Bug#403311: debbugs: soap.cgi sends HTTP 500 server error when given a wrong Content-Type in request

[Don Armstrong <don@debian.org>]

On Thu, 28 Dec 2006, Amos Shapira wrote:
> On 17/12/06, Don Armstrong <don@debian.org> wrote:
> >Like how? It's an error, so returning a 500 seems perfectly
> >reasonable.
> 
> Here is a quote from the HTTP RFC:
> 
>      - 4xx: Client Error - The request contains bad syntax or cannot
>        be fulfilled
> 
>      - 5xx: Server Error - The server failed to fulfill an apparently
>        valid request
> 
> 
> (ref: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec6.html#sec6.1.1)
> 
> Since it's a client error to send the wrong header in the HTTP
> request I'd expect the server to recognize the client's mistake and
> send some 4xx error code.

The only appropriate 4xx error would be to send 400. However, since
the request itself is valid HTTP, it's just that the server cannot
handle it because it violates the soap spec, sending a 500 seems
perfectly reasonable.


Don Armstrong

-- 
Junkies were all knitted together in a loose global macrame, the
intercontinental freemasonry of narcotics.
 -- Bruce Sterling, _Holy Fire_ p257

http://www.donarmstrong.com              http://rzlab.ucr.edu