 ( 4.073578)

Yeah it should be faster just by virtue of having very little to it and  
using a C parser. Keep in mind that rfuzz–unlike mongrel–isn’t really  
designed for speed but more for letting you easily hit web servers with  
any kind of request. Another thing some folks don’t notice is that all  
of the HttpClient requests are “data driven”. That means you can power  
RFuzz blindly from a YAML file full of strings and hashes.

Otherwise net/http has a bunch more features, but I’ll slowly add them  
as I need them. I think SSL is next on the list.

> That doesn’t include those speedups for net/http that went through the  
> list a couple of weeks back, though.

I’d also be curious for the same test run with the RFuzz call being done  
inside a Timeout block. RFuzz doesn’t do any of that (bare metal), and  
I know Timeout blocks fire up an extra thread and eat up a bit more CPU.  
I’m betting that putting RFuzz inside Timeout makes it about the same  
speed at net/http.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 9:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/5 "2006-08-05T09:08:52Z")

</div>

Zed S. wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
> 
> Another release of RFuzz to announce:
> 
> [http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/](http://rfuzz.rubyforge.org/)  
> Yay!

In case anybody’s wondering…

alex@pandora:~/Desktop/Noodling/ruby$ ruby -v; cat rfuzz\_test.rb; ruby  
rfuzz\_test.rb  
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i486-linux]  
require ‘mongrel’  
require ‘rfuzz/client’  
require ‘net/http’  
require ‘benchmark’

h = Mongrel::HttpServer.new(‘0.0.0.0’, ‘8080’)  
h.register(‘/’, Mongrel::DirHandler.new(‘.’))  
h.run

def do\_download(h, path)  
h.get(path) # quack!  
end

n = 1000

Benchmark.bmbm(20) do |b|  
u = URI.parse(‘[http://localhost:8080/rfuzz\_test.rb](http://localhost:8080/rfuzz_test.rb)’)  
busted = Net::HTTP.new(u.host, u.port)  
b.report(‘net/http’){for i in 0…n; do\_download(busted, u.path); end}  
hotness = RFuzz::HttpClient.new(u.host, u.port)  
b.report(‘rfuzz’){for i in 0…n; do\_download(hotness, u.path); end}  
end

Rehearsal -------------------------------------------------------  
net/http 7.720000 1.470000 9.190000 ( 9.195841)  
rfuzz 3.040000 1.070000 4.110000 ( 4.119992)  
--------------------------------------------- total: 13.300000sec

```
                       user system total real

```

net/http 7.930000 1.370000 9.300000 ( 9.298725)  
rfuzz 2.950000 1.130000 4.080000 ( 4.073578)

That doesn’t include those speedups for net/http that went through the  
list a couple of weeks back, though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2006, 8:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/6 "2006-08-06T08:40:30Z")

</div>

Zed S. wrote:

> > net/http 7.720000 1.470000 9.190000 ( 9.195841)  
> > using a C parser. Keep in mind that rfuzz–unlike mongrel–isn’t really  
> > list a couple of weeks back, though.
> 
> I’d also be curious for the same test run with the RFuzz call being done  
> inside a Timeout block. RFuzz doesn’t do any of that (bare metal), and  
> I know Timeout blocks fire up an extra thread and eat up a bit more CPU.  
> I’m betting that putting RFuzz inside Timeout makes it about the same  
> speed at net/http.

Not quite:

alex@pandora:~/Desktop/Noodling/ruby$ cat rfuzz\_test.rb; ruby  
rfuzz\_test.rb  
require ‘mongrel’  
require ‘rfuzz/client’  
require ‘net/http’  
require ‘benchmark’  
require ‘timeout’

m = Mongrel::HttpServer.new(‘0.0.0.0’, ‘8080’)  
m.register(‘/’, Mongrel::DirHandler.new(‘.’))  
m.run

