Re: Rev81: COMMENT: 5.2 The Resource Identified by a Request

	I guess you are right...  I'm nervous about providing much
latitude here for implementers to get it wrong, but simplicity is
a virtue.  I think just by deleting the second sentence in bullet 1
"Any Host Header field value in the request MUST be ignored.", in concert with
what was bullet 3 applying all the time, we get the right effect with
minimum specification and confusion.  
				-Jim

Here is the revised section 5.2.

5.2 The Resource Identified by a Request

HTTP/1.1 origin servers SHOULD be aware that the exact resource
identified by an Internet request is determined by examining both the
Request-URI and the Host header field.  An origin server that does not
allow resources to differ by the requested host MAY ignore the Host
header field value. 

If the Request-URI is not an absoluteURI and no
Host header field is present (or the field value does not represent a
valid host on that server), the response MUST be a 400 (Bad Request)
error message.

An origin server that does differentiate resources based on the host
requested (sometimes referred to as virtual hosts or vanity hostnames)
MUST use the following rules for determining the requested resource on
an HTTP/1.1 request:

1. If Request-URI is an absoluteURI, the host is part of the Request-URI. 

2. If the Request-URI is not an absoluteURI, and the request
   includes a Host header field, the host is determined by the Host
   header field value.

Recipients of an HTTP/1.0 request that lacks a Host header field MAY
attempt to use heuristics (e.g., examination of the URI path for
something unique to a particular host) in order to determine what
exact resource is being requested.

Received on Friday, 31 May 1996 12:11:19 UTC