Re: [http-state] Ticket 5: Cookie ordering

Adam Barth <ietf@adambarth.com> Wed, 20 January 2010 05:38 UTC

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From: Adam Barth <ietf@adambarth.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:37:36 -0800
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To: David Morris <dwm@xpasc.com>
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Subject: Re: [http-state] Ticket 5: Cookie ordering
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On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 9:21 PM, David Morris <dwm@xpasc.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Jan 2010, Adam Barth wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 8:51 PM, David Morris <dwm@xpasc.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Tue, 19 Jan 2010, Adam Barth wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Ticket 3 is still open for discussion, but I'd like to get started
>>>> talking the next ticket:
>>>> http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/httpstate/trac/ticket/5
>>>>
>>>> == Overview ==
>>>>
>>>> Currently the draft defines the order in which cookies should appear
>>>> in the Cookie header.  In particular, cookies are ordered first by the
>>>> length of the Path attribute (longest first) and then by creation date
>>>> (earliest first).  The majority of the most widely used user agents
>>>> use this ordering. (I can look up exactly which browsers follow the
>>>> ordering if that's important.)
>>>>
>>>> Sending cookies with longer (i.e., more specific) paths first is
>>>> important for compatibly because some servers host multiple (mutually
>>>> trusting) web applications at different (possibly overlapping) paths.
>>>
>>> I think 'longer' is not a precise term ... likewise, 'more specific'
>>> isn't
>>> precise enough to avoid confusion. I think what would be expected is that
>>> the path sith the most 'levels' (as noted by '/' characters) is longer in
>>> a
>>> deeper into the hierarachy sense. Same depth, the age rule could apply.
>>>
>>> If 'more specific' is already defined similar to what I've outlined,
>>> you can igore this comment.
>>
>> In this case, all the cookie paths are prefixes of the Request-URI
>> path, so these all amount to the same thing.  FWIW, longer is a
>> precise term: literally the one whose path attribute contains more
>> characters.
>
> More characters doesn't seem like the right definition, even if it works
> most of the time. If the argument is, as you've made, that the requirement
> is for a server to handle cookies in the most precise order ... it will
> be related to logical depth of the hierarchy and not character length.

I'm not sure what you mean by the "right" definition.  Can you provide
a test case where the two definitions differ?

Adam