combining ranges

• From: Doug Moore <unkadoug@yahoo.com>
• Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 22:06:55 +0000
• To: ietf-http-wg@w3.org
• Message-ID: <749475.54602.qm@web35301.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

The spec says:

"When an HTTP message includes the content of a single
range (for example, a response to a request for a
single range, or to a request for a set of ranges that
overlap without any holes), this content is
transmitted with a Content-Range header, and a
Content-Length header showing the number of bytes
actually transferred. "

and also says:

"When a client requests multiple byte-ranges in one
request, the server SHOULD return them in the order
that they appeared in the request."

So, then, what does 'overlap' mean, and specifically,
if a request arrives for (in this order) ranges
300-399, 200-299 and 100-199, can these be said to
overlap, and thus be combined, or must order be
preserved, and a multirange response delivered?

I can tell you that there are clients out there that
demand the multirange response.  Are they broken?

Doug Moore

Received on Wednesday, 28 May 2008 14:28:11 UTC