Re: LYNX-DEV text/html;q=0.000

[Rob Hartill]

Klaus Weide wrote:

>On Sun, 1 Dec 1996, Rob Hartill wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> 
>> why do so many Lynx users have it set to send "text/html;q=0.000" ?
>
>Ah, have they?  This is the first time I hear about that.

I've seen ~5 in as many days. Always Lynx.

One location found that they'd send that string with Lynx 2.6 but not 2.5

>Could be any of
>
> - User has done it on purpose.

they say they didn't.

> - User has done it by mistake.

they claim not to have changed anything

> - Lynx does it on purpose (don't think so..)

my 2.6 behaves.

> - Lynx does it by mistake a.k.a. bug

possible. It might be pulling in extra Accept info from other source
on the user system ?

> - something at your end (the server)

I doubt it. I've sent users to areas of the server that this code
doesn't affect in order to disply their headers (which contain q=0.000)

> - a combination

I think 2.6 is perhaps grabbing more user info from somewhere.

>Have you talked to some of those users?  

yes. see above.

>Is "text/html;q=0.000" verbatim from the Accept header, or is that string 
>reconstructed after some interpretation by the server? What else is on
>the Accept line in such cases?

e.g

HTTP_USER_AGENT = Lynx/2.6  libwww-FM/2.14
HTTP_ACCEPT = application/x-wingz, application/x-framemaker, application/x-isla
nd-paint, application/x-island-draw, application/x-island-write, image/x-xpm1,
image/x-bitmap, audio/x-aiff, audio/x-aifc, image/x-sgi-image, application/x-jo
t, application/x-showcase, application/x-zm-fax, application/x-inventor, video/
x-sgi-movie, application/applefile, application/x-metamail-patch, sun-deskset-m
essage, mail-file, default, postscript-file, audio-file, x-sun-attachment, text
/enriched, text/richtext, application/andrew-inset, x-be2, application/postscri
pt, message/external-body, message/partial, image/x-xwd, image/gif, image/*, im
age/jpeg, audio/basic, audio/*, text/html;q=0.000, text/plain;q=0.000, applicat
ion/x-wais-source;q=0.000, application/html;q=0.000, video/mpeg, image/jpeg, im
age/x-tiff, image/x-rgb, image/x-png, image/x-xbm, image/gif, application/posts 
cript, video/mpeg, image/jpeg, image/x-tiff, image/x-rgb, image/x-xbm, image/gi
f, application/postscript, */*;q=0.001


and from another:

text/html;q=0.000,
   text/plain;q=0.000, application/x-wais-source;q=0.000, 
application/html;q=0.000, application/x-tcfndu, application/x-tcfncaucus, 
application/x-tcfnregister, application/x-tcfnpasswd, application/x-tcfnnews, 
application/x-tcfnmail, */*;q=0.001


>Can you see a correlation with the Lynx version?

2.6 I think.

>> This stops servers sending back HTML when they have to choose the
>> best type to return.
>
>Well maybe it *shouldn't* stop servers (Apache 1.2 in your case) from
>sending back text/HTML, if it is necessary for giving a choice menu
>for content negotiation.  From the HTTP 1.1 draft, 10.4.7:
>
>  Note: HTTP/1.1 servers are allowed to return responses which are
>  not acceptable according to the accept headers sent in the request.

... otherwise I couldn't send them an error message :-)

>> What information should I post so that people can fix the
>> misconfiguration for themselves ?
>
>Are you gonna post it on a text/html page?  They won't see it, then...

they are seeing one, but there's no solution.


cheers,
rob
--
Rob Hartill.       Internet Movie Database Ltd.    http://www.imdb.com/  
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