- From: Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>
- Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 16:23:28 +1000
- To: Adrien de Croy <adrien@qbik.com>
- Cc: HTTP Working Group <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>
Now #158. FWIW, Squid does two things with Proxy-Connection; 1) strips it when it forwards the request 2) if it's present, uses it in preference to the Connection header for looking up 'keep-alive' and 'close' I.e., it's deprecated, and has been for quite some time (this has been discussed for nearly 10 years, and the substance of the discussion hasn't changed. My .02: * it isn't necessary to do much about keep-alive, because the important aspect is Connection: Keep-Alive The actual Keep-Alive header is just a vestigal artifact. * proxy-connection is deprecated and should not be sent by clients. On 09/03/2009, at 5:25 PM, Adrien de Croy wrote: > > apologies in advance if this is already in the issue tracker - I did > look but didn't find it. > > The Keep-alive header is mentioned in 2 places only in RFC2616. > > In section 13.5.1 it is listed as a hop-by-hop header. > > In section 8.1.3 it is referred to in the context of persistent > connections with HTTP/1.0 clients. > > By existing in section 13.5.1 it would imply that this is an HTTP/ > 1.1 header, which appears is not the case. > > Perhaps of more importance is the Proxy-Connection header, which is > still sent by IE, Firefox and Chrome (and many others), even though > it is not an HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/1.0 header at all!. > > There is no reference to this header in RFC2616, its widespread use > however makes it important. > > I would propose: > > 1. Modify text for 13.5.1 to only refer to HTTP/1.1 headers, or make > it clear which headers are HTTP/1.0, or being referred to for other > (e.g. compatibility) reasons. > > 2. Perhaps in the section on persistent connections with proxies > (8.1.3) make some mention of Proxy-Connection and how to deal with > it. I note there has been discussion on this list about dealing > with the header (so why it persists is perplexing). > > 3. Put in a section on deprecated headers. If the headers are > listed there, then a search on the header name will find them in > that section, and people can stop perpetuating these problems. > > > Is the recommended method to deal with Proxy-Connection simply to > treat it as a backup for a connection tag (e.g. if there is no > Connection tag look for a Proxy-Connection tag), but never send one? > I'm wondering how some proxies deal with lack of a Proxy-connection > tag, has there been any research done on this? -- Mark Nottingham http://www.mnot.net/
Received on Wednesday, 8 April 2009 06:24:16 UTC