RE: What is Content-Length?

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	David W. Morris [SMTP:dwm@xpasc.com]
> Sent:	Wednesday, December 10, 1997 8:23 PM
> To:	John Franks
> Cc:	Roy T. Fielding; http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com;
> http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com;
> http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com
> Subject:	Re: What is Content-Length? 
> 
> On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, John Franks wrote:
> 
> Exactly HOW would a server know transfer-length before sending
> data? I can define a reasonable use of content-length in the
> trailer of a chunk-encoded transfer ... since content length is
> the entity length, it could serve as a double check of the
> receipt of the chunk-encoded entity.  But clearly, transfer
> length couldn't appear in the trailer as the length wouldn't
> be known until after the trailer was complete.  It makes no
> sense to me for a server which knows the length of the transfer
> encoded entity to ever use transfer encoding.
> 
> Sounds like protocol cruft to me.  What am I missing?
> 
	[Joshua Cohen]  
	I didnt realize that we intended all future TEs to be used for
unknown length
	entities.  It seems logical that someone might use TE for
encryption, which
	could still have a known length at transmission time.
> Dave Morris