>> Idea 1: This could be changed by having clients that find a broken
>> URL send the offending server an HTTP/1.1 method BROKEN, with two
>> fields: URL (the broken URL) and Referer (the URL of the page with the
>> broken URL). A server can then log this, for later analysis by
>> humans/Perl scripts/whatever. Obviously a client doesn't do this if
>> the user cancelled or the connection timed out, or if there is no
>> Referer.
>
> Well, assuming that the link was valid up-to-the-path (i.e. the scheme
> and server name were correct in the otherwise bad link), this information
> could have easily been recorded in the server's error log upon the first
> request (and thus there is no need for a second one). Worse, if the scheme
> or server name were incorrect, you've just doubled the number of invalid
> requests.
gurp...ignore that paragraph. My objection should have been the same
as for #2, i.e. I don't want a server to be notified if the problem is
just a temporary glitch at my site.
.....Roy Fielding ICS Grad Student, University of California, Irvine USA
<fielding@ics.uci.edu>
<URL:http://www.ics.uci.edu/dir/grad/Software/fielding>