- From: Koen Holtman <koen@win.tue.nl>
- Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 00:24:22 +0200 (MET DST)
- To: http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com
- Cc: Koen Holtman <koen@win.tue.nl>
The text below is an updated version of the text I posted on Tuesday
(April 9). Since then, Larry Masinter made some comments, which led
to some changes in the text. I made some other changes to prepare for
integration in the main 1.1 document. Changes with respect to the
Tuesday version are marked with | change bars.
It expected that the text below will have to be changed in some places
to synchronize with the planned caching text by Jeff Mogul. Places
were changes are expected are marked with notes. According to the
current schedule of the editorial group, the text below will first be
incorporated (possibly with stylistic improvements) into a first rough
version of the 1.1 draft. After that, additional changes will be
made.
I believe there to be rough consensus on all mechanisms outlined
below, with the exception of the described mechanism for generating an
If-Invalid header. If you disagree, please speak up as soon as
possible. There is no rough consensus on the specific words used
below; further edits to the words are expected.
Koen.
--snip--
** I. Vary+content negotiation new/changed header descriptions
[##Note: The current section 12 needs to be deleted completely from
the April 1.1 draft.##]
10.v Vary
| [##Note: With respect to the last 1.1 draft, the Vary header text is
| completely new, it replaces no existing text##]
[##This Vary section mixes the description of a header with a
description of rules for caching. These two things could be
separated in the final 1.1 document, with the rules for caching
being integrated in the caching section.##]
|
The Vary response-header field is used by an origin server to
signal that the resource identified by the current request is a
varying resource. A varying resource has multiple entities
associated with it, all of which are representations of the content
of the resource. If a GET or HEAD request on a varying resource is
received, the origin server will select one of the associated
entities as the entity best matching the request. Selection of
this entity is based on the contents of particular header fields in
the request message, or on other information pertaining to the
request, like the network address of the sending client.
If a resource is varying, this has an important effect on cache
management, particularly for caching proxies which service a
diverse set of user agents. All 200 (OK) responses from varying
resources must contain at least one Vary header or Alternates
header (Section 10.a) to signal variance.
If no Vary headers and no Alternates headers are present in a 200
(OK) response, then caches may assume, as long as the response is
fresh, that the resource in question is not varying, and has only
one associated entity. Note however that this entity can still
change through time, as possibly indicated by a Cache-Control
response header (section 10.cc).
After selection of the entity best matching the current request,
the origin server will usually generate a 200 (OK) response, but it
can also generate other responses like 206 (Partial Content) or 304
(Not modified) if headers which modify the semantics of the
request, like Range (Section 10.ran) or If-Valid (Section 10.ifva),
are present. An origin server need not be capable of selecting an
entity for every possible incoming request on a varying resource;
it can choose to generate a 3xx (redirection) or 4xx (client error)
type response for some requests.
In a request message on a varying resource, the selecting request
headers are those request headers whose contents were used by the
origin server to select the entity best matching the request. The
Vary header field specifies the selecting request headers and any
other selection parameters that were used by the origin server.
Vary = "Vary" ":" 1#selection-parameter
| selection-parameter = request-header-name
| | "{accept-headers}"
| | "{other}"
| | "{" extension-parameter "}"
| request-header-name = field-name
extension-parameter = token
| The presence of a request-header-name signals that the
| request-header field with this name is selecting. Note that the
| name need not belong to a request-header field defined in this
| specification, and that header names are case-insensitive. The
| presence of the "{accept-headers}" parameter signals that all request
headers whose names start with "accept" are selecting.
The inclusion of the "{other}" parameter in a Vary field signals
that parameters other than the contents of request headers, for
example the network address of the sending party, play a role in
the selection of the response.
Note: This specification allows the origin server to express
that other parameters were used, but does not allow the origin
server to specify the exact nature of these parameters. This
is left to future extensions.
| If an extension-parameter unknown to the cache is present in a Vary
| header, the cache must treat it as the "{other}" parameter.
If multiple Vary and Alternates header fields are present in a
response, these must be combined to give all selecting parameters.
The field name "Host" must never be included into a Vary header;
clients must ignore it if it is present. The names of fields which
change the semantics of a GET request, like "Range" and "If-Valid"
must also never be included, and must be ignored when present.
[##Note: Dave Kristol suggested that I change the "must never be
included" above to "must be omitted", but I think this evokes the
wrong mental model of how servers go about making Vary headers##]
Servers which use access authentication are not obliged to send
"Vary: Authorization" headers in responses. It must be assumed
that requests on authenticated resources can always produce
different responses for different users. Note that servers can
signal the absence of authentication by including a "Cache-Control:
public" header in the response.
