[syslinux] Opinion wanted: metadata in HTTP requests (updated)

John Rouillard rouilj at renesys.com
Tue Apr 26 06:57:29 PDT 2011


On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 10:50:25PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Okay, I have narrowed it down to two options:
> 
> 1. Using HTTP cookies, in every request.  To avoid collision with other
>    cookie uses, the cookie names would be prefixed with _Syslinux_ or
>    some similar prefix although this adds overhead.
> 
> 2. Using a GET query string, if and only if the http URL is of a
>    special form, probably:
> 
>    http://example.com/something??
> 
>    ... i.e. ending in a double ?? which should not normally happen in a
>    URL.
> 
> I would like to know if people have specific preferences between
> these alternatives.

Is there a difference in the amount of data that can be sent via these
mechanisms? Using POST is the usual workaround when the get string is
too large and code "414 Request-URI Too Long" is returned.

>From rfc 2109 the browser should support:

  * at least 300 cookies

  * at least 4096 bytes per cookie (as measured by the size of the
    characters that comprise the cookie non-terminal in the syntax
    description of the Set-Cookie header)

  * at least 20 cookies per unique host or domain name

so the server should be able to handle at least that.

So I think the cookie mechanism may be a better choice depending on
how much