Re: ldp-ISSUE-24 (remain deleted): Should DELETED resources remain deleted? [Linked Data Platform core]

Hi,

On Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 11:49 AM, Ruben Verborgh
<ruben.verborgh@ugent.be> wrote:
> Could you please tell us what of the proposed behavior is in contradiction with RFC2616?
> Here is the relevant part from the HTTP 1.1 spec:
>
> 9.7 DELETE
>    The DELETE method requests that the origin server delete the resource
>    identified by the Request-URI. This method MAY be overridden by human
>    intervention (or other means) on the origin server. The client cannot
>    be guaranteed that the operation has been carried out, even if the
>    status code returned from the origin server indicates that the action
>    has been completed successfully. However, the server SHOULD NOT
>    indicate success unless, at the time the response is given, it
>    intends to delete the resource or move it to an inaccessible location.
>
>    A successful response SHOULD be 200 (OK) if the response includes an
>    entity describing the status, 202 (Accepted) if the action has not
>    yet been enacted, or 204 (No Content) if the action has been enacted
>    but the response does not include an entity.

While contradicting the specification would indeed be a problem, it's
not the only possible one.

What you've quoted above is the *entirety* of the contract between a
Web client and Web server regarding resource deletion. Nothing else
can be promised by servers or expected by clients, at least without
defining HTTP extensions. As I mentioned before, servers are free to
*do* more, as that's an implementation consideration that HTTP doesn't
generally concern itself with. But clients cannot *expect* more,
because expectation is defined by the contract alone.

Mark.

Received on Sunday, 21 October 2012 19:45:54 UTC