--- Ben Collins-Sussman <sussman@collab.net> wrote:
> Morten Ludvigsen <morten_2ps_dk@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
>
> > OK - I see now. I agree that interoperability should always be the
> > prime consideration. I certainly wouldn't want to be the one that
> > caused a break of this principle :-) I hereby withdraw my suggestion.
> >
> > Just one thing: HTTP GET of the head revision IS part of the protocol
> > isn't it (ie. "[URL-to-repository-root]/[path]")?
>
> Nope. According to the WebDAV spec (RFC 2518, at www.webdav.org), an
> HTTP GET on a public URI that represents a "collection"
> (i.e. directory) is totally undefined. Here's the relevant clip:
>
> 8.4 GET, HEAD for Collections
>
> "The semantics of GET are unchanged when applied to a collection,
> since GET is defined as, "retrieve whatever information (in the form
> of an entity) is identified by the Request-URI" [RFC2068]. GET when
> applied to a collection may return the contents of an "index.html"
> resource, a human-readable view of the contents of the collection,
> or something else altogether. Hence it is possible that the result
> of a GET on a collection will bear no correlation to the membership
> of the collection."
>
> In other words, we can make a GET http://public/directory/resource do
> whatever we want. Originally, it used to produce an error. Then one
> day we said, "awww... let's at least show the dirents for the
> directory in the head revision". WebDAV has no notion of a "head
> revision", but we do, so we're using it just to be semi-friendly.
>
> DeltaV, however, *does* have a concept similar to 'revision', so to
> see a specifically named revision, you gotta do the
> DeltaV-client-dance and know the right steps.
>
>
If I understand you WebDAV does not specify what to do with a GET of a
directory, but it does specify what to do with a GET of a file ("internal
member" in WebDAV terminology).
In other words:
1. If I want to get the HEAD revision of the file
"/resource/slam.html" I CAN use
"GET [URL-to-repository-root]/resource/slam.html".
2. If I want to get an earlier revision of the file
"/resource/slam.html" I MUST use the WebDAV/DeltaV protocol.
3. If I want to get a list of files from the HEAD revision
of the directory "/resource/" I SHOULD use the WebDAV/DeltaV protocol.
(The directory listing Subversion supplies in response to a GET is
implementation specific - so I should not rely on it).
4. If I want to get a list of files from the an earlier revision
of the directory "/resource/" I MUST use the WebDAV/DeltaV protocol.
Is this correct?
Regards,
Morten Ludvigsen
2-People Software
Denmark
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Received on Fri Oct 11 09:55:34 2002