Re: NEW ISSUE: content sniffing

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Mark Baker <mark@coactus.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Adam Barth <w3c@adambarth.com> wrote:
>> The current HTTP spec contains a requirement that contradicts this
>> widespread practice.  It seems we should update this part of the spec
>> to reflect reality (and, perhaps, nudge reality into a slightly better
>> equilibrium).
>
> Which requirement is that?

>From http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec7.html#sec7.2.1

"If and only if the media type is not given by a Content-Type field,
the recipient MAY attempt to guess the media type via inspection of
its content and/or the name extension(s) of the URI used to identify
the resource."

For example, user agents also need to sniff HTTP responses with a
Content-Type of */* in order to be compatible with existing Web
content.

Adam