Output errors reason when a request is failing with quiet option

[soullivaneuh]

I use HTTPie on a script to convert images:

http --quiet --form --download --output "${png_path}" POST https://imagine.company.com/convert \
	stripmeta==true \
	lossless==true \
	type==png \
	background==white \
	file@"${svg_path}"

It works, but when it fail I don't have any information because of the --quiet option:

bash build.sh
HTTPie version: 2.3.0
assets/fa-pro/png/brands/500px.png
make: *** [Makefile:4: build] Error 5

On that case, I have a Bad Gateway error (504).

If I remove it, I have the information but also when it success (200).

It would be great to have the possibility to quiet the output except if it's a request error.

[Almad]

So something like --quiet-on-success?

[jkbrzt]

@soullivaneuh You’re working on what looks like a scripted workflow. So you likely want to interrupt the flow if the request fails. For that, it’s better to rely on the exit status code than on the textual output.

You can use --check-status, to instruct HTTPie to check the response status and exit with a non-zero code if there has been a problem (see https://httpie.io/docs#scripting for more details):

if http --quiet --check-status httpbin.org/status/504 ; then
    echo "OK"
else 
    echo "ERROR: $?"
    exit 1
fi
# => ERROR: 5

To your question: --quiet is designed to suppress all output except for errors. That’s how CLI tools typically implement it. What we’re missing, though, is an error message for error responses (but only with --check-status):

When you apply --check-status and the response indicates an error, then we correctly exit with a non-zero code, but we should also write an error message to stderr to play well with --quiet.

[jkbrzt]

HTTPie 2.4.0 with this change has just been released 🥧

[soullivaneuh]

Wow, just opened an issue from 10 days and I got a new release with clear indications about how to solve my need.

Well done and thanks! I'll test this as soon as possible.