Re: Worries about content-length

At 8:54 AM 5/9/95, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:
>All the discussion I've seen thus far is about modifying _servers_
>to properly mark the end of the data, but my feeling is that marking
>the end of data is really the responsibility of the CGI script, not
>the server.

The proposal works for HTTP server software even when there is no CGI
script. For example, if a server is simply returning files, but some of the
files that are being returned change length rapidly, the only way for a
server to determine the length absolutely is to read the file into a
buffer, measure the buffer, then emit the buffer. With the terminator
proposal, the server software picks a terminator, spools the file out the
port, and sends the terminator.

>CGI scripts already have to generate portions of the header anyway
>(e.g., "Content-Type: blah/blah" headers)...

That is not true with some HTTP servers. I believe that some servers send
the headers and the two CRs and only allow CGI scripts to send content.

--Paul Hoffman
--Proper Publishing

Received on Tuesday, 9 May 1995 14:02:02 UTC