[svn.haxx.se] · SVN Dev · SVN Users · SVN Org · TSVN Dev · TSVN Users · Subclipse Dev · Subclipse Users · this month's index

'owner' in dav LOCK request. (Julian Reschke, you out there?)

From: Ben Collins-Sussman <sussman_at_collab.net>
Date: 2004-12-01 21:56:27 CET

I'm confused about the WebDAV spec (rfc 2518), specifically in regard
to how the 'owner' field works in LOCK requests.

According to the rfc, the 'owner' field of a dav lock is completely
optional. It might or might not be in the body of a LOCK request.
And if it's present, it seems to bear no relationship to
authentication or lock enforcement. The rfc descibes it as just a
piece of optional metadata -- like, somebody to phone when you want to
talk about locking out-of-band.

As a real-world example of this, I notice that my Mac does basic http
authentication when mounting a DAV share, but in its LOCK requests the
owner is always "default-owner".

I'm worried, because this doesn't mesh with Subversion's locking
semantics at all. To make use of a lock, Subversion requires *both*
the lock-token (which is publically available) AND that the user be
authenticated as the lock's owner.

If WebDAV doesn't have this same double-authentication requirement,
then I don't understand how locks are supposed to be enforced:

   User A authenticates, does a LOCK, gets a token.
   User B authenticates, does a PROPFIND, discovers the token.
   User B then does a PUT using the token.

What's the point of locking something if there's no
authentication/owner enforcement? It like locking the door, and then
leaving the key taped to the door.

Maybe I misunderstand what's going on here. Julian, can you clarify?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@subversion.tigris.org
Received on Wed Dec 1 21:58:50 2004

This is an archived mail posted to the Subversion Dev mailing list.

This site is subject to the Apache Privacy Policy and the Apache Public Forum Archive Policy.