test various methods of performing HTTP requests from behind a proxy

proxy_test.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'net/http'
require 'open-uri'
require 'rubygems'
require 'http' # this is the http gem
require 'faraday'

class ProxyTest
  def initialize(url)
    @url = url
    @uri = URI(@url)
    @methods = [:net_http_new, :net_http_start,
      :net_http_get_request, :net_http_get, :open_uri,
      :http_gem_get, :http_gem_via_get, :faraday_get
    ]
    @padding = @methods.max_by {|x| x.to_s.length }.length
  end

  def run
    @methods.each do |m|
      begin
        ENV['no_proxy'] = ''
        ENV['NO_PROXY'] = ENV['no_proxy']
        send(m)
        printf "%-#{@padding}s PASSED with proxy\n", m
        ENV['no_proxy'] = @uri.host
        ENV['NO_PROXY'] = ENV['no_proxy']
        begin
          send(m)
          printf "%-#{@padding}s FAILED with no_proxy\n", m
        rescue
          printf "%-#{@padding}s PASSED with no_proxy\n", m
        end
      rescue
        printf "%-#{@padding}s FAILED with proxy\n", m
      end
    end
  end

  def net_http_new
    Net::HTTP.new(@uri.host, @uri.port).start  do |http|
      http.request Net::HTTP::Get.new(@uri)
    end
  end

  def net_http_start
    Net::HTTP.start(@uri.host, @uri.port) do |http|
      http.request Net::HTTP::Get.new(@uri)
    end
  end

  def net_http_get_request
    Net::HTTP.get_request(@url)
  end

  def net_http_get
    Net::HTTP.get URI(@url)
  end

  def open_uri
    open(@url) {|x| x.read }
  end

  def http_gem_get
    HTTP.get(@url).to_s
  end

  # use the HTTP gem but do the proxy detection by hand
  def http_gem_via_get
    proxy_args = []
    proxy_envvar = "#{@uri.scheme}_proxy"
    proxy = ENV[proxy_envvar] || ENV[proxy_envvar.upcase]
    if proxy
      uri = URI(proxy)
      proxy_args = [uri.host, uri.port, uri.user, uri.password]
    end
    HTTP.via(*proxy_args).get(@url)
  end

  def faraday_get
    Faraday.get(@url)
  end

end

if $PROGRAM_NAME == __FILE__
  url = 'http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.1.3/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/Net/HTTP.html'
  ProxyTest.new(url).run
end

My output:

net_http_new         PASSED with proxy
net_http_new         PASSED with no_proxy
net_http_start       FAILED with proxy
net_http_get_request FAILED with proxy
net_http_get         FAILED with proxy
open_uri             PASSED with proxy
open_uri             PASSED with no_proxy
http_gem_get         FAILED with proxy
http_gem_via_get     PASSED with proxy
http_gem_via_get     FAILED with no_proxy
faraday_get          PASSED with proxy
faraday_get          FAILED with no_proxy