Re: re-use of version URL's

On Wed, Jan 03, 2001 at 11:37:36PM -0800, Mark A. Hale wrote:
>...
> The standard security clause for naming (here is a sample clause from RFC
> 2396 from the Network Working Group):
> 
>    Users should beware
>    that there is no general guarantee that a URL, which at one time
>    located a given resource, will continue to do so.  Nor is there any
>    guarantee that a URL will not locate a different resource at some
>    later point in time, due to the lack of any constraint on how a given
>    authority apportions its namespace.  Such a guarantee can only be
>    obtained from the person(s) controlling that namespace and the
>    resource in question.  A specific URI scheme may include additional
>    semantics, such as name persistence, if those semantics are required
>    of all naming authorities for that scheme.

Those last two sentences are exactly what DeltaV is doing: providing a
guarantee that the version resource URL is eternally unique. DeltaV controls
the version resource semantics and the namespace they occur within.

> I see two issues of importance.
> 
>    1) URL will not locate a different resource at some later point in time
>    2) Such a guarantee can only be obtained from the person(s) controlling
> that namespace and the resource in question.
> 
> In terms of what we are trying to achieve.  I view (1) as being the rule and
> (2) as the exception.  In addition, I believe that (2) is a matter of
> corporate policy and it is my viewpoint that the argument proposed here is
> not strong enough that WebDAV would want to impose any policy guidelines.

DeltaV imposes policy. Period. You're just trying to say "how far." If
corporate policy wants to break DeltaV policy, then fine... they do have
that right. But the spec does not have to make allowances for it.

Version resource URLs can be unique and persistent -- there is nothing in
the above naming design that prevents our policy from applying.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/

Received on Thursday, 4 January 2001 13:35:49 UTC