Re: LYNX-DEV X-URL header field

[Uzi Paz]

Yes.
URIs with "localhost" are bad URI in any case. Perhaps this can be solved
if you use a URL of an Internet local host, by noting which site is
producing the URL, and maintaining a list of sites which share the same
file system. Quite a headache, and if the file is local to your PC which
is connected to the Internet via SLIP/PPP , then this cannot be a solution
either. It looks that URLs of local objects will remain a problem.
At least, "our" fanged program can identify the cases where URL is not
absolute.

I'm not sure that if you post a local (non-public) file, then giving its
local location is not a privacy problem.

I don't see that the Content-Type's charset is a problem. It should not be
used when accessing the URL itself.

Is there any case where both Content-Location and X-URL appear but they
have different values?

thanks again, Uzi

On Mon, 24 Nov 1997, Foteos Macrides wrote:

>       Just to be sure the picture indeed is clear, here's an example
> of what is mailed via the 'p'rint menu when source ('\') was toggled
> on before issuing that command:
> 
> Return-path: <address@hidden>
> Received: from SCI.WFBR.EDU by SCI.WFBR.EDU (PMDF V5.0-4 #19169)
>  id <address@hidden> for address@hidden; Mon,
>  24 Nov 1997 20:36:21 -0500 (EST)
> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 20:36:21 -0500 (EST)
> From: address@hidden
> Subject: white.html
> To: address@hidden
> Message-id: <address@hidden>
> MIME-version: 1.0
> Content-type: text/html; charset=dec-mcs
> Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
> Content-Base: file://localhost/appm$disk/www/lynx271f/src/white.html
> Content-Location: file://localhost/appm$disk/www/lynx271f/src/white.html
> X-URL: file://localhost/appm$disk/www/lynx271f/src/white.html
> 
> <!-- X-URL: file://localhost/appm$disk/www/lynx271f/src/white.html -->
> <BASE HREF="file://localhost/appm$disk/www/lynx271f/src/white.html">
> 
> [... originally iso-8859-1 document with 8-bit characters converted
>      to my Display Character Set (DEC Multinational) and any tabs
>      expanded ...]
> 
> 
>       The X-URL always is the actual URL used to retrieve the
> document.  If it had been an http(s) URL and a Content-Location
> header had been included in the response, that value would be
> used.  Otherwise, as in this case, it's the same value as for
> X-URL.  In this case, of a local file, it so happens that I
> mailed myself a test file from a privileged directory.  If
> I were to read mail with some new-fangled software which used
> the Content-Location value in some manner involving an attempt
> to access it, that would fail unless my process had the
> appropriate privileges turned on (which I normally have off),
> and no other recipient could access it.  That's why I wonder
> if it's a good idea to include it when it does not point
> to a URL that is accessible via TCP/IP.  Also, even if it
> were an http URL, the charset would not be what is in this
> actual mailing (dec-mcs), but iso-8859-1, and if the charset
> were a factor in the mail software's decision, it still
> could be misled by the Content-Type header.
> 
>                               Fote