- From: John Franks <john@math.nwu.edu>
- Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 14:19:42 -0600 (EST)
- To: Dave Kristol <dmk@research.bell-labs.com>
- Cc: http-wg@hplb.hpl.hp.com
On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Dave Kristol wrote: > Something interesting has come up that's one of: a bug or infelicity in > my server, or a bug or infelicity in Netscape 4.5 > > Netscape 4.5 sends an HTTP/1.0 request with Accept-Encoding: gzip > header. A web site has a paper.ps.Z file, i.e., Content-type: > application/postscript, Content-Encoding: compress. When NS 4.5 tries > to GET the paper, my server returns 406 Not Acceptable, because > "compress" is not one of the accepted encodings. > > There seem to be two (not mutually exclusive) conclusions to draw: > > 1) Netscape 4.5 should send Accept-Encoding: gzip, compress, because > gzip (well, the gzip program, anyway) understands the Unix compress > format. I think gzip and compress are different encodings. The fact that a program called "gzip" understands both is not relevant. > > 2) My server should not send 406, since it's only a SHOULD requirement > anyway. Or perhaps it should send 406 only for HTTP/1.1 requests. > What does your server do if a client sends a request with *no* Accept-Encoding? I think that's what it should do in this case. (E.g. send it as application/octet-stream). It is quite likely that there will be clients which support some content encodings but not all the ones you support. I don't think you want your server to be in the situation where it completely refuses to serve a file to such clients. John Franks john@math.nwu.edu
Received on Tuesday, 3 November 1998 12:21:59 UTC