OSSL_HTTP_{REQ_CTX_set_request_line(),_set1_request()}: backward compat w.r.t. path parameter

Fixes #17923

Reviewed-by: Todd Short <todd.short@me.com>
Reviewed-by: Tomas Mraz <tomas@openssl.org>
(Merged from https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/21690)

(cherry picked from commit 45c02183c65f0e1abf59909c2900764606334664)

2 files changed, 13 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX.pod b/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX.pod
index ee61034aa7..6216420e4f 100644
--- a/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX.pod
+++ b/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX.pod
@@ -72,12 +72,16 @@ which collects the HTTP request header lines.
 OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX_free() frees up the HTTP request context I<rctx>.
 The I<rbio> is not free'd, I<wbio> will be free'd if I<free_wbio> is set.
 
-OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX_set_request_line() adds the HTTP request line to the context.
+OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX_set_request_line() adds the 1st HTTP request line to I<rctx>.
 The HTTP method is determined by I<method_POST>,
 which should be 1 to indicate C<POST> or 0 to indicate C<GET>.
-I<server> and I<port> may be set to indicate a proxy server and port
-that the request should go through, otherwise they should be left NULL.
-I<path> is the HTTP request path; if left NULL, C</> is used.
+I<server> and I<port> may be set to give the server and the optional port that
+an HTTP proxy shall forward the request to, otherwise they must be left NULL.
+I<path> provides the HTTP request path; if left NULL, C</> is used.
+For backward compatibility, I<path> may begin with C<http://> and thus convey
+an absoluteURI. In this case it indicates HTTP proxy use and provides also the
+server (and optionally the port) that the proxy shall forward the request to.
+In this case the I<server> and I<port> arguments must be NULL.
 
 OSSL_HTTP_REQ_CTX_add1_header() adds header I<name> with value I<value> to the
 context I<rctx>. It can be called more than once to add multiple header lines.
diff --git a/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_transfer.pod b/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_transfer.pod
index 3337f6d4a3..05ede23a2f 100644
--- a/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_transfer.pod
+++ b/doc/man3/OSSL_HTTP_transfer.pod
@@ -161,8 +161,11 @@ NULL) to print additional diagnostic information in a user-oriented way.
 
 OSSL_HTTP_set1_request() sets up in I<rctx> the request header and content data
 and expectations on the response using the following parameters.
-If <rctx> indicates using a proxy for HTTP (but not HTTPS), the server hostname
-(and optionally port) needs to be placed in the header and thus must be present.
+If <rctx> indicates using a proxy for HTTP (but not HTTPS), the server host
+(and optionally port) needs to be placed in the header; thus it must be present
+in I<rctx>.
+For backward compatibility, the server (and optional port) may also be given in
+the I<path> argument beginning with C<http://> (thus giving an absoluteURI).
 If I<path> is NULL it defaults to "/".
 If I<req> is NULL the HTTP GET method will be used to send the request
 else HTTP POST with the contents of I<req> and optional I<content_type>, where