HTTP/1.1 Draft Standard Issues List

(Prior to IESG Last Call for Draft Standard)

Last call of the specifications occurred before the March IETF. The issues here all relate to issues raised during and after working group last call period, and while interoperability testing has continued to meet IETF process rules.

For HTTP-WG use only

Note: this list is an internal working document of the IETF HTTP-WG. Please do not distribute, publish, or quote.

@(#) $Id: DSI.html,v 1.4 1999/12/15 10:23:08 ylafon Exp $

Issue Status

This is a list of issues raised since last call in the working group. If you think the summary is wrong in any of these instances, please send mail to Jim Gettys, or, if you really think you have a new issue, please send mail to the http working group.

The comments are based on the Revision 4 of the HTTP/1.1 specification, and Auth-02 of HTTP Authentication.

When referring to issues on the list, it helps the editor if you put the issue name into the subject line of any mail messages.

Links to Related Documents

The No field contains an arbitrary number of the issue, which is guaranteed to change in the future (i.e. use the Name of the issue, not its number, in any discussions; it is for convenience during teleconferences.)

The Name field contains the name of the issue; and there are hypertext anchors present in this document of these names for each issue, to aid in cross referencing. We generally don't change the name or delete it once an issue has been opened.

The Short Description field contains a short description of the issue, often hyperlinked to a longer explanation of the issue.

The Status field can have the following values:

Open- the issue has been acknowledged to be a problem, but no definate solution proposed
Drafting- a solution is being drafted, and discussion is continuing in the mailing list
Ready for last call - a proposed resolution has been circulated, but the last call not yet issued
Last Call Issued- a last call for comments has been issued by the working group chair (Larry Masinter)
Closed - the issue is believed to be closed by the proposed resolution, and will be incorporated into the draft
Closed, no action needed -the issue is believed to be closed by the proposed resolution, and no action is needed.
In Rev XX - the closed issue has been edited and (will) appear(s) in draft XX of the specification (maybe with caveats).
Out of scope - this issue will not be addressed in the HTTP/1.1 specifications
Editorial- the issue does not involve technical problems with the specifications (beyond minor clarification)
RFC 2XXX -The issue has been dealt with independently of the HTTP/1.1 specification in the named document.
Subsumed By - the issue has been subsumed by a different issue (sometimes when disentangling an issue into its component issues, you find other issues that really are a symptom of a problem originally thought to be different)

The Proposed Resolution field has a synopsis of the proposed resolution, usually with a hyperlink to a longer message detailing the changes to the specification proposed.

The Raised By field contains a mailto: link to the name of the person who raised the issue initially.

The Resp. field contains a mailto: link to the name of the person responsible for drafting language to fix the issue, or responsible to see that action on the issue occurs.

Summary Of Issues in HTTP/1.1 and Authentication specifications.

0 Open Authentication Technical issues:

0 Open Authentication Editorial issues:

12 Authorization Technical issues closed since Auth-01: AUTH-PARAM, CHALLENGE-ORDER, DIGEST-URI, SNOOPED, REQUEST-DIGEST, CNONCE, NONCE-ETAG, DIGEST-MULTIPART, CHALLENGE-ORDER, AUTHVSPROXY, PROTECTION-SPACE, PROXY-AUTH

8 Authentication Editorial issues closed since Auth-01: DMKAUTHNITS, COPYRIGHT, XREFS, CLEAN_INDEXES, PROXY-MAXAGE-TYPO, AUTHORS, REFERENCES, INTERNIC

0 Open HTTP Technical issues:

0 HTTP Editorial Issues:

14 HTTP Technical issues closed since Rev-03 (and edited into Rev-05): MMS, EXPECT, TRANSFORMATIONS, CHUNKEDTRAILERS, TE-IDENTITY, PROXY-DNS, ERRORS, WARN-GEN, RANGEDELIM, IEBUG, MISTAKES, VERSION, EXPECT, CREATE

