Re: [Chicken-users] http egg and closed persistent connections

[Peter Bex]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 10:54:56AM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> Drew Hess scripsit:
> 
> > Some HTTP servers will drop a connection even when they've indicated
> > it'll be persistent. For example, the nytimes.com web servers send a
> > Connection: keep-alive header when the client sends an HTTP/1.0 request,
> 
> Granted that the server shouldn't do that, HTTP/1.0 clients shouldn't
> attach meaning to Connection: keep-alive either, as it is a 1.1 feature.
> When you say you are a 1.0 client, you should expect to be treated as
> a 1.0 client.

True, but I think this error can also occur either when the server
chooses to disconnect a HTTP/1.1 client because, for example, its
connection pool is exhausted (see 8.1.3 of RFC 2616).  So in the
interest of robustness, this code needs to be there anyway.

Also, the RFC says that HTTP/1.0 clients and servers supported
Keep-Alive to various degrees, and both should be prepared to deal with
such an implementation, so I don't really consider it incorrect
behaviour to assign "some" meaning to this header even in 1.0 mode.

> > (It'd be nice if this behavior were documented in the wiki, by the
> > way. The documentation says that the header value returned by
> > http:send-request is always a string.)
> 
> The reason it's a wiki is so that anyone can fix it.

Agreed.

Cheers,
Peter
-- 
http://sjamaan.ath.cx
--
"The process of preparing programs for a digital computer
 is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
 and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic
 experience much like composing poetry or music."
                                                        -- Donald Knuth

pgpCNBy6XH_JR.pgp
Description: PGP signature