ADDED Added a patch helper method for the HTTP PATCH verb. If the REQUEST_METHOD environment variable is set, then CGI_HTTP_PROXY replaces HTTP_PROXY. FIXED Unsupported scheme errors early without giving an uninitialized value warning first. Sends Content-Length: 0 on empty body PUT/POST. This is not in the spec, but some servers require this. Allows optional status line reason, as clarified in RFC 7230. Ignore SIGPIPE on reads as well as writes, as IO::Socket::SSL says that SSL reads can also send writes as a side effect. Check if a server has closed a connection before preserving it for reuse. PREREQS Optional IO::Socket::IP prereq must be at least version 0.32 to be used. This ensures correct timeout support.