Re: 10.4 Client Error 4xx and 10.5 Server Error

Roy and I discussed this one by telephone tonight, and we both believe
that the sentence in each section should be removed, in the face
of persistent connections, (and pipelining).

Roy also remembered that these sections should require
user agents to display enclosed entities to the user.

User agents SHOULD display any included entity to the user.

So the reworked 10.4 and 10.5 are as follows:

10.4 Client Error 4xx 

The 4xx class of status code is intended for cases in which the client
seems to have erred. Except when responding to a HEAD request, the
server SHOULD include an entity containing an explanation of the error
situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent condition. These
status codes are applicable to any request method. User agents SHOULD
display any included entity to the user.

Note: If the client is sending data, a server implementation using TCP
should be careful to ensure that the client acknowledges receipt of
the packet(s) containing the response, before the server closes the
input connection. If the client continues sending data to the server
after the close, the server's TCP stack will send a reset packet to
the client, which may erase the client's unacknowledged input buffers
before they can be read and interpreted by the HTTP application.

10.5 Server Error 5xx 

Response status codes beginning with the digit "5" indicate cases in
which the server is aware that it has erred or is incapable of
performing the request. Except when responding to a HEAD request, the
server SHOULD include an entity containing an explanation of the error
situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent condition. User
agents SHOULD display any included entity to the user. These response
codes are applicable to any request method.

				- Jim

Received on Sunday, 2 June 1996 19:06:22 UTC