Re: [RFC PATCH 1/4] Document the HTTP transport protocol

Mike Hommey [off-list ref] wrote:

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 10:59:25PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

quoted

On 10/10/2009 03:12 AM, Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho wrote:

quoted

On 2009-10-09, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

quoted

+If there is no repository at $GIT_URL, the server MUST respond with
+the '404 Not Found' HTTP status code.

We may also want to add

    If there is no object at $GIT_URL/some/path, the server MUST respond
    with the '404 Not Found' HTTP status code.

to help dumb clients.

In both cases - is it really necessary to forbid the use of 410 (Gone)?

My original text got taken a bit out of context here.  I guess MUST
was too strong of a word.  I more ment something like:

  If there is no repository at $GIT_URL, the server MUST NOT respond
  with '200 OK' and a valid info/refs response.  A server SHOULD
  respond with '404 Not Found', '410 Gone', or any other suitable
  HTTP status code which does not imply the resource exists as
  requested.

quoted

410 means "we once had it, it's no longer here, no idea where it went."
 It's a largely useless code...

There is an additional meaning to it, that is "it will never ever
return". It thus has a stronger meaning than 404. Sadly, not even search
engine spiders consider it as a hint to not crawl there in the future...

I know.  I broke a URL on a site back in Janurary, MSN keeps crawling
it anyway.  F'king spiders.

-- 
Shawn.