HTTP 1.1 issue 05: 4.2 Message Headers

• From: Ross Patterson <RossP@SS1.Reston.VMD.Sterling.Com>
• Date: Tue, 20 Oct 98 18:38:05 EDT
• To: http-wg@hplb.hpl.hp.com
• Message-Id: <199810202242.XAA20330@hplb.hpl.hp.com>

In section 4.2 "Message Headers", the statement

   "It MUST be possible to combine the multiple header fields into
   one "field-name: field-value" pair, without changing the semantics
   of the message, by appending each subsequent field-value to the
   first, each separated by a comma."

is a restatement of the preceding requirement,

   "Multiple message-header fields with the same field-name MAY be
   present in a message if and only if the entire field-value for
   that header field is defined as a comma-separated list [i.e.,
   #(values)]."

placing a requirement upon future extensions to the protocol rather than
on implementations of HTTP 1.1.  I think the "MUST" should be changed to
a "must".

Ross Patterson
VM Software Division
Sterling Software, Inc.

Received on Tuesday, 20 October 1998 23:43:12 UTC