[##Note: the text below could be moved to a separate subsection
elsewhere in the 1.1 draft. Some of the text at the start of this
section could be repeated at the start of that separate subsection.
| I advise against the making of such editing moves in the first
| rough version of the 1.1 draft##]
| A cache may store and refresh 200 (OK) responses from a varying
| resource according to the rules in Section aa.bb [##meant are the
| rules for storing (and when this is disallowed) and refreshing
| which are to be written by Jeff Mogul##]. The partial entities in
| 206 (Partial Content) responses from varying resources may also be
| used by the cache.
When getting a request on a varying resource, a cache can only
return a cached 200 (OK) response to one of its clients in two
particular cases.
| [#Note: the paragraph below is likely to change. Note that this
| paragraph talks about the construction mechanism of the If-Invalid
| header, the only thing for which I do _not_ detect rough consensus
| yet. Also, this paragraph contains some caching terminology that
| may have to be adjusted to the caching text by Jeff Mogul.##]
First, if a cache gets a request on a varying resource for which it
has cached one or more responses with Vary or Alternates headers,
it can relay that request towards the origin server, adding an
If-Invalid header listing the cval-info values in the Cval headers
(Section 10.cval) of the cached responses. If it then gets back a
| 3xx (Ppp Qqq) [##TBS in the text by Jeff Mogul##] response with
the cval-info of a cached 200 (OK) response in its Cval header, it
can return this cached 200 (OK) response to its client, after
merging in any of the 3xx response headers as specified in Section
xx.yy [##Which will be written by Jeff Mogul##].
Second, if a cache gets a request on a varying resource, it can
return to its client a cached, fresh 200 (OK) response which has
Vary or Alternates headers, provided that
- the Vary and Alternates headers of this fresh response
specify that only request header fields are selecting
parameters,
- the specified selecting request header fields of the current
request match the specified selecting request header fields
of a previous request on the resource relayed towards the
origin server,
- this previous request got a 200 (OK) or 3xx (Ppp Qqq)
response which had the same cval-info value in its CVal
header as the cached, fresh 200 (OK) response.
| [#Note: the paragraph below is likely to change. We know what a
| better matching rule (one which allows a match more often) should
| look like, and there would be no objections to improving the rule
| below, but good words remain to be written.##]
Two sequences of selecting request header fields match if and only
if the first sequence can be transformed into the second sequence
by only adding or removing whitespace at places in fields where
this is allowed according to the syntax rules in this
specification.
[##Note that a more complicated matching rule could be defined in a
future specification. The rule above reflects the consensus of the
editorial group on how complex we can get in HTTP/1.1##]
[##Note that the above rule says sequences, not sets of request
headers. It cannot say sets because, for some request headers
(like Via?) which contain comma-separated lists, if you have two in
a request, the order in which they appear matters. A simple
matching rule which would allow some forms of re-shuffling and
collapsing of request headers to get a match turned out to be
beyond my capabilities to write.##]
[##Jeff Mogul has made some suggestions for a better matching rule,
though the specification of this rule uses much more text. A
future version of this text may have a better matching rule in a
separate subsection.##]
If a cached 200 (OK) response may be returned to a request on a
varying resource which included Range request header, then a cache
may also use this 200 (OK) response to construct and return a 206
(Partial Content) response with the requested range.
Note: Implementation of support for the second case above is
mainly interesting in user agent caches, as a user agent
cache will generally have an easy way of determining whether
the sequence of request header fields of the current request
equals the sequence sent in an earlier request on the same
resource. Proxy caches supporting the second case would have
to record diverse sequences of request header fields
previously relayed; the implementation effort associated with
this may not be balanced by a sufficient payoff in traffic
savings. A planned specification of a content negotiation
mechanism will define additional cases in which proxy caches
can return a cached 200 (OK) response without contacting the
origin server. The implementation effort associated with
support for these additional cases is expected to have a much
better cost/benefit ratio.
[##Note that the `planned specification of a content negotiation
mechanism' above does not necessarily have to be draft-holtman!' In
theory, a content negotiation mechanism totally unlike draft-holtman
could just as well live up to these cost/benefit expectations.##]
10.a Alternates
| [##Note: With respect to the last 1.1 draft, the Alternates header
| text is completely new, it replaces no existing text##]
The Alternates response-header field is used by origin servers to
signal that the resource identified by the request-URI and the Host
request header (present if the request-URI is not an absoluteURI)
has the capability to send different responses depending on the
accept headers in the request message. This has an important
effect on cache management, particularly for caching proxies which
service a diverse set of user agents. This effect is covered in
Section 10.v.
Alternates = "Alternates" ":" opaque-field
opaque-field = field-value
The Alternates header is included into HTTP/1.1 to make HTTP/1.1
caches compatible with a planned content negotiation mechanism.
