Re: HEAD vs OPTIONS

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Raúl García Castro <rgarcia@fi.upm.es>wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> [[
> LDP 1.0. 4.6.1 LDPR servers MUST support the HTTP HEAD method.
> ]]
>
> The HEAD method has been confused with the OPTIONS one.
>
> How did you get this interpretation from 4.6.1?  All that 4.6.1 is
enforcing is that LDP servers support HEAD.  I don't see that harm in this.
 OPTIONS, as you indicate, does more than HEAD.  Perhaps the issue is that
we don't say anything about OPTIONS in that spec.  I believe that is what
ISSUE-32 resolution should cover (if it is needed or not).  I don't think
we need a new issue for this

- Steve



> According to section 9.4 in the HTTP/1.1 specification, the HEAD method
> “is identical to GET except that the server MUST NOT return a message-body
> in the response. The metainformation contained in the HTTP headers in
> response to a HEAD request SHOULD be identical to the information sent in
> response to a GET request. This method can be used for obtaining
> metainformation about the entity implied by the request without
> transferring the entity-body itself. This method is often used for testing
> hypertext links for validity, accessibility, and recent modification”.
>
> In contrast, according to section 9.2 of the same specification, the
> OPTIONS method “represents a request for information about the
> communication options available on the request/response chain identified by
> the Request-URI. This method allows the client to determine the options
> and/or requirements associated with a resource, or the capabilities of a
> server, without implying a resource action or initiating a resource
> retrieval”.
>
> Proposal:
> Rewrite the specification using OPTIONS instead of HEAD and/or clarify the
> use of OPTIONS and the use of HEAD in the LDP protocol.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> --
>
> Dr. Raúl García Castro
> http://delicias.dia.fi.upm.es/**~rgarcia/<http://delicias.dia.fi.upm.es/~rgarcia/>
>
> Ontology Engineering Group
> Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial
> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
> Campus de Montegancedo, s/n - Boadilla del Monte - 28660 Madrid
> Phone: +34 91 336 36 70 - Fax: +34 91 352 48 19
>
>


-- 
- Steve