def do\_download(h, path)  
h.get(path)  
end

def do\_timeout\_download(h, path)  
timeout(30){  
h.get(path)  
}  
end

n = 1000

Benchmark.bmbm(20) do |b|  
u = URI.parse(‘[http://localhost:8080/rfuzz\_test.rb](http://localhost:8080/rfuzz_test.rb)’)  
h = Net::HTTP.new(u.host, u.port)  
b.report(‘net/http’){ for i in 0…n; do\_download(h, u.path); end }  
r = RFuzz::HttpClient.new(u.host, u.port)  
b.report(‘rfuzz’){ for i in 0…n; do\_download(r, u.path); end }  
b.report(‘rfuzz+timeout’){  
for i in 0…n; do\_timeout\_download(r, u.path); end }  
end  
Rehearsal -------------------------------------------------------  
net/http 8.000000 1.380000 9.380000 ( 9.609907)  
rfuzz 3.110000 1.090000 4.200000 ( 4.213084)  
rfuzz+timeout 3.660000 1.270000 4.930000 ( 4.933268)  
--------------------------------------------- total: 18.510000sec

```
                       user system total real

```

net/http 8.060000 1.480000 9.540000 ( 9.620967)  
rfuzz 3.090000 1.090000 4.180000 ( 5.725728)  
rfuzz+timeout 3.680000 1.230000 4.910000 ( 4.991043)

But then again, that’s not what Net::HTTP’s actually doing - it puts a  
timeout around every single rbuf\_fill call, so by default it has to  
spawn a new thread for every 1K of data it intends to receive. I’m sure  
there’s a damn good reason for that, but it’s a reason I don’t think I’d  
have spotted if I was writing it. That shouldn’t be a problem on this  
test, though - the file it’s downloading is only 715 bytes. I’ll try  
the test with a bigger file and see what I can see.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2006, 9:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfuzz-0-7-win32-bug-fix-browser-begins/101460/7 "2006-08-06T09:49:32Z")

</div>

Alex Y. wrote:

> Zed S. wrote:
> 
> > I’d also be curious for the same test run with the RFuzz call being done  
> > inside a Timeout block. RFuzz doesn’t do any of that (bare metal), and  
> > I know Timeout blocks fire up an extra thread and eat up a bit more CPU.  
> > I’m betting that putting RFuzz inside Timeout makes it about the same  
> > speed at net/http.
> 
> Not quite:  
>   
> But then again, that’s not what Net::HTTP’s actually doing - it puts a  
> timeout around every single rbuf\_fill call, so by default it has to  
> spawn a new thread for every 1K of data it intends to receive. I’m sure  
> there’s a damn good reason for that, but it’s a reason I don’t think I’d  
> have spotted if I was writing it.  
> Ok, having actually stopped and thought about it for a second, I can see  
> why they’ve done that.

> That shouldn’t be a problem on this  
> test, though - the file it’s downloading is only 715 bytes. I’ll try  
> the test with a bigger file and see what I can see.

alex@pandora:~/Desktop/Noodling/ruby$ ruby rfuzz\_test.rb  
Rehearsal -------------------------------------------------------  
net/http 7.890000 1.490000 9.380000 ( 9.411633)  
net/http big 1055.150000 119.690000 1174.840000 (1185.696163)  
rfuzz 2.840000 0.990000 3.830000 ( 4.065557)  
rfuzz+timeout 3.380000 1.190000 4.570000 ( 4.569331)  
rfuzz big 169.730000 47.670000 217.400000 (218.332456)  
rfuzz+timeout big 205.470000 59.000000 264.470000 (271.745557)  
------------------------------------------- total: 1674.490000sec

```
                       user system total real

```

net/http 7.880000 1.470000 9.350000 ( 9.454987)  
net/http big 1056.710000 113.930000 1170.640000 (1173.337412)  
rfuzz 2.850000 0.980000 3.830000 ( 3.831175)  
rfuzz+timeout 3.420000 1.180000 4.600000 ( 4.609152)  
rfuzz big 175.550000 45.900000 221.450000 (221.584886)  
rfuzz+timeout big 205.930000 55.530000 261.460000 (262.673411)

The .\*big results are from downloading the results of dd if=/dev/zero  
of=big\_file bs=1M count=1… that is, 1MB of zeros. Interesting.