Re: [htdig3-dev] proper behaviour for modification_time_is_now


Gilles Detillieux (grdetil@scrc.umanitoba.ca)
Mon, 21 Jun 1999 14:44:13 -0500 (CDT)


According to Geoff Hutchison:
> On Fri, 18 Jun 1999, Gilles Detillieux wrote:
> > last-modified header? I think the way it works now is just plain wrong!
> > If there are no objections, I'd like to change it - especially now that
> > it's on by default!
>
> It's a bug. I turned it on because we *still* seem to occaisionally get
> documents returned with no date. I wanted to flush out the problems with
> this since we *should* be using time(0) when no date is returned.
>
> I haven't given much time to tracking down the bug. If you have better
> luck, go for it!

The key was to put the test after the headers were parsed. It's in the
CVS tree now...

Mon Jun 21 14:33:10 1999 Gilles Detillieux <grdetil@scrc.umanitoba.ca>

        * htdig/Document.cc(readHeader), htdig/HtHTTP.cc(ParseHeader): fix
        handling of modification_time_is_now in readHeader, add similar code
        to ParseHeader.

I have to admit I'm not familiar with the new HtHTTP code, nor the new
HtDateTime class, so bear with me if I didn't get that part right.

> > yet not return a last-modified header? If not, then I don't see any
> > big advantage to this option. Has anyone ever put it to good use?
>
> This was added at the request of the author of WWWWoffle. The cache can
> use ht://Dig to index and search the cache and it only returns a
> Last-Modifed header if the server sent one. However, it does honor an
> If-Modified-Since header because it passes that on if necessary.

So, basically WWWWoffle tries to mimic the behaviour of the servers that
it caches. I guess my question is still the same, then. Would any server
that honours the if-modified-since header not also emit last-modified
headers? No matter. I think the code handles this properly now.

-- 
Gilles R. Detillieux              E-mail: <grdetil@scrc.umanitoba.ca>
Spinal Cord Research Centre       WWW:    http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/~grdetil
Dept. Physiology, U. of Manitoba  Phone:  (204)789-3766
Winnipeg, MB  R3E 3J7  (Canada)   Fax:    (204)789-3930
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Mon Jun 21 1999 - 11:59:08 PDT