Re: Re: Bug#291555: omitting slash causes strange mish-mash

["Jason Spiro" <jspi@myrealbox.com>]

> The problem is that most people seem to assume
> that you can omit the final slash just because most servers
> usually allow for it.
If most web servers allow it, it'd be nice if Debian's did too. Although it'd take some work to implement, it'd make Debian users' lives a little less frustrating.

In the same vein, it'd be useful if, before showing a 404 error, the server checked that the URL, say, http://packages.debian.org/grub/ did not match a package name.

I'm no longer concerned about this issue for myself, just for other users who are clueless about the issue like I was.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Karlsson <peter@softwolves.pp.se>
To: Jason Spiro <jspi@myrealbox.com>, 291555@bugs.debian.org
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:46:35 +0100 (CET)
Subject: Re: Bug#291555: omitting slash causes strange mish-mash

Jason Spiro:

> http://packages.debian.org/stable/ (note: there's a slash at the end of that 
> URL) takes me to the list of packages in stable.
>
> http://packages.debian.org/stable (without a slash) takes me to a Can't find
> package "stable" page.

Well, they are two very different URLs, so one would assume that they would
point to different places. The problem is that most people seem to assume
that you can omit the final slash just because most servers usually allow
for it.

> I have, however, just printed out 20 pages of installfest handouts with
> the slash missing. If I do not correct them, 20 newbies will get
> unexpected results and perhaps give up on apt-get.

I would say that since you spotted your mistake before handing them out, you
have time to fix them (either add a slash by hand, or edit and re-print).
Shouldn't be a problem.

--
\\//
Peter - http://www.softwolves.pp.se/
   I do not read or respond to mail with HTML attachments.