IPP Mail Archive: Re: IPP> Chunked POST

Re: IPP> Chunked POST

Michael Sweet (mike@easysw.com)
Thu, 17 Dec 1998 09:22:40 -0500

Carl Kugler wrote:
>
> >
> > How many IPP implementers are using an existing HTTP server?
>
> How many platforms don't already have one?

Well, that's the problem, isn't it? I know of at least three dozen
commercial and freeware HTTP servers for UNIX and Windows, each with
its own idiosyncracies. As a software vendor, I can't expect that
1) they'll have a specific brand of HTTP server that I've tested on,
and 2) they'll even have a HTTP server loaded and running on a
system (many government sites *cannot* have them because of new,
more strict network policies).

Soo, we've implemented our own small HTTP/1.1 server within our
new printing system (CUPS). It makes the design of the printing
system simpler (no double layer of communication) and we aren't
dependent on any one vendor or configuration.

Embedded products (read: printers) also generally don't have HTTP
servers (there are exceptions, like HP and Tektronix for example).
The implmentation issues involved with network printers can also
prevent you from using existing source code...

> ...
> Unfortunately, due to the CGI restriction, most http servers seem to
> be designed to discard the message-body of an HTTP/1.1 POST without
> Content-Length, even if the target is not CGI but, say, a servlet.
> Right now, I'm just trying to confirm whether or not this is broken
> behavior.

probably the first (of many) HTTP applications that will expose these
bugs...

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products                  mike@easysw.com
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com