fix: retain stream read error on subsequent response.content accesses (#4965)

src/requests/models.py

@@ -736,6 +736,7 @@ class Response:
 
     _content: bytes | Literal[False] | None
     _content_consumed: bool
+    _content_error: BaseException | None
     _next: PreparedRequest | None
     status_code: int
     headers: CaseInsensitiveDict[str]
@@ -765,6 +766,7 @@ class Response:
     def __init__(self) -> None:
         self._content = False
         self._content_consumed = False
+        self._content_error = None
         self._next = None
 
         #: Integer Code of responded HTTP Status, e.g. 404 or 200.
@@ -1035,6 +1037,12 @@ def iter_lines(
     def content(self) -> bytes:
         """Content of the response, in bytes."""
 
+        # If a previous read attempt failed, re-raise the same exception.
+        # This ensures consistent behaviour when accessing .content multiple
+        # times after a stream read error (e.g. in a debugger).
+        if self._content_error is not None:
+            raise self._content_error
+
         if self._content is False:
             # Read the contents.
             if self._content_consumed:
@@ -1043,7 +1051,11 @@ def content(self) -> bytes:
             if self.status_code == 0 or self.raw is None:
                 self._content = None
             else:
-                self._content = b"".join(self.iter_content(CONTENT_CHUNK_SIZE)) or b""
+                try:
+                    self._content = b"".join(self.iter_content(CONTENT_CHUNK_SIZE)) or b""
+                except Exception as e:
+                    self._content_error = e
+                    raise
 
         self._content_consumed = True
         # don't need to release the connection; that's been handled by urllib3

tests/test_lowlevel.py

@@ -426,3 +426,51 @@ def response_handler(sock):
     assert isinstance(excinfo.value, requests.exceptions.RequestException)
     assert isinstance(excinfo.value, JSONDecodeError)
     assert r.text not in str(excinfo.value)
+
+
+def test_response_content_retains_error():
+    """Accessing response.content after a stream read error should re-raise
+    the same exception, not return empty bytes or raise RuntimeError.
+
+    Regression test for https://github.com/psf/requests/issues/4965
+    """
+    from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+
+    r = requests.models.Response()
+    r.status_code = 200
+    r.raw = MagicMock()
+    r.raw.stream = MagicMock(side_effect=requests.exceptions.ConnectionError("connection reset"))
+
+    # First access should raise ConnectionError
+    with pytest.raises(requests.exceptions.ConnectionError):
+        _ = r.content
+
+    # Second access should raise the same ConnectionError, not b"" or RuntimeError
+    with pytest.raises(requests.exceptions.ConnectionError):
+        _ = r.content
+
+
+def test_response_content_retains_error_after_partial_read():
+    """If iter_content fails mid-stream, the error should still be retained."""
+    from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+
+    def failing_stream(chunk_size, decode_content=True):
+        yield b"partial data"
+        raise requests.exceptions.ChunkedEncodingError("Connection broken")
+
+    r = requests.models.Response()
+    r.status_code = 200
+    r.raw = MagicMock()
+    r.raw.stream = failing_stream
+
+    first_error = None
+    try:
+        _ = r.content
+    except Exception as e:
+        first_error = e
+        assert isinstance(e, requests.exceptions.ChunkedEncodingError)
+
+    # Second access should raise the same error type
+    assert first_error is not None
+    with pytest.raises(requests.exceptions.ChunkedEncodingError):
+        _ = r.content