HEAD requests are broken since 0.15.0 (undefined method force_encoding for nil:NilClass)

[peret]

In versions >= 0.15.0 when I do something like HTTParty.head("https://www.google.com"), it fails with this Callstack:

NoMethodError: undefined method `force_encoding' for nil:NilClass
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:280:in `encode_with_ruby_encoding'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:316:in `_encode_body'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:322:in `encode_body'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:350:in `handle_response'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:158:in `perform'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:347:in `handle_response'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty/request.rb:158:in `perform'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty.rb:563:in `perform_request'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty.rb:536:in `head'
	from /Users/peter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.3@ptcshell/gems/httparty-0.15.0/lib/httparty.rb:629:in `head'

It works as expected in version 0.14.0. I'm fairly certain that it is caused by one of the changes in this PR: #513
Specifically number 6 in that list. When I understand correctly, the body that gets passed to #encode_with_ruby_encoding should be nil for most HEAD requests. In earlier versions, the NoMethodError was rescued and the unmodified body (i.e. nil) returned. So this is the commit that broke it: c46663d

I'll provide a PR for this very soon.

[peret]

I'm sorry, I just now realized that there already is a PR for that: #530 (but apparently no corresponding issue). Feel free to merge either.

[jnunemaker]

Closed by #530

[jnunemaker]

@peret no problem! Thanks for issue, pr and prompt!