issue & resolution: IF_PRECEDENCE

During today's editorial-group teleconference, we discussed
whether the HTTP/1.1 specification should or should not specify
precedences between If-* headers other than what is already
specified in the draft-ietf-http-v11-spec-rev-02 document.

Since this would represent a substantive change to the specification,
we agreed that such a change requires specific justification.  That
is, we would like to see a concrete and plausible scenario described
in which the lack of a precedence between (for example) If-Match
and If-None-Match results in a failure of interoperability.

We agreed that we would reopen this issue if someone provides such a
scenario.  In the absence of such a scenario, we agreed to make the
specification more explicit about the lack of a precedence.  The
changes below, therefore, are editorial clarifications, and are not
substantive changes to the specification.

(1) To the end of section 14.24 (or 14.25, depending on which
alphabetization you have), If-Match, add:

    This specification does not define a precedence between the
    If-Match header field and the If-None-Match or If-Modified-Since
    header fields.

(2) To the end of section 14.25 (or 14.24, depending on which
alphabetization you have), If-Modified-Since, add:

    This specification does not define a precedence between the
    If-Modified-Since header field and the If-Match or
    If-Unmodified-Since header fields.

(3) To the end of section 14.26 (If-None-Match), add:

    This specification does not define a precedence between the
    If-None-Match header field and the If-Match or If-Unmodified-Since
    header fields.

(4) To the end of section 14.28 (If-Unmodified), add:

    This specification does not define a precedence between the
    If-Unmodified-Since header field and the  If-None-Match or
    If-Modified-Since header fields.

-Jeff

Received on Tuesday, 10 March 1998 12:03:59 UTC