Re: What does "authority component" mean?

On Sun, 2003-12-21 at 13:59, David M. Karr wrote:
> In section 2.1, "URI Comparisons", I understand the meaning of the paragraph
> which begins "Applications may apply rules ...".  It means that if your
> application makes assumptions about URI equivalences based on details not
> covered in the specification, then it's your responsibility if any problems
> develop from that.
> 
> What I don't understand is the term "authority component" in this sentence:
> 
>     For example, for "http" URIs, the authority component is case-insensitive.
> 
> Again, I understand the meaning of the paragraph, just not this sentence.

RFC 2396 [1]:, section 3, talked about the sequence of four components
that makes up a URI:

        <scheme>://<authority><path>?<query>

The <authority> part is the "authority component." For HTTP URIs, 
this is the part after the double slash and before the next
slash. Section 3.2.3 of RFC 2616 [2] states that for http URLs:

  - Comparisons of host names MUST be case-insensitive;

Thus, "For http URIs, the authority component is case-insensitive."

 _ Ian

[1] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396:
[2] 

-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447