Re: search engine uses Referrer: field
On Mon, Sep 06, 1999 at 01:04:48PM +0200, Eric Marsden wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I notice that the search engine at
>
> <URL:http://cgi.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl>
>
> seems to use the Referrer field when generating the URLs allowing you
> to jump to a specific package (I notice this because I browse the web
> via a filtering proxy which happens to stick a fixed value in the
> Referrer field, so the search engine doesn't work for me).
>
> Is it really necessary to do the CGI this way? I believe that it is
> legitimate for browsers not to provide the Referrer, and it seems that
> there must be other ways to make it work.
>
Just to clarify, the script defaults to www.debian.org if no referer is
given.
IMHO, the current setup will help the most people. Anyone who
goes around changing the referer should know what they are doing
and can easily get to where they need to go. It makes more sense
to me for you to either not send a referer header or to set it
to null (don't know if that is legal).
Jay Treacy
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