Re: platform specific server name?

wmperry@spry.com
Tue, 4 Oct 1994 16:37:44 +0100

Rick Troth writes:
> Most servers send something like
>
> Server: server/version library/version
>
> Right? (I think that's how the spec reads)
>
> What if there isn't a separate "library"? Or what if there
> are several "library" identifiers? Let me show you what I'm working
> with. For the VM server, there are perhaps three or four supporint
> elements, not just one library, so I might return
>
> Server: CMSHTTPD/1.2 REXX/4.0 Pipes/2.0201 Sockets/2.01 CMS/10.402
>
> What should I do? A recent thread suggests that the above is
> quite un-kosher. But to be honest, everything there is relevant
> and useful for debugging (at least) or demographics. Alternatively,
> I could list just the server level, because there is no REXX WWW Library.

This seems to be quite kosher to me, at least according to the HTTP spec.
The June 1993 draft does not go into detail on the Server: field, but it
seems logical to follow the same semantics as User-Agent in the request,
which would be:

<field> = Server: <product>+
<product> = <word> [/<version>]
<version> = <word>

So the example you gave above would be perfectly legal. Don't be like
some browsers and send multi-word things like 'Blah blah blah for the blah
blah blah system vXXX.YYY' Someone posted a list not too long ago
detailing which browsers actually conformed to the User-Agent requirements
- percentage-wise, it was discouraging. :) Let's not duplicate it on the
server side.

-Bill P.