Allow setting of default base_url

Hi there, first of all httpie is an excellent library. I recently switched to it after using resty for ages.

One of the nice features i am missing is a way to set a base url that will be used for subsequent http invocations.

I often find myself issuing multiple rest calls when testing/browsing an API and defining a base url saves me from a lot of typing.

For example, assume the following base url:

https://api.example.com/api/v1

When issuing the following command

http GET /users

Will do a GET request to the resource located at https://api.example.com/api/v1/users.

Currently I solve my impediment by applying the following patch to the httpie library

diff --git a/httpie/input.py b/httpie/input.py
index 8eb6a7d..e49079d 100644
--- a/httpie/input.py
+++ b/httpie/input.py
@@ -131,6 +131,8 @@ class Parser(ArgumentParser):
         self._parse_items()
         if not self.args.ignore_stdin and not env.stdin_isatty:
             self._body_from_file(self.env.stdin)
+        if 'HTTPIE_BASEURL' in os.environ:
+            self.args.url = os.environ['HTTPIE_BASEURL'].rstrip('/') + self.args.url
         if not (self.args.url.startswith((HTTP, HTTPS))):
             scheme = HTTP

This allows me to define a base url for the current running shell:

export HTTPIE_BASEURL='https://api.example.com/api/v1'
http GET /users
http GET /users/8292

I am curious what you think about this approach and maybe have a better idea. I would be happy to contribute to this idea if needed.

Keep up the great work.

[trollfred]

@jakubroztocil I would vote for this feature, using http-prompt is not always convenient

[jakubroztocil]

Have a look at https://github.com/eliangcs/http-prompt if you’re interested in this feature.