Re: HTTP HEAD request

Martian ([email protected])
Fri, 7 Apr 1995 13:59:28 +0500

Once upon a time you, Jim Hurley, wrote:
-->
--> >Currently, the server doesn't need to parse the document at all.
--> >This would be the first such case. (systems with server-side includes already
--> >do some parsing, though).
-->
--> True, but the parse is pretty easy, and it can stop when it reaches
--> <BODY>. This type of request would not be used very often, only
--> for indexing tools, existence checks, robots, etc.
-->
--> >What should it do for a document without a HEAD?
-->
--> This could happen for non-html fetches, of course.
--> It should return an error - my first impulse, not having thought
--> about it much.
-->
--> Similarly, I guess it should return an error if it got EOF before
--> </HEAD>. Either that, or it might be probably easier to just send
--> the whole document part after <HEAD> til EOF, assuming it is scanning
--> for <HEAD>, then just outputing chars until </HEAD>.
-->

It is not so trivial. An html doc is not required to have <head> or
<body> tags. In fact, all of the tags <head>, </head>, <body> and
</body> are optional.

Returning an error if it encounters EOF before </head> would be a
major design bug.

Abigail