Re: A new suggestion on 100 CONTINUE

On Wed, 11 Jun 1997, Scott Lawrence wrote:

> 
> >>>>> "JF" == John Franks <john@math.nwu.edu> writes:
> 
> JF> Would it be acceptable to say that the server can check to see if
> JF> it has already received PUT or POST data from the client and if it
> JF> has the server MAY choose not to send "100 CONTINUE"?  This would
> JF> at least permit the server not to send "100 CONTINUE" when the
> JF> POST data arrives in the same packet as some of the headers.
> 
>   This has pretty serious implementation problems; it may be that the
>   POST has no body, and any data pending in TCP is actually another
>   request.
> 

I guess a POST with no body is possible and would be used to indicate a
non-idempotent request.

If the POST has no body the headers must contain a "Content-length: 0"
line, so the server knows (i.e. this is not an implementation problem for
my suggestion).

This does illustrate my point though.  Isn't it a little bit brain dead
to *require* a "100 CONTINUE" for a POST with no body?

Incidentally, when a client waits for and gets a "100 CONTINUE" after
sending the headers of a bodyless POST, what does it send?


John Franks 	Dept of Math. Northwestern University
		john@math.nwu.edu

Received on Wednesday, 11 June 1997 12:46:55 UTC