Vary: header and mod_gzip

From: Robert Collins <robertc@dont-contact.us>
Date: 26 Aug 2002 00:21:33 +1000

Hi all,
        I'm one of the squid (www.squid-cache.org) proxy & cache developers.
We've had a couple of bugs now reported to us which are actually caused
by mod_gzip.

This is the scenario: A user behind a proxy requests a page from a
mod_gzip enabled server. The proxy caches the result according to RFC
2616 rules. A second user, using a non-compress enabled browser (i.e.
older netscapes, older text browsers, or apparently recent Mac browsers)
requests the same document, and the proxy (again in conformance with RFC
2616) returns the cached object - which the client can not interpret.

This occurs because mod_gzip is not setting a Vary: header in the reply.
(See RFC 2616 section 14.44, and 14.3). Setting 'Vary: Accept-Encoding'
is a SHOULD requirement of RFC 2616 when using Server driven
negotiation.

I've grepped the mod_gzip sources, but could not see any reference to
Vary.

Is there somewhere for the users of mod_gzip to lodge a bug report on
this? Or is it trivial enough for a mod_gzip hacker to fix that I'll get
a reply "Hey, we overlooked this, it's fixed now"? :}.

Cheers,
Rob

Received on Sun Aug 25 2002 - 08:21:22 MDT

This archive was generated by hypermail pre-2.1.9 : Tue Dec 09 2003 - 16:16:08 MST