rfc2518, MKCOL and parent directory

rfc2518 8.3.1 talks about MKCOL and says...

   MKCOL creates a new collection resource at the location specified by
   the Request-URI.  If the resource identified by the Request-URI is
   non-null then the MKCOL MUST fail.  During MKCOL processing, a server
   MUST make the Request-URI a member of its parent collection, unless
   the Request-URI is "/".  If no such ancestor exists, the method MUST
   fail.  When the MKCOL operation creates a new collection resource,
   all ancestors MUST already exist, or the method MUST fail with a 409
   (Conflict) status code.  For example, if a request to create
   collection /a/b/c/d/ is made, and neither /a/b/ nor /a/b/c/ exists,
   the request must fail.

That last sentence (For example...) strikes me as wrong.  It seems
to suggest that if one of these existed, then you might not need to
fail the request.  Buf if the existance of one of these allows the
request to be accepted, then why doesn't the existance of /a/ or /
do the same.  And if it does, doesn't that make the original statement
wrong since if /a/ existed, then apparently /a/b/ and /a/b/c/ wouldn't
need to exist.

Anyway, something needs to change here.  I don't know the intent
well enough to know what that something is.

J.

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Phone: 914-784-7569,   ccjason@us.ibm.com

Received on Thursday, 17 June 1999 14:04:28 UTC