Wrong redirect to https URL when using django with mod_python

[k.shaposhnikov@…]

Currently in django/middleware/common.py following code is used to determine whether http or https URL should be used for redirect:

os.environ.get('HTTPS') == 'on'

This doesn't work in all cases at least with mod_python. mod_python doesn't create new process every time it process request, instead it reused already created processes.

Consider following scenario:

• I've requested some URL of my application using HTTPS protocol. mod_python created new process A and sets HTTPS environment variable to 'on'
• I've requested some other URL using HTTP (​http://localhost/test), but redirect is required to ​http://localhost/test/. mod_python processes this request using the same process A, and I will be redirected to URL with HTTPS protocol: ​https://localhost/test/

I am not mod_python expert, but I've searched mod_python mailing lists and found following thread (by Adrian Holovaty BTW :) :
​http://www.modpython.org/pipermail/mod_python/2004-September/016448.html

So the right way is to check https protocol for mod_python is:

req.subprocess_env.has_key('HTTPS') and req.subprocess_env['HTTPS'] == 'on'

As I understand following code in ModPythonHandler exists to solve the problem:

os.environ.update(req.subprocess_env)

Unfortunately it doesn't solve problem with HTTPS, because HTTPS is already 'on' in os.environ and is not presented at all in req.subprocess_env.

Possible solutions:

• explicitly check for HTTPS environment variable
• add is_ssl() method to HttpRequest and use it

[Jacob]

(In [3410]) Fixed #2092: added a "is_secure()" method to HttpRequest which correctly handles the subtleties of mod_python's interaction with os.environ. This one's been bugging me for about a *year*, so many many thanks to k.shaposhnikov@… for figuring it out, and Tim Shaffer for pointing out this ticket.