35 HTTP Editorial issues closed since Rev-03 (and edited into Rev-05):

BENNETT , REFERENCES, NOTES, MMSCHECK, TENIT, MISTAKES, DEPOSIT, ADVANTAGE, CONT, FLATTINNITS, TOKENS, INTERNIC, DMKNITS, LARRYENG, UNRECOGNISED, TSCHALAER, DATEWRONG, BNFNIT, REDIR, COPYRIGHT, WARN-GEN, TPROXY, PERSIST, 302FOUND, 202CAPS, 409CONFLICT, ARTG, RANGECONTRA, DMKNIT, RULE, POSTNIT, REVALIDATION, PROXY-MAXAGE-TYPO, AUTHORS, CHANGES

**Authentication Technical Issues**
No	Name	Status	Short Description	Proposed Resolution	Raised By	Resp.
a1	REQUEST-DIGEST	In Auth-02	No definition for non-terminal request-digest	Scott believes that the suggested resolution in the mail is correct - the syntax should just be: request-digest = <"> *LHEX <">	dmk
a2	CNONCE	In Auth-02	In Authorization, the client can omit cnonce=. If qop=auth-int and cnonce is omitted, should Authentication-Info in the server's response say 'cnonce=""' or should cnonce be omitted there, too?	Discussion and proposed resolution in . Thread one, and Thread two.	dmk
a3	NONCE-ETAG	In Auth-02	Recommending that the (Digest) nonce include Etag seems like a bad idea -- it makes the nonce non-reusable for other entities.	Leave it as is.	dmk
a4	DIGEST-MULTIPART	In Auth-02	In a response that sends multipart/byteranges, does the digest-uri-value of A2 digest the MIME headers and separators?	Slight clarification needed	dmk
a5	CHALLENGE-ORDER	In Auth-02	Ordering of challenges may make a difference with existing clients.	fix proposed	mcmanus
a6	AUTHVSPROXY	In Auth-02	Why is WWW-Authenticate different than Proxy-Authenticate?		aas
a7	PROTECTION-SPACE	In Auth-02	Protection space" not defined in spec.	Contained in message, with subsequent comments..	paulle
a8	PROXY-AUTH	In Auth-02	When is Proxy-Authentication sent?		paulle
a9	AUTH-PARAM	In Auth-03	It's hard to imagine an auth-scheme that can work correctly and usefully with zero auth-param's in the credentials.	Simple change to BNF in message.	dmk
a10	CHALLENGE-ORDER	In Auth-03	An implementor might assume that "realm" will be the first auth-param in a digest-challenge.	Note might prevent problems.	dmk
a11	DIGEST-URI	In Auth-03	Use of digest-uri needs help.		dmk
a12	SNOOPED	In Auth-03	Threat of "snooped password".	Suggested change in the message.	dmk

**Authentication Editorial Issues**
No	Name	Status	Short Description	Proposed Resolution	Raised By	Resp.
ae1	COPYRIGHT	In Auth-02	Update to Internet Society Copyright.	fix it.	jg	paulle
ae2	CLEAN-INDEXES	In Auth-02	The indexes need cleanup.	fix it.	jg	paulle
ae3	XREFS	In Auth-02	Make sure authentication draft cross references correct section in HTTP spec.	just do it!	jg	paulle
ae4	PROXY -MAXAGE-TYPO	In Auth-02	See HTTP editorial issue PROXY-MAXAGE-TYPO	fix it.	mogul	paulle
ae5	AUTHORS	In Auth-02	Make sure author's addresses are up to date.	fix it.	jg	paulle
ae6	REFERENCES	In Auth-02	Make sure the references are up to date.	fix it	jg	paulle
ae7	INTERNIC	In Auth-02	See INTERNIC below.	fix it	jg	paulle
ae8	DMKAUTHNITS	In Auth-03	Dave has found more nits.	fix them.	dmk	paulle

