Re: APPSDIR review of draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-24

Hello,

While I was reviewing other drafts in the set I noticed that Section 
3.2.4 of draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-24 has the following:

   "Historically, HTTP header field values could be extended over
    multiple lines by preceding each extra line with at least one space
    or horizontal tab (obs-fold).  This specification deprecates such
    line folding except within the message/http media type
    (Section 8.3.1).  A sender MUST NOT generate a message that includes
    line folding (i.e., that has any field-value that contains a match to
    the obs-fold rule) unless the message is intended for packaging
    within the message/http media type."

There is an IETF specification which interpreted Section 4.2 of RFC 
2616 as follows:

   "the HTTP header syntax allows extending single header values across
    multiple lines, by inserting a line break followed by whitespace"

I'll classify deprecating line folding as an issue.

Section 4.2 of RFC 2616 (and RFC 2068) follows the same generic 
format as that given in Section 3.1 of RFC 822.  Section 2.2 of RFC 
2616 states that:

   "HTTP/1.1 header field values can be folded onto multiple lines if the
    continuation line begins with a space or horizontal tab."

I suggest that implementors of specifications which have a dependency 
on RFC 2616 review the relevant section in 
draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-24 about line folding and comment if 
they consider the deprecation as a problem.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy

Received on Tuesday, 29 October 2013 08:14:55 UTC