HTTP/1.1 allows a future content negotiation standard to define the
format of the Alternates header field-value, as long as the defined
format satisfies the general rules in Section 4.2.
To ensure compatibility with future experimental or standardized
software, caching HTTP/1.1 clients must treat all Alternates
headers in a response as synonymous to the following Vary header:
Vary: {accept-headers}
and follow the caching rules associated with the presence of this
Vary header, as covered in Section 10.v. HTTP/1.1 allows origin
servers to send Alternates headers under experimental conditions.
10.u URI
| [##Note: As soon as possible, the URI header section from the old
| 1.1 draft should be deleted in the new draft, and be replaced with
| `TBS'. Roy Fielding will supply the new text for the URI header
| section, which will differ significantly from the text in the old
| 1.1 draft.##]
|
|
** II. Changed status code descriptions
300 Multiple Choices
| [##Note: the text below should replace 300 header text in the old
| 1.1 draft.##]
This status code is reserved for future use by a planned content
negotiation mechanism. HTTP/1.1 user agents receiving a 300
response which includes a Location header can treat this response
as they would treat a 303 (See Other) response. If no Location
header is included, the appropriate action is to display the entity
enclosed in the response to the user.
406 None Acceptable
| [##Note: the text below should replace 406 header text in the old
| 1.1 draft##]
This status code is reserved for future use by a planned content
negotiation mechanism. HTTP/1.1 user agents receiving a 406
response which includes a Location header can treat this response
as they would treat a 303 (See Other) response. If no Location
header is included, the appropriate action is to display the entity
enclosed in the response to the user.
** III. New text for the (new) caching section
13.x Interoperability of varying resources with HTTP/1.0 proxy caches
| [##Note: With respect to the last 1.1 draft, the text below is
| completely new, it replaces no existing text. This text should be
| added to the caching section of the new 1.1 draft.##]
|
If the correct handling of responses from a varying resource
(Section 10.v) by HTTP/1.0 proxy caches in the response chain is
important, HTTP/1.1 origin servers can include the following Expires
(Section 10.exp) response header in all responses from the varying
resource:
Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 1980 00:00:00 GMT
If this Expires header is included, the server should usually also
include a Cache-Control header for the benefit of HTTP/1.1 caches,
for example
Cache-Control: max-age=604800
which overrides the freshness lifetime of zero seconds specified by
the included Expires header.
13.y Cache replacement for varying resources
| [##Note: With respect to the last 1.1 draft, the text below is
| completely new, it replaces no existing text. This text should be
| added to the caching section of the new 1.1 draft.##]
| [##Note: The Content-Location header mentioned below was not in the
| old 1.1 draft. I believe Roy Fielding will supply a section
| describing this header for the new draft. This new Content-Location
| section will be very similar to the section for the Location header
| in the old 1.1 draft. Note that the old Location header section
| will not be removed in the new draft.##]
| [##Note to Jeff Mogul: You will have to sync your caching text with
the text below. I cannot move here without loosing upwards
compatibility, which means that I cannot move at all.##]
If a new 200 (OK) response is received from a non-varying resource
while an old 200 (OK) response is cached, caches can delete this old
response from cache memory and insert the new response. For 200
(OK) responses from varying resources (Section 10.v), cache
replacement is more complex.
HTTP/1.1 allows the authors of varying resources to guide cache
replacement by the inclusion of elements of so-called replacement
keys in the responses of these resources. The replacement key of a
varying response consists of two elements, both of which may be
empty strings, separated by a semicolon:
replacement-key = variant-id ";" absoluteURI
The variant-id element of the replacement key is the variant-id
value in the Cval header of the response, if a Cval header which
such a value is present, and an empty string otherwise. The
absoluteURI element of the replacement key is the absolute URI given
in, or derived from, the Content-Location header of the response if
present, and and an empty string if no Content-Location header is
present.
If a cache has stored in memory a 200 (OK) response with a certain
replacement key, and receives, from the same resource, a new 200
(OK) response which has the same replacement key, this should be
interpreted as a signal from the resource author that the old
response can be deleted from cache memory and replaced by the new
response.
The replacement key mechanism cannot cause deletion from cache
memory of old responses with replacement keys that will no longer be
used. It is expected that the normal `least recently used'
replacement heuristics employed by caches will eventually cause such
old responses to be deleted.
All 200 (OK) responses from varying resources should include
replacement key elements. Resource authors may not assume that
caches will be able to cache responses not including replacement key
elements. If a Vary header is used to signal variance, the response
should include a variant-id value as the replacement key element.
The Content-Location header should only be used to supply a
replacement key element if an Alternates header is present in the
response.
[End of document]
Received on Thursday, 11 April 1996 15:35:38 UTC