Last-Modified data doesn't reflect file modification date

I notice that the HTTP header "Last-Modified:" for an ordinary html
file doesn't reflect the modification date in the file system, the way
it does with most other servers.

It does seem to remain stable at least for a while after
the first time a document is retrieved (perhaps reflecting the
time that the cached resource was created?).  But I worry that
something might cause the date to change even though the same
response was sent at a later time.

Real dates are often interesting to the user (and can be seen via, e.g.,
the View/Document_Info menu item in Netscape).  Stable dates are
critical for caching to be effective.

Would it be possible to get Jigsaw to always serve real file-system dates
when appropriate?

Cheers,

Neal McBurnett <nealmcb@bell-labs.com>  503-331-5795  Portland/Denver
Bell Labs Innovations for Lucent Technologies
        Formerly AT&T's systems and technology business
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/      (with PGP key)

Received on Wednesday, 13 November 1996 22:48:20 UTC