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Re: Microsoft proxy

From: Dave Kristol <dmk@research.bell-labs.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 13:16:12 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199810011716.NAA24722@aleatory.research.bell-labs.com>
To: dwm@xpasc.com, http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com
X-Mailing-List: <http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com> archive/latest/86
"David W. Morris" <dwm@XPASC.COM> wrote:
  > On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Jim Gettys wrote:
  > 
  > > >From your description, it does sound like a bug in their proxy.
  > > 			 - Jim
  > > 
  > > 
  > 
  > On the other hand, the proxy detected an error and attempted to report 
  > it.  The question to me would hinge on whether the proxy then did
  > a connection reset or normal close. 
  > 
  > I don't believe that HTTP is well architected for recovering 
  > partial transfers or in some cases even detecting incomplete transfers
  > except those initiated by the client. Without architected error recovery,
  > its all up to the implementation.

I agree.  Consider the plight of an HTTP server running a gateway.
Suppose the gateway (CGI) produces some of its output but doesn't
finish in a reasonable amount of time.  How can the server report an
error once it has begun its response?  I suspect that's more or less
what happened to the MS proxy.

Dave Kristol
Received on Thursday, 1 October 1998 10:21:02 UTC

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