Re: [Fwd: 301/302]
Dave Kristol (dmk@bell-labs.com)
Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:02:12 -0400
Josh Cohen wrote:
>
> Dave Kristol wrote:
> >
> > > Well, what about when foo.cgi is running on a 1.1 server, and
> > > doesnt give a content-length.
> > > Is the 1.1 server responsible to detect and chunk that ?
> >
> > An HTTP/1.1 server can either
> > - send Connection: close, return the content without chunking, and
> > close the connection; or
> > - chunk the content
> >
> Yes, but wasnt this the intent of chunking in the first place?
> (dyamic content)
We seem to be talking past each other, or something. I don't understand
your remark.
Yes, the intent of chunking is dynamic content. Well, actually, in my
mind the purpose of chunking is to provide a way to demarcate the end of
dynamic content so a server can keep its connection open. So the
preferred behavior is that, if an HTTP/1.1 server supports CGIs, for
example, and the CGI does not provide a Content-Length, and the client
is also HTTP/1.1, the server can add a "Transfer-Encoding: chunked"
header to the response, chunk the output, and keep the connection open.
But it's not required.
Dave Kristol