RE: Function to download a URL and return it as a string

[Drew Adams]

> I recently wanted to be able to download a document from a URL and
> return it as a string.  I couldn't find a function that did that
> precisely, but I was able to construct my own:
> 
> (defun download (url)
>   (with-current-buffer (url-retrieve-synchronously url)
>     (prog2
>         (when (not (search-forward-regexp "^$" nil t))
>           (error "Unable to locate downloaded data"))
>         (buffer-substring (1+ (point)) (point-max))
>       (kill-buffer))))
> 
> This seems rather busy for such a basic-seeming operation--in
> particular, having to take care to delete the buffer created by
> url-retrieve-synchronously.  Is there a better way to do it?

Dunno anything about whether there is a better way, but consider using
`unwind-protect', with `kill-buffer' as your cleanup part.  And to play safe,
pass the actual buffer (returned from `url-*') as arg to `kill-buffer'.

Using `unwind-protect' makes sure the buffer is killed when you're done, no
matter what.