Re: Netscape 4.5 and HTTP/1.1 Accept-Encoding
John Franks (john@math.nwu.edu)
Tue, 3 Nov 1998 14:19:42 -0600 (EST)
On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Dave Kristol wrote:
> Something interesting has come up that's one of: a bug or infelicity in
> my server, or a bug or infelicity in Netscape 4.5
>
> Netscape 4.5 sends an HTTP/1.0 request with Accept-Encoding: gzip
> header. A web site has a paper.ps.Z file, i.e., Content-type:
> application/postscript, Content-Encoding: compress. When NS 4.5 tries
> to GET the paper, my server returns 406 Not Acceptable, because
> "compress" is not one of the accepted encodings.
>
> There seem to be two (not mutually exclusive) conclusions to draw:
>
> 1) Netscape 4.5 should send Accept-Encoding: gzip, compress, because
> gzip (well, the gzip program, anyway) understands the Unix compress
> format.
I think gzip and compress are different encodings. The fact that
a program called "gzip" understands both is not relevant.
>
> 2) My server should not send 406, since it's only a SHOULD requirement
> anyway. Or perhaps it should send 406 only for HTTP/1.1 requests.
>
What does your server do if a client sends a request with *no*
Accept-Encoding? I think that's what it should do in this case.
(E.g. send it as application/octet-stream).
It is quite likely that there will be clients which support some
content encodings but not all the ones you support. I don't think you
want your server to be in the situation where it completely refuses to
serve a file to such clients.
John Franks
john@math.nwu.edu