sub clone
{
    my $self = shift;
    my $copy = bless { %$self }, ref $self;  # copy most fields

    delete $copy->{handlers};
##</code><code>##

    # copy any plain arrays and hashes; known not to need recursive copy
    for my $k (qw(proxy no_proxy requests_redirectable)) {
        next unless $copy->{$k};
        if (ref($copy->{$k}) eq "ARRAY") {
            $copy->{$k} = [ @{$copy->{$k}} ];
        }
        elsif (ref($copy->{$k}) eq "HASH") {
            $copy->{$k} = { %{$copy->{$k}} };
        }
    }

    if ($self->{def_headers}) {
        $copy->{def_headers} = $self->{def_headers}->clone;
    }

    # re-enable standard handlers
    $copy->parse_head($self->parse_head);

    # no easy way to clone the cookie jar; so let's just remove it for now
    $copy->cookie_jar(undef);

    $copy;
}