RE: indefinite server-push (was 'Last-Modified in chunked footer')

Phillip Hallam-Baker (hallam@ai.mit.edu)
Mon, 15 Sep 1997 15:49:40 -0400


>On Mon, 15 Sep 1997, Ben Laurie wrote:

>> A proxy which attempts to buffer complete responses is broken, so it may
>> as well be non-compliant.

>Not if the proxy is required to respond to an HTTP/1.0 client with
>chunked encoding converted to content-length.

>Dave Morris

In that case the proxy should buffer content as long as it can then
send an HTTP/1.0 repsonse with no content length and slam the 
connection shut to denote end of transmission.

This is how HTTP/1.0 servers deliver indefinite length encoded
messages today. There is no reason to make support for http/1.0
with connection keep-alive any different.

If there is a choice between resticted performance that does not
break for legacy browsers and flexibility for the future it is almost 
always best to chose the latter.

	Phill