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Re: apache debugging needed



There was an error in the type-map file I created, which I just fixed. With the
exception of the one problem listed at the end,
http://www.debian.org/releases/slink/i386/install works perfectly now.

Basically, any files we offer that have multiple mime types need to have a
type-map file to ensure that the correct version is offered. This is because
some browsers send Accept headers of the following form:

Accept: */*

This says that text/html (install.html) is as good as text/plain (install.bat).
Note that according to the http/1.1 spec this is equivalent to the following
(which some browsers send)

Accept: text/html, text/plain, */*

Read http://localhost/doc/apache/manual/content-negotiation.html if you don't
understand why. The latter does not cause any problems, though, because apache
knows browsers are stupid and assigns a quality value of 0.1 (may be 0.01) to '*/*'.

I will probably file a wishlist bug against apache asking them to implement
an Option that will allow servers to define a global quality factor for
mime types. There would definitely be resistance to this (a classic "follow
the spec and let wrongdoers burn in hell" vs. "let's get this thing working").

On to the remaing problem. Even with the type-map, sending a preferred language
of '*' confuses apache. This is definitely something apache should work around
and there is an open bug upstream regarding this.

12. wget --header="Accept-Language: *" http://www.debian.org/releases/slink/i386/install
    variants install.html, install.{cs,en,fi,fr,hr,ja}.html, install.bat
    apache returns install.cs.html - BAD

Jay Treacy


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