Re: [hybi] Intermediaries and idle connections (was Re: Technical feedback.)

[Justin Erenkrantz <[e-mail]>]

On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 4:48 PM, Maciej Stachowiak <[e-mail]> wrote:
> Surely HTTP headers in the handshake are an appropriate place for protocol metadata?

I agree - but, in the current drafts, that's forbidden as you must use
the exact byte sequences specified in the document.  You can't add any
HTTP headers...

According to previous posts, this came from the notion that it is
"best" to treat the HTTP/1.1 upgrade request as a "black box" of bytes
rather than as...a real HTTP/1.1 request that defers to that RFC as to
how it should be interpreted.  There has been significant pushback to
making it a real HTTP request...  And, as Greg has pointed out, by not
permitting any other status codes in a response, it doesn't allow a
server to do primitive SW load-balancing and issue 3xx's to go visit
other servers or do auth before protocol initialization or other
common tricks.

>> Spitballing an idea: if we have some way to multiplex over a single
>> connection (channels, etc.), then we can have a "protocol"
>> meta-channel or similar for exchanging hop-by-hop capabilities.  --
>
> This doesn't help you with detecting unaware intermediaries, or with letting intermediaries participate if you are going over SSL.

Prior to initialization - correct, but this extra channel was only
about what you do after you have successfully initiated the WS
protocol.  -- justin