StreamURL

Builtin index · File I/O

result = StreamURL(url)

Input: url · Output: result

What it is

url (string, an HTTP or HTTPS URL) is fetched eagerly with a GET request (same request http_get makes: GET only, 30s timeout, clear errors on an unreachable host or non-2xx status — see [Networking (HTTP)](concurrency.md#networking-http)).

Overloads

One call shape — this function is not overloaded.

Code	Input	Output	Description
`result = StreamURL(url)`	`url` stringnot documented yet	`result` —	Returns an opaque stream handle wrapping the whole response body in a read-only, in-memory cursor exposing `read_line`/`read_all`/`eof`/`close`.

Examples

From the documentation, and run by the build -- the output and the figure below are what the engine actually produced. Simplest first.

n = fopen("notes.txt", "w")
write_line(n, "line one")
write_line(n, "line two")
close(n)

function drain(s)
    total = ""
    while not eof(s)
        total = total + read_line(s) + "|"
    end while
    close(s)
    return total
end function

a = drain(StreamFile("notes.txt"))
print(a)                                    # line one|line two|


b = drain(StreamURL("https://example.com/"))
print(length(b) > 0)                        # true -- some HTML came back

output

line one|line two|
true

from file-io

function drain(s)
    total = ""
    while not eof(s)
        total = total + read_line(s) + "|"
    end while
    close(s)
    return total
end function

# Written here so the file half runs; the URL half cannot be, since a

# documentation build must not depend on the network being up or on a

# third party's page not changing under it.

w = fopen("stream_notes.txt", "w")
write_line(w, "one")
write_line(w, "two")
close(w)

a = drain(StreamFile("stream_notes.txt"))
b = drain(StreamURL("https://example.com/"))
print("a = {a}")
print("b length = {length(b)}")

from tour

How it works

that module's own doc comment for the return shape (always Value::Str), timeout (fixed 30s), and error conventions. StreamURL(url) (§ StreamFile/StreamURL polymorphic streams, 2026-08-31) — see net_ops::stream_url's own doc comment.

From the note above this builtin in the interpreter, where the reasoning was written down as it was built.