Re: what's a CGI to do?...

koen@win.tue.nl (Koen Holtman) wrote on Wed, 29 Nov 1995 13:38:25 +0100 (MET):
  > 
  > Reading your reply, I get the feeling that you do not know the exact
  > semantics of a Location: <absolute URL> cgi-header.  The description
  > on http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/out.html is indeed a bit vague
  > about this (I determined the semantics myself by reading the NCSA 1.2
  > source).
Well, I actually knew them better than you suspected, but not as well as I
should.  I, too, read the NCSA (1.3) code.  Anyway...

  [We discussed what happens if, in response to a POST request, a CGI
  issues a "local" redirect via a Location: header.  We agreed that the
  server should probably behave the same as if the user-agent made the
  redirected request.]

There is a problem with the behavior I have summarized, based on the
22Nov95 HTTP/1.1 draft.  A user-agent is supposed to ask for user
confirmation of a redirected POST (9.3, under description of 302 Moved
Temporarily).  Obviously if the server handles the redirection
internally it isn't asking for confirmation.  Perhaps a server can/should
only handle internally GET and HEAD?

Dave Kristol

Received on Thursday, 30 November 1995 10:34:55 UTC