lynx-dev Problem with Redirects

[Sean Lindsay]

I'm trying to determine the cause of a quirk in Lynx (2.8) where a 302
header fails to properly redirect Lynx (while working in other browsers).
The error produced is "Location URL is not absolute", which doesn't seem to
be documented.

The header info that produces the error is as follows:

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 15:21:19 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Win32)
Content-Location: try.php3
TCN: choice
Vary: negotiate
Location: http://www.foo.com/
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

This header is being produced by a server-side PHP script (running on
Apache), which is sent the redirection URL as a search argument ("?url=").

The script works fine in other browsers, however Lynx reports the "Location
URL is not absolute" error, then tries to load the file listed in the
Content-Location: header.

A live example of this script in action can be found at:
http://www.disabilitytimes.com/go/headline?url=http://www.foo.com
(any URL can be substituted in the search argument)

Of course, this shorter header does works in Lynx:

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 15:21:19 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Win32)
Location: http://www.foo.com/
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

It would seem that the additional headers in the first example are causing
problems for Lynx. Unfortunately PHP does not have the ability to remove
headers from an Apache response, only to add them.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this problem, and how I might be
able to work around it?

Regards,

Sean Lindsay
Editor - DisabilityTimes.com
News for the worldwide disability community
Web: http://www.DisabilityTimes.com
Email: address@hidden