Re: original host name in request/header

Larry Masinter writes:
>I think this should probably be a requirement for HTTP 2.0, but there
>is no migration strategy that will make this work for HTTP 1.0.

I disagree.  A system that wanted to use this technique could look for a
"Hostname:" header line, and if it's missing provide the user with a list of
the hosts available at that address.

If they wanted to make it really robust, they could have all of the
hostname-specific content a directory down, and only look at the Hostname
header if the request is "GET /".  If the header were there, the server
could generate a redirect to the appropriate subdirectory, and if not
provide the list of links to hostname-specific info.

In this scenario, even if someone with a browser which supported this
extension mailed a URI to someone using a non-extended browser, it would
still work since the directory information would be present.  The
subdirectory stuff could be phased out once all the browsers supported the
extension.

--
Jim Seidman, Senior Software Engineer, Spyglass Inc.

Received on Sunday, 12 February 1995 14:51:56 UTC