Inconsistent url object handling in http.request and url.format

[CrabBot]

Related to #1390.

If you url.parse a url, alter the pathname, and then pass it to http.request, path takes precedence. However, if you first url.format the url, pathname takes precedence:

var uri = url.parse('http://www.google.com/search?q=asdf');
uri.pathname += '/naaaaah';

var r1 = http.get(uri, function(res) {
    if (r2.path && r1.path !== r2.path) throw new Error('Mismatch');
});

var r2 = http.get(url.parse(url.format(uri)), function(res) {
    if (r1.path && r1.path !== r2.path) throw new Error('Mismatch');
});

Obviously, this is because http.request does not consider pathname. However, this is inconsistent then with the url.parse's partial compliance regarding hostname:

hostname: To support url.parse() hostname is preferred over host

and the options string:

options can be an object or a string. If options is a string, it is automatically parsed with url.parse().

See documentation.

[chrisdickinson]

Hey @tjfontaine, can I get a quick thumbs up or down on whether we're okay with (slightly) breaking backwards compat in order to unify behaviors a bit?

[jasnell]

Closing the issue here in favor of the ongoing work on the url module in io.js (nodejs/node#1650)