Deprecate HttpHeaders.writableHttpHeaders

Prior to this commit, gh-21783 introduced `ReadOnlyHttpHeaders` to avoid
parsing media types multiple times during the lifetime of an HTTP
exchange: such values are cached and the headers map is made read-only.
This also added a new `HttpHeaders.writableHttpHeaders` method to unwrap
the read-only variant when needed.

It turns out this method sends the wrong signal to the community
because:
* the underlying map might be unmodifiable even if this is not an
  instance of ReadOnlyHttpHeaders
* developers were assuming that modifying the collection that backs the
  read-only instance would work around the cached values for
  Content-Type and Accept headers

This commit adds more documentation to highlight the desired behavior
for cached values by the read-only variant, and deprecates the
`writableHttpHeaders` method as `ReadOnlyHttpHeaders` is package private
and we should not surface that concept anyway.
Instead, this commit unwraps the read-only variant if needed when a new
HttpHeaders instance is created.

Closes gh-32116

spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/HttpHeaders.java

@@ -441,8 +441,16 @@ public class HttpHeaders implements MultiValueMap<String, String>, Serializable
 	 */
 	public HttpHeaders(MultiValueMap<String, String> headers) {
 		Assert.notNull(headers, "MultiValueMap must not be null");
+		if (headers == EMPTY) {
+			this.headers = CollectionUtils.toMultiValueMap(new LinkedCaseInsensitiveMap<>(8, Locale.ENGLISH));
+		}
+		else if (headers instanceof ReadOnlyHttpHeaders readOnlyHttpHeaders) {
+			this.headers = readOnlyHttpHeaders.headers;
+		}
+		else {
 			this.headers = headers;
 		}
+	}
 
 
 	/**
@@ -1869,7 +1877,7 @@ public class HttpHeaders implements MultiValueMap<String, String>, Serializable
 	 * Apply a read-only {@code HttpHeaders} wrapper around the given headers, if necessary.
 	 * <p>Also caches the parsed representations of the "Accept" and "Content-Type" headers.
 	 * @param headers the headers to expose
-	 * @return a read-only variant of the headers, or the original headers as-is
+	 * @return a read-only variant of the headers, or the original headers as-is if already read-only
 	 */
 	public static HttpHeaders readOnlyHttpHeaders(HttpHeaders headers) {
 		Assert.notNull(headers, "HttpHeaders must not be null");
@@ -1879,16 +1887,16 @@ public class HttpHeaders implements MultiValueMap<String, String>, Serializable
 	/**
 	 * Remove any read-only wrapper that may have been previously applied around
 	 * the given headers via {@link #readOnlyHttpHeaders(HttpHeaders)}.
+	 * <p>Once the writable instance is mutated, the read-only instance is likely
+	 * to be out of sync and should be discarded.
 	 * @param headers the headers to expose
 	 * @return a writable variant of the headers, or the original headers as-is
 	 * @since 5.1.1
+	 * @deprecated as of 6.2 in favor of {@link #HttpHeaders(MultiValueMap)}.
 	 */
+	@Deprecated(since = "6.2", forRemoval = true)
 	public static HttpHeaders writableHttpHeaders(HttpHeaders headers) {
-		Assert.notNull(headers, "HttpHeaders must not be null");
+		return new HttpHeaders(headers);
-		if (headers == EMPTY) {
-			return new HttpHeaders();
-		}
-		return (headers instanceof ReadOnlyHttpHeaders ? new HttpHeaders(headers.headers) : headers);
 	}
 
 	/**

spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/ReadOnlyHttpHeaders.java

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2023 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2024 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ import org.springframework.util.MultiValueMap;
 
 /**
  * {@code HttpHeaders} object that can only be read, not written to.
+ * <p>This caches the parsed representations of the "Accept" and "Content-Type" headers
+ * and will get out of sync with the backing map it is mutated at runtime.
  *
  * @author Brian Clozel
  * @author Sam Brannen

spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/http/server/reactive/DefaultServerHttpRequestBuilder.java

@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class DefaultServerHttpRequestBuilder implements ServerHttpRequest.Builder {
 		Assert.notNull(original, "ServerHttpRequest is required");
 
 		this.uri = original.getURI();
-		this.headers = HttpHeaders.writableHttpHeaders(original.getHeaders());
+		this.headers = new HttpHeaders(original.getHeaders());
 		this.httpMethod = original.getMethod();
 		this.contextPath = original.getPath().contextPath().value();
 		this.remoteAddress = original.getRemoteAddress();

spring-web/src/test/java/org/springframework/http/HttpHeadersTests.java

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.TimeZone;
 
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Nested;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
 import static java.util.stream.Collectors.toList;
@@ -54,8 +55,19 @@ import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.entry;
  */
 class HttpHeadersTests {
 
-	private final HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
+	final HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
 
+	@Test
+	void constructorUnwrapsReadonly() {
+		headers.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
+		HttpHeaders readOnly = HttpHeaders.readOnlyHttpHeaders(headers);
+		assertThat(readOnly.getContentType()).isEqualTo(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
+		HttpHeaders writable = new HttpHeaders(readOnly);
+		writable.setContentType(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN);
+		// content-type value is cached by ReadOnlyHttpHeaders
+		assertThat(readOnly.getContentType()).isEqualTo(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON);
+		assertThat(writable.getContentType()).isEqualTo(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN);
+	}
 
 	@Test
 	void getOrEmpty() {
@@ -578,6 +590,10 @@ class HttpHeadersTests {
 		assertThat(authorization).isEqualTo("Bearer foo");
 	}
 
+
+	@Nested
+	class MapEntriesTests {
+
 		@Test
 		void keySetOperations() {
 			headers.add("Alpha", "apple");
@@ -757,3 +773,5 @@ class HttpHeadersTests {
 		}
 
 	}
+
+}

spring-webflux/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/reactive/function/client/DefaultClientResponseBuilder.java

@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ final class DefaultClientResponseBuilder implements ClientResponse.Builder {
 	@SuppressWarnings("ConstantConditions")
 	private HttpHeaders getHeaders() {
 		if (this.headers == null) {
-			this.headers = HttpHeaders.writableHttpHeaders(this.originalResponse.headers().asHttpHeaders());
+			this.headers = new HttpHeaders(this.originalResponse.headers().asHttpHeaders());
 		}
 		return this.headers;
 	}