Subject: RE: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-webdav-quota-01.txt

From: "Clemm, Geoff" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 11:35:46 -0500

That wasn't the question I meant to ask.

Clearly there are clients that handle a specific code
(such as 507) differently from another specific code (such as 413).
But in those cases it doesn't matter whether the standard
defined that specific code to be in the 4xx or 5xx range.

What I was asking was whether there was a client that
generically handled 4xx codes (i.e. a 4xx code that it had no
special handling for) in a significantly different way than
it handles a 5xx code (i.e. a 5xx code that it had no special
handling for).  I.e., when we are deciding whether to put a
specific code in the 4xx or 5xx range, does it matter which
one we pick?

Cheers,
Geoff

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Luther [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 10:46 AM
To: WebDAV
Subject: Re: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-webdav-quota-01.txt

On Monday, March 24, 2003, at 07:53  PM, Clemm, Geoff wrote:

> Just for interests sake, is there any client that acts significantly
> differently if it were to receive a 4xx response instead of a 5xx
> response?  If not, this question is merely an aesthetic quibble (:-).

Yes there is a client that handles those responses quite differently.

The Mac OS X WebDAV file system client translates 507 to ENOSPC (No 
space left on device) which is interpreted by most Macintosh 
applications to mean the device is full; the WebDAV file system 
translates 413 as a generic 4xx response to EINVAL (Invalid argument) 
which is interpreted by most Macintosh applications to mean "something 
wasn't right - who knows what?"

The Mac OS X WebDAV file system client is one of the few clients 
actually using quotas today and has been for over 1-1/2 years now.

Jim Luther
Apple Computer, Inc.

---

From: Jim Luther <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 09:20:01 -0800

I'd refer back to rfc2616's language in sections 10.4 "Client Error 
4xx" and 10.5 "Server Error 5xx". 4xx is for errors the server thinks 
can be resolved by changes in the client's request, and 5xx is for 
errors the server thinks are caused by something server-side.

- Jim

---

From: "Roy T. Fielding" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 13:43:13 -0800

> handling for).

Yes, web spiders that perform maintenance.

>   I.e., when we are deciding whether to put a

Yes. One way is HTTP compliant; the other is not.

....Roy