Re: How to add new "protocols" ?

> From bertold@tohotom.vein.hu Sat Feb 15 09:02:38 1997
> 
> On Fri, 14 Feb 1997 touch@isi.edu wrote:
> > > 1) HTTP is usually trasferred over TCP, but there are cases (e.g. squid
> > 
> > HTTP is always over TCP.
> This is interesting to me. Look at this (excerpt from HTTP/1.1 spec):
>    "HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The
> 		       ^^^^^^^
>    default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not
>    preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on
>    the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable
>    transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used;"

Agreed. The spec is flakey in this regard. 

It turns out that later paragraphs indicate 

   In HTTP/1.0, most implementations used a new connection for each
   request/response exchange. In HTTP/1.1, a connection may be used for
   one or more request/response exchanges, although connections may be
   closed for a variety of reasons (see section 8.1).

This means that "any other protocol in the internet" is a gross
overstatement.

Try "any connection-oriented reliable transport protocol".

Or fix both paragraphs, AND provide a way to indicate which protocol
is being used, in addition to the port number.

By the way, section 3.2.2 gives a the only clear definition of
http_URL, which indicates that
	http://host[:port]

is over TCP only.

So, althought HTTP1.1 may be over whatever (as above), http:// is clearly
defined and cannot be overloaded, according to the spec.

Q.E.D.

Joe
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Touch - touch@isi.edu		    http://www.isi.edu/~touch/
ISI / Project Leader, ATOMIC-2, LSAM       http://www.isi.edu/atomic2/
USC / Research Assistant Prof.                http://www.isi.edu/lsam/

Received on Tuesday, 18 February 1997 10:08:55 UTC