Re: RE-VERSION

John Franks <john@math.nwu.edu> wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Foteos Macrides wrote:
>
>> 
>> 	As far as "UAs that originate a request, e.g., browsers" are
>> concerned, it's risky to chunk a POST submission even if it's known
>> that only compliant HTTP/1.1 servers/proxies are in the request chain
>> (the origin server might not "put it all together and determine a
>> Content-Length" before invoking a CGI script),
>
>I am not commenting on the riskiness, but aren't origin servers which
>are HTTP/1.1 and CGI/1.1 compliant required to do exactly that?

	That statement was nothing more than a personal opinion "shared"
with implementors on the list.  It is based on the following reasoning:

	(1) This WG consistently has backed off from getting involved
with a "CGI standard", so being "CGI/1.1 compliant" can't be a rigorous
requirement, and it seems "risky" to assume that the HTTP/1.1 protocol
overtly addresses all needs of CGI scripts.

	(2) One might infer that the basic needs are met, because a
number of the WG participants care about meeting them, but Roy recently
posted a message saying:

	"I have a feeling that chunked requests will only be usable by
	 specialized applications.  A normal CGI script cannot accept
	 chunked, because CGI/1.1 itself requires a Content-Length."

any he's far more familiar with the thousands of lines in the -08 draft
and associated LAST_CALL drafts than I. :)

	(3) If the UA were to issue an OPTIONS request concerning
CGI compliance, the response could say no more than one about
cookies:  "I hope so, but who knows what the author of the script
put into it?!?"


	So, it seems "safer" to stick with unchuncked, HTTP/1.0 POSTs,
for now.

				Fote

=========================================================================
 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 MACRIDES@SCI.WFBR.EDU         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
=========================================================================

Received on Monday, 11 August 1997 10:17:14 UTC