RE: mid-course errors
Henry Sanders (henrysa@exchange.microsoft.com)
Tue, 15 Apr 1997 15:00:06 -0700
Jeff Mogul writes:
> Does your server or client actually have a list of headers that it
> *does* allow in the footer? Where did this list come from?
>
It turns out that our server doesn't check for any headers in the
footer, with a comment in the code indicating that the only footer
defined for 1.1 is Content-MD5:, which we don't support. My recollection
of why this was done this way was fuzzy, so I went back and checked the
mail archives. Around the time of the LA IETF there was some desire to
remove footers entirely from chunked T-E. Phill Hallam objected strongly
to this, and a compromise was reached where Content-MD5 was allowed in
the footer for 1.1 and future versions of HTTP might allow other
headers. The issue was considered closed for draft 04 in
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/hypermail/1996q2/0058.html . The
wording has changed a bit since then (I vaguely remember that happening
as an editorial change) , but I believe the intent is still the same,
which is that only Content-MD5 is valid in an HTTP 1.1 chunked footer.
I agree that the text could use some clarification. I think the simplest
change consistent with my understanding of the intent would be to add a
sentence to 14.16 saying "This header is allowed in the chunked
Transfer-Encoding footer". Regardless, our server supporting this hasn't
shipped yet, and I'm willing to change it if there's consensus that
other headers should be allowed in the footer.
Henry