Antwort: Re: Antwort: Re: Antwort: Re: Antwort: Re: Antwort: [Mod _gzip] Vary: header and mod_gzip

Hi Henrik,

> > There is a problem if you find that a browser misbehaves in certaion
>> > conditions by advertising capabilities it cannot handle but you do not
>> > want to blacklist the browser version.
>> which is exactly the case with Netscape 4.
> Is it? Do you seriously want to send gzipped content to Netscape 4
> for this URI if you know it does not work?

The problem is that "doesn't work" itself is not
sufficiently describing the situation.

Sending compressed HTML content to Netscape 4
- "does work" (if you want nothing but render the
  file in the browser window, and will allow for
  a compression factor of 25 and more), and
- "does not work" (if you want to print the file from
  the browser)
at the same time, for the same file in the same
browser.

>> Therefore I have to use the full range of mod_gzip's
>> configuration skills to exclude certain MIME types
>> (URI extensions don't reliably provide what I need)
>> rather than simply exclude the broken browser as a
>> whole.
> Which is entirely fine. A static rule for this URI
> (indirectly via response mime type) blacklisting the
> browser.

In fact, I am blacklisting the MIME type, not the
browser, because I am not able to blacklist a com-
bination of MIME type and browser. There is no way
to describe this via configuration directives.

I _would_ be able to blacklist the combination
of URI and UserAgent, and I think I should consi-
der trying this in the near future.

> A blacklist does not need to be unconditional, but
> may well contain entries like
> * Do not gzip application/x-javascript to Netscape-4.x
> * Do not gzip text/css to Netscape-4.x

mod_gzip doesn't allow for the combination of con-
ditions. It only allows for inclusion and exclusion,
where exclusion will override inclusion. There are
no AND / OR operators; I can either exclude a browser
or a MIME type, but nor a combination of both.
(On the other hand, I could well _include_ such a
combination, i. e. mod_gzip would support whitelists.)

Neither Apache nor mod_gzip and not even the combi-
nation of both together seems to allow me to express
exactly the blacklist conditions that you just sug-
gested.

But this detail may be just off-topic for the rest
of the discussion - I only mention it for the mod_gzip
archive.

Greetings, Michael
Received on Wed Aug 28 2002 - 18:50:05 MDT