Protocol Action: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1 to Proposed Standard

  The IESG has approved publication of Hypertext Transfer Protocol --
  HTTP/1.1 <draft-ietf-http-v11-spec-07.txt, .ps> as a Proposed
  Standard.

  This document is the product of the HyperText Transfer Protocol
  Working Group. The IESG contact persons are Keith Moore and Harald
  Alvestrand.


Technical Summary

 This document changes the HTTP protocol in ways that we believe will
 make HTTP less harmful, and therefore more useful, to the Internet.
 In particular it:

  - Clarifies cache control
  - Includes information about hostname used to access a resource
  - Introduces persistent TCP connections

 These changes from HTTP/1.0 are believed to be required, and
 sufficient to let the protocol enter the standards track.

Working Group Summary

 The working group was contentious, most of all when removing
 features.  There appears to be clear consensus on the current
 specification, both that the features are necessary and that no
 completely vital features are missing.

 Further work to add more features to the 153-page document is underway.

Protocol Quality

 The protocol has been reviewed by a number of people.
 The reviewer for the IESG was Harald Alvestrand.


Note to RFC Editor:

   draft-ietf-http-v11-spec-07 was written without knowing
   whether draft-ietf-http-digest-aa-* would be approved as
   a Proposed Standard.   Since both documents were approved at
   the same time, each may need modifications to make appropriate
   references to the other.

   Notes to the RFC Editor in the HTTP 1.1 draft (in section
   11.2 and 19.8.4) leave the decision to the RFC Editor to
   combine both drafts into one document or to keep them
   separated.  Assuming the RFC Editor will prefer the latter,
   it is suggested that section 11.2 of draft-ietf-http-v11-spec-07
   be replaced with the following text:

   "The Digest Authentication Scheme, described in RFC XXXX, may also
   be used with HTTP/1.1."

   where "XXXX" is the RFC number assigned to
   draft-ietf-http-digest-aa-04.txt


The HTTP WG will decide whether to issue an applicabilty statement
which imposes requirements or makes recommendations to implement
digest authentication in HTTP/1.1 implementations.

Received on Friday, 30 August 1996 06:49:44 UTC