**HTTP Technical Issues**
No	Name	Status	Short Description	Proposed Resolution	Raised By	Resp.
h1	MMS	In Rev-04, Rev-05	Review of MUSTs, MAYs, and SHOULDS in the whole document, e.g. Cache Control Jeff Mogul reviewed the first half of the document, and Scott Lawrence reviewed the second half of the document. A few further comments have been received.	Fix them, but as these involve changes to normative text, even though editorial, I'm classifying this issue technical.	masinter	masinter, mogul, lawrence, jg
h2	TE-IDENTITY	In Rev-04	Should TE: identity; q=0 be allowed?	Add OPTIONAL for how the server handle it. That is, it is optional for the server to look at it but if it does then it SHOULD send 406 if it can't respond in the transfer encoding.	dmk	frystyk
h3	PROXY-DNS	In Rev-04	What error status should a proxy report on a DNS lookup failure?	Broaden the scope of 504 to contain DNS timeouts as well and describe this as a minor clarification. Put in a note for clients saying that to expect in a 400 code and maybe 500 as well.	erik	masinter, paulle
h4	ERRORS	Closed, no action needed	What should an server do when a request has an error? Should it close? What should it report?	Do what the spec already says.	dmk
h5	RANGEDELIM	In Rev-04	The description of multipart/byteranges leaves a lot to be desired on the subject of where <CRLF> should occur.	Clarify 19.2 that the definition of the MM body is defined by RFC 2046.	john	dmk
h6	IEBUG	Closed, No Action Needed	What should we do with 416 given buggy implementation and deployment in IE4?	Do nothing, but we've investigated further to make sure we understand the issue fully.	josh	paulle, jg
h7	MISTAKES	8.2.3 In Draft-04 14.35.1 In Draft-04	Koen found some mistakes in the last call document.	8.2.3: the current SHOULD should become a MAY, slight editorial cleanup 13.10 No change planned 14.2, currently, no change planned. 14.35.1: there may be an implicit assumption that should be explicit	koen	jg paulle
h8	WARN-GEN	In Rev-04	Warning should be a general header field.	In looking for all places that needed to change, it became clear some more care might be wise.	frystyk	frystyk
h9	VERSION	In Rev-04	Use of Version header still not clear.	Proposal contained in message	mogul	mogul
h10	EXPECT	In Rev-04 Closed	Belief that would make implementations non-compliant. Some further comments.	Rejected, except for editorial note pointing out that Expect isn't in previous RFC's.	frystyk	frystyk
h11	CREATE	In Rev-04	How do you get an etag and/or metainformation when you first create a resource without a race?	Add note that ETag can be used in 201 response to return tag.	frystyk	frystyk
h12	TRANSFORMATIONS	In Rev-05	Contradictory language/intent about transformations.	Jeff Mogul has response and suggested changes.	rlgray	mogul
h13	CHUNKEDTRAILERS	In Rev-05	Use of trailers with chunked encoding can cause an interoperability issue with HTTP/1.0 clients.	This case has not been deployed. Fix and Jeff's cleanups.	rlgray	fielding

**HTTP Editorial Issues**
No	Name	Status	Short Description	Proposed Resolution	Raised By	Resp.
he0	TENIT	In Rev-04	Broken cross reference in transfer coding section.	fix it.	mcmanus	jg
he1	DISPOSIT	In Rev-04	Content Disposition description does not match current practice.	fix it.	koen	jg
he2	ADVANTAGE	In Rev-04	Advantages / disadvantages claimed for persistent connections may need some rework (not much, me thinks...)	fix it.	martin-flatin	jg
he3	CONT	In Rev-04	100 Continue contradiction needs text reorganization	fix it.	martin-flatin	jg
he4	FLATINNITS	In Rev-04	Nits from Martin-Flatin.	fix it.	martin-flatin	jg
he5	TOKENS	In Rev-04	Clarify wording about Connection Tokens	added cross references to discussion of Keep-Alive and friends.	martin-flatin	jg
he6	INTERNIC	Closed, no action needed	Make sure no hyperlinks in source document point to Internic, who no longer provide the RFC's online	weren't any...	hoshka	jg
he7	DMKNITS	In Rev-04	Dave Kristol, as always, finds yet more nits (a bunch of spaces before sentence ending periods).	fix them.	dmk	jg
he8	LARRYENG	In Rev-04	The wording "If successful, the response..." is poor English. (It isn't the response that's successful!)	Perhaps it should say "If the request is valid, the response...." What constitutes a valid request is sprinkled through the specification.	masinter, dmk	jg
he9	UNRECOGNIZED	Closed, no action needed	What does unrecognised header mean?	Doesn't look like any action is really needed.	dmk	jg
he10	TSCHALAER	In Rev-04	Collection of nits from Ronald	In message	tschalaer	jg
he11	DATEWRONG	In Rev-04	Date in Rev-03 document wrong.	fix it.	spreitze	jg
he12	BNFNIT	In Rev-04	BNF references from other documents might be improved.	fix them.	js	jg
he13	REDIR	In Rev-04	Redirect handling needs clarification.	fix them	gisle	jg
he14	COPYRIGHT	In Rev-04	Update to Internet Society Copyright.	see RFC 2223	masinter	jg
he15	WARN-GEN	In Rev-04	Warning should be a general header field.	fix it.	frystyk	jg
he16	TPROXY	In Rev-04	Non-caching should be "transparent" proxy.	fix it.	swingard	jg
he17	PERSIST	In Rev-04	Spec is confusing about persistent connections vs. keepalives.	fix it.	ewindes	jg
he18	302FOUND	In Rev-04	302 Found says that conversion of POST to GET is "erroneous". But this is current practice.	First note can be deleted.	macrides	jg
he19	202CAPS	In Rev-04	202 Accepted says MAY or MAY not which should not be capitalized; see: MUST-MAY-SHOULD	fix it	jg	jg
he20	409CONFLICT	In Rev-04	409 Conflict still refers to versioning.	Versioning makes a good example of intended use of 409, but versioning can't be normative	jg	jg
he21	ARTG	Closed	Art Goldberg requests some clarifications	I could not see how to improve things from looking at the archive	jg	jg
he22	RANGECONTRA	In Rev-04	MUST/SHOULD contradiction between 416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable and Content Range header	14.16 SHOULD should be a MUST, I think...	jchamberlain	jg
he23	DMKNIT	In Rev-04	Extra space in 304 Not Modified	remove it.	dmk	jg
he24	RULE	In Rev-04	The definition of #rule is confusing	fix it.	mcjones	jg
he25	POSTNIT	In Rev-04	Wording around post says destination rather than origin server.	fix it.	ravi.badrachalam	jg
he26	REVALIDATION	Closed	Can revalidation explanation be strengthened?	the discussion does not make it clear that it can be made clearer lacking any concrete suggestions	rlgray	jg
he27	PROXY -MAXAGE -TYPO	In Rev-04	Make sure that all instances of "proxy-maxage" have been replaced by "s-maxage", in both the HTTP/1.1 spec and in the Authentication spec.	fix it.	mogul	jg
he28	AUTHORS	In Rev-04	Make sure author's addresses are up to date.	fix it.	jg	jg
he29	REFERENCES	In Rev-05	Make sure the references are up to date. (URI is now draft standard)	fix it.	jg	jg
he30	CHANGES	In Rev-04	Update changes section	Add issues and resolutions raised since last call; delete minor nits section.	jg	jg
he31	BENNETT	In Rev-05	Careful read from Paul Bennet has uncovered a number of things that should be fixed.	fix them.	jg	jg
he32	NOTES	In Rev-05	Would be best to avoid normative language in notes.	See if they can be fixed easily.	koen	jg
he33	MMSCHECK	In Rev-05	Koen did a check of the MMS audit.	fix whatever seems wrong.	koen	jg

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jg@w3.org

@(#) $Id: DSI.html,v 1.4 1999/12/15 10:23:08 ylafon Exp $