HTTP URI in the form of "http://example.com?query"

• From: Zhong Yu <zhong.j.yu@gmail.com>
• Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2013 18:04:50 -0500
• To: HTTP Working Group <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <CACuKZqFvFo2ztDBZwMVtSE54rvHthyJJc-8X-yFq=CSVMy9GXw@mail.gmail.com>

The question is whether this is a valid HTTP URI:

    http://example.com?query

According to RFC2616, it is invalid, a slash before the question mark
is mandatory(i.e. http://example.com/?query)

According to the latest bis draft, it is valid. The draft adopts the
generic URI syntax of RFC, which permits this kind of URI.

Any reason for this spec change? It seems risky; some old programs may
not be able to accept such URIs.

Zhong Yu

Received on Monday, 3 June 2013 23:05:17 UTC