-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Parses a url and returns a table with all its parts according to RFC 2396
-- The following grammar describes the names given to the URL parts
-- <url> ::= <scheme>://<authority>/<path>;<params>?<query>#<fragment>
-- <authority> ::= <userinfo>@<host>:<port>
-- <userinfo> ::= <user>[:<password>]
-- <path> :: = {<segment>/}<segment>
-- Input
--   url: uniform resource locator of request
--   default: table with default values for each field
-- Returns
--   table with the following fields, where RFC naming conventions have
--   been preserved:
--     scheme, authority, userinfo, user, password, host, port,
--     path, params, query, fragment
-- Obs:
--   the leading '/' in {/<path>} is considered part of <path>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
function parse(url, default)
    -- initialize default parameters
    local parsed = {}
    for i,v in base.pairs(default or parsed) do parsed[i] = v end
    -- empty url is parsed to nil
    if not url or url == "" then return nil, "invalid url" end
    -- remove whitespace
    -- url = string.gsub(url, "%s", "")
    -- get fragment
    url = string.gsub(url, "#(.*)$", function(f)
        parsed.fragment = f
        return ""
    end)
    -- get scheme
    url = string.gsub(url, "^([%w][%w%+%-%.]*)%:",
        function(s) parsed.scheme = s; return "" end)
    -- get authority
    url = string.gsub(url, "^//([^/]*)", function(n)
        parsed.authority = n
        return ""
    end)
    -- get query stringing
    url = string.gsub(url, "%?(.*)", function(q)
        parsed.query = q
        return ""
    end)
    -- get params
    url = string.gsub(url, "%;(.*)", function(p)
        parsed.params = p
        return ""
    end)
    -- path is whatever was left
    if url ~= "" then parsed.path = url end
    local authority = parsed.authority
    if not authority then return parsed end
    authority = string.gsub(authority,"^([^@]*)@",
        function(u) parsed.userinfo = u; return "" end)
    authority = string.gsub(authority, ":([^:]*)$",
        function(p) parsed.port = p; return "" end)
    if authority ~= "" then parsed.host = authority end
    local userinfo = parsed.userinfo
    if not userinfo then return parsed end
    userinfo = string.gsub(userinfo, ":([^:]*)$",
        function(p) parsed.password = p; return "" end)
    parsed.user = userinfo
    return parsed
end