Re: [openpgp] keyserver protocol

[John Clizbe <[e-mail]>]

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Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
> On Thu 2013-01-03 17:53:15 -0500, David Shaw wrote:
> 
>> I actually wrote this up at one point as an informational draft, but 
>> for one reason or another didn't finish submitting it.  If there is 
>> interest, I can clean it up and submit:
>> 
>> http://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp-00.txt
> 
> David, i would like to see this picked back up if possible.  Is there a 
> way that i can help?
> 
> In particular, I would like to see the error signalling and semantics be 
> more clearly and explicitly defined, so that (for example) when a 
> keyserver has a problem the user agents (e.g. client tools like gpg 
> --refresh) have a clear way to distinguish between cases like:
> 
> 0) "I have no key material matching this name/keyid at all"
> 
> 1) "I have too many keys that match this search to bother you with an 
> insanely long list"

You /must/ mean documenting how those two are already implemented?

X-HKP-Results-Count: number of matching keys
Content-Length: number of bytes in resulting keys

- From the SKS CHANGELOG(+) and Mercurial commit log(+>):

+ 1.1.4
+   - Fix X-HKP-Results-Count so that limit=0 returns no results, but include
+     the header, to let client poll for how many results exist, without
+     retrieving any. Submitted by Phil Pennock. See:
+     http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/sks-devel/2010-11/msg00015.html

+> changeset:   115:47835fd59b63
+> parent:      113:73ba20267254
+> user:        Phil Pennock <[e-mail]>
+> date:        Sat Apr 21 18:24:46 2012 -0500
+> files:       dbserver.ml key.ml request.ml wserver.ml
+> description:
+> Limit fix for limit=0
+> Return real status text strings, rather than confusing "500 OK".
+> Handle No_results as an exception type, giving 404 instead of 500.
+> Treat limit of -1 (or <0) as "unlimited".
+> Handle limit=0 so that can ask for number of results without getting results.
+>
+> From email submission:
+> Back when X-HKP-Results-Count: was discussed, David Shaw suggested that
+> limit=0 should return no results, but include the header, to let a
+> client poll for how many results exist, without retrieving any.  See:
+>   http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/sks-devel/2010-11/msg00015.html
+>
+> Please find attached a patch. Plus a couple of related cleanups in HTTP error
+> response handling.

+ 1.1.2:
+  - Johan van Selst's patch implementing Phil Pennock's suggestion
+       of an X-HKP-Results-Count: header to returned web server queries
+   - Johan van Selst's patch to add Content-length header to web results

+> changeset:   49:68f88ae59b6a
+> user:        John Clizbe <[e-mail]>
+> date:        Thu Nov 04 02:37:31 2010 -0500
+> files:       dbserver.ml request.ml wserver.ml
+> description:
+> Johan van Selst's patch implementing Phil Pennock's suggestion
+> of an X-KHP-Results-Count: header to returned web server queries
+>
+> http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/sks-devel/2010-11/msg00016.html
+>
+> changeset:   48:e6d918ac4c66
+> user:        John Clizbe <[e-mail]>
+> date:        Wed Nov 03 21:58:51 2010 -0500
+> files:       wserver.ml
+> description:
+> Johan van Selst's patch to add Content-length header to web results
+>
+> http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/sks-devel/2010-11/msg00005.html

> 2) "something is broken in my database, and I'm confused"

Could you /maybe just possibly/ tie this down to something like a real error
condition instead of something so ambiguous?  Taking a look at lines 245-307
of wserver.ml may be helpful.

- -John

PS: Dan, please DO NOT CC me on replies to the list.

- -- 
John P. Clizbe                      Inet: John (a) Gingerbear DAWT net
SKS/Enigmail/PGP-EKP                  or: John ( @ ) Enigmail DAWT net
FSF Assoc #995 / FSFE Fellow #1797  hkp://keyserver.gingerbear.net  or
     mailto:[e-mail]?subject=HELP

Q:"Just how do the residents of Haiku, Hawai'i hold conversations?"
A:"An odd melody / island voices on the winds / surplus of vowels"




- -- 
John P. Clizbe                   Inet:   JPClizbe(a)comcast DOT nyet
Golden Bear Networks             PGP/GPG KeyID: 0x608D2A10
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind." - Dr Seuss, "Oh the Places You'll Go"

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