Re: WGLC: p5 MUSTs

[Mark Nottingham <[e-mail]>]

Now <http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/485> (omitting the last one, since that seems to be settled).


On 01/05/2013, at 11:18 AM, Alex Rousskov <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
>    These comments are based on the "latest" snapshot dated Mon 29 Apr
> 2013 03:13:05 PM MDT at
> https://svn.tools.ietf.org/svn/wg/httpbis/draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p5-range.html
> 
> I hope these comments are "editorial in nature".
> 
> 
>> Clients MUST NOT use an entity-tag marked as weak in an If-Range
>> field value and MUST NOT use a Last-Modified date ...
> 
> Please replace "use" with "generate" to explicitly exclude proxies from
> policing these headers (i.e., to allow proxies to forward these headers
> "as is"). This was already done for other If-Range header rules, but
> these two MUST NOTs have slipped through the cracks.
> 
> 
>> A client that cannot process a multipart/byteranges response MUST NOT
>> ask for multiple ranges in a single request.
> 
> A similar concern here for "MUST NOT ask". Please reword the above to
> use "MUST NOT generate".
> 
> This is especially important because a proxy may not be able to fully
> "process" a multipart/byteranges response (whatever that means) but it
> can still forward a request for multiple ranges and correctly forward
> the 206 response back to the client because HTTPbis no longer allows
> multipart/byteranges media type to determine the message body length.
> 
> 
>> 4.1 206 Partial Content
> 
> Since HTTPbis no longer allows multipart/byteranges media type to
> determine the message body length, perhaps it would be a good idea to
> explicitly mention that a server MAY generate a 206 Partial Content
> response (with single or multiple ranges) without a Content-Length
> header and may use chunked encoding? I bet many clients will break when
> this starts happening, and there are currently no examples or warnings
> that would prepare developers for that possibility.
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Alex.
> 

--
Mark Nottingham   http://www.mnot.net/