Subject: Case sensitive names and authoring

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 23:20:03 -0500

HTTP URLs aren't case sensitive, but some resources are. For example, Java
source managed by a WebDAV server must retain the case in the package and
class names or the code won't compile. mod_dav foldes all resource names to
lower case, so .java files on the server won't compile.

It seems that WebDAV could, like HTTP, be case insensitive while at the
same time require that the server retain the case of resource URLs. That
is, the URL segments in the bindings would retain the case in the target
when it was entered, but access to those resources would be case
insensitive. If this is not the case, WebDAV can't be used to store Java.
That would be a real bummer!

Would the proposal above be acceptable, and in the spirit of HTTP?

---

From: Greg Stein <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 20:56:11 -0800 (PST)

On Thu, 2 Mar 2000 [email-masked] wrote:
> 
> HTTP URLs aren't case sensitive,

RFC 2616, S3.2.3 states "When comparing two URIs to decide if they match
or not, a client SHOULD use a case-sensitive octet-by-octet comparison of
the entire URIs, with these exceptions: ..."

In other words: they *are* case-sensitive.

Apache certainly treats them that way. Try these two URLs:

  http://www.webdav.org/other/proxy.html
  http://www.webdav.org/other/Proxy.html

You'll find the latter fails.

Note that HTTP servers running on an MSFT platform typically treat URLs in
a case-insensitive fashion (due to the filesystem being insensitive).

> but some resources are. For example, Java

WHAT?!!  mod_dav does NOT do any case-folding. Euh... what made you think
it does?

> Would the proposal above be acceptable, and in the spirit of HTTP?

No and no.  (IMO)

I certainly do not want to take the performance hit to start doing
case-insensitive work in mod_dav and Apache. I am in great favor of
continuing to operate in a case-sensitive fashion, and I believe the
relevant RFCs encourage that, too.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/

---

From: Rodent of Unusual Size <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 06:26:12 -0500

[email-masked] wrote:
> 
> HTTP URLs aren't case sensitive

Eh???  Rubbish.  The scheme isn't, the net_loc portion isn't,
but absolutely the rest of the URI is opaque and must be
treated as case-sensitive.  It ought to be treated as a
set of octets, but we can use the 'case' nomenclature because
we know the URI character set limitations.
-- 
#ken    P-)}

Ken Coar                    <http://Golux.Com/coar/>
Apache Software Foundation  <http://www.apache.org/>
"Apache Server for Dummies" <http://Apache-Server.Com/>

Come to the first official Apache Software Foundation
Conference!  <http://ApacheCon.Com/>