If-Match vs. If-None-Match

I'm in the midst of a 1.1 implementation and came across something
in draft 5 which seems to lead to ambiguity. In Sections 14.25 (If-Match)
and 14.26 (If-None-Match), it seems there could be a conflict if both
headers are present in a request.

If a client sent something like:

If-Match: "abcde"
If-None-Match: "abcde"

Which should the server honor? It doesn't seem likely for both to be
present, but it's not explicitly forbidden or resolved either.

It also seems the same circumstances could apply to "If-Modified-Since"
and "If-Unmodified-Since" if the client sends a time for the latter
which is earlier than the former, ie:

If-Modified-Since: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 02:00:00 GMT
If-Unmodified-Since: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 01:00:00 GMT

I think both of the scenarios are not likely without an error on
the client side, but it seems the spec should arbritrate the conflict
in some fashion.

The closest I could find would be to return a 400 response. Is this
what the draft intends?

thanks,

Paul



Paul Hethmon
phethmon@utk.edu
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Received on Monday, 24 June 1996 20:28:05 UTC