Older Versions vs. If-Modified-Since

• From: Fisher, Mitchell L <Mitchell.Fisher@unisys.com>
• Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 19:11:24 -0400
• To: www-talk@w3.org
• Message-ID: <EB21C070AA75D311A0AC0090271EC45C050C8850@us-tr-exch-1.tr.unisys.com>

The HTTP header If-Modified-Since seems to cover a client requesting if the
file has been updated since the version it has stored, but what if the
server has backed up to an earlier version?  Should the server which
receives a request for a file with an If-Modified-Since date of say February
1, and the file's modification date is January 1, send the file as a 200
response, or 304 (Not Modified)?

Anyone know what other servers do?

[We ran into this problem when reverting to an earlier version of a Java
applet .jar file.  Browsers seem to keep cached applets around, even when
terminated and restarted, and we haven't found a equivalent to Shift-Reload
for applets.]

Mitch

Received on Tuesday, 10 October 2000 19:12:03 UTC