- From: Henrik Frystyk Nielsen <frystyk@w3.org>
- Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 16:44:48 -0400
- To: sacha@clip.dia.fi.upm.es (Sacha)
- Cc: www-lib@w3.org
Sacha writes: > I have a question regarding content length. Sometimes when > I just fetch the header of a document I get a content length > of -1 (i.e. unset), but if I get the entire document I get > the correct content length. Can it be that the server creates > different headers depending on whether you also ask for the > document? Does this mean that the only way to get the content > length with absolute certainty is to request the whole document? > > Could it be that this -1 has something to do with access > restrictions? Hi Sacha, Do you have any examples of this? I could imagine that some servers may not send the content length on a HEAD request if the output is produced dynamically (for example a script or a server side include). However, the HTTP spec states explicitly that it is not allowed to distinguish the two situations - there must always be a valid content length (or some other means of determining the size of the response). -- Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, <frystyk@w3.org> World Wide Web Consortium, MIT/LCS NE43-356 545 Technology Square, Cambridge MA 02139, USA
Received on Wednesday, 26 June 1996 16:44:51 UTC