Re: getlastmodified & properties

Hey Dug...

Douglas Steen wrote:
> 
> RFC 2518, 13.7 reads (in part):
>   "Note that the last-modified date on a resource may reflect changes in
> any part of the state of the resource, not necessarily just a change to
> the response to the GET method."
> 
> I'd like to assume that the last-modified date _will_ reflect changes to
> any part of the state (such as a property change).  I know that this is
> the case for IIS5, but I'm wondering if other servers are changing the
> last-modified date when properties are updated, even though it's not
> officially required.
> 
> Does anyone know whether this is an unwritten standard, or just a
> coincidence for IIS5?

Coincidence for IIS5.

mod_dav uses the timestamp from the underlying file. Therefore, property
changes will not update the last-modified time.

It will be difficult for some systems to respond with timestamps for
property changes because of the underlying storage system and/or the use
of live properties. In the mod_dav case, it would be "expensive" to
check for property change times because it would need to consult a
separate data store (in addition to the filesystem). Note that live
properties can change at a whim of the server; as a result, it could
render the last-modified meaningless because it could change almost
continually (tracking the live property change).

Anyhow: my recommendation would be to not rely on property changes (in
any server) to update the last-modified timestamp.

Cheers,
-g

--
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/

Received on Sunday, 1 August 1999 03:49:24 UTC