Subject: [Bug 169] New: Date header required?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 05:14:26 -0700

http://ietf.cse.ucsc.edu:8080/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=169

           Summary: Date header required?
           Product: WebDAV-RFC2518-bis
           Version: -07
          Platform: Other
               URL: http://greenbytes.de/tech/webdav/draft-ietf-webdav-
                    rfc2518bis-07.html#rfc.section.8.1.4
        OS/Version: other
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: 08.  HTTP Methods for Distributed Authoring
        AssignedTo: [email-masked]
        ReportedBy: [email-masked]
         QAContact: [email-masked]

The spec currently says:

"8.1.4 Required Response Headers: Date

Note that HTTP 1.1 requires the Date header in all responses if possible."

This is misleading; RFC2616 contains a long description of when "Date" is
required, in particular:

- snip -
   1. If the response status code is 100 (Continue) or 101 (Switching
Protocols), the response MAY include a Date header field, at the server's option.
   2. If the response status code conveys a server error, e.g. 500 (Internal
Server Error) or 503 (Service Unavailable), and it is inconvenient or impossible
to generate a valid Date.
   3. If the server does not have a clock that can provide a reasonable
approximation of the current time, its responses MUST NOT include a Date header
field. In this case, the rules in Section 14.18.1 MUST be followed.
- snip -

I don't see why RFC2518 needs to say anything at all (it's an extension of
HTTP/1.1 after all), but if it does, it should make correct statements about
what HTTP 1.1 actually says.

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