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<section id="module-urllib.robotparser">
<span id="urllib-robotparser-parser-for-robots-txt"></span><h1><a class="reference internal" href="#module-urllib.robotparser" title="urllib.robotparser: Load a robots.txt file and answer questions about fetchability of other URLs."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">urllib.robotparser</span></code></a> — Parser for robots.txt<a class="headerlink" href="#module-urllib.robotparser" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.10/Lib/urllib/robotparser.py">Lib/urllib/robotparser.py</a></p>
<hr class="docutils" id="index-0" />
<p>This module provides a single class, <a class="reference internal" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser" title="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">RobotFileParser</span></code></a>, which answers
questions about whether or not a particular user agent can fetch a URL on the
web site that published the <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> file. For more details on the
structure of <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> files, see <a class="reference external" href="http://www.robotstxt.org/orig.html">http://www.robotstxt.org/orig.html</a>.</p>
<dl class="py class">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser">
<em class="property"><span class="pre">class</span><span class="w"> </span></em><span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">urllib.robotparser.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">RobotFileParser</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">url</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">''</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>This class provides methods to read, parse and answer questions about the
<code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> file at <em>url</em>.</p>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.set_url">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">set_url</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">url</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.set_url" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Sets the URL referring to a <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> file.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.read">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">read</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.read" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Reads the <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> URL and feeds it to the parser.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.parse">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">parse</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">lines</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.parse" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Parses the lines argument.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.can_fetch">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">can_fetch</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">useragent</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">url</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.can_fetch" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code> if the <em>useragent</em> is allowed to fetch the <em>url</em>
according to the rules contained in the parsed <code class="file docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code>
file.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.mtime">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">mtime</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.mtime" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns the time the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> file was last fetched. This is
useful for long-running web spiders that need to check for new
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> files periodically.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.modified">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">modified</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.modified" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Sets the time the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> file was last fetched to the current
time.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.crawl_delay">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">crawl_delay</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">useragent</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.crawl_delay" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns the value of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Crawl-delay</span></code> parameter from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code>
for the <em>useragent</em> in question. If there is no such parameter or it
doesn’t apply to the <em>useragent</em> specified or the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> entry
for this parameter has invalid syntax, return <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.6.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.request_rate">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">request_rate</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">useragent</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.request_rate" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns the contents of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Request-rate</span></code> parameter from
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> as a <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-named-tuple"><span class="xref std std-term">named tuple</span></a> <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">RequestRate(requests,</span> <span class="pre">seconds)</span></code>.
If there is no such parameter or it doesn’t apply to the <em>useragent</em>
specified or the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> entry for this parameter has invalid
syntax, return <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.6.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="py method">
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.site_maps">
<span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">site_maps</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser.site_maps" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Returns the contents of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Sitemap</span></code> parameter from
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> in the form of a <a class="reference internal" href="stdtypes.html#list" title="list"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">list()</span></code></a>. If there is no such
parameter or the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> entry for this parameter has
invalid syntax, return <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified added">New in version 3.8.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>
</dd></dl>
<p>The following example demonstrates basic use of the <a class="reference internal" href="#urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser" title="urllib.robotparser.RobotFileParser"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">RobotFileParser</span></code></a>
class:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">urllib.robotparser</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rp</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">urllib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">robotparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">RobotFileParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_url</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"http://www.musi-cal.com/robots.txt"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rrate</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">rp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">request_rate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"*"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rrate</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">requests</span>
<span class="go">3</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rrate</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">seconds</span>
<span class="go">20</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">crawl_delay</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"*"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">6</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">can_fetch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"*"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"http://www.musi-cal.com/cgi-bin/search?city=San+Francisco"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">rp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">can_fetch</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"*"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s2">"http://www.musi-cal.com/"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
</pre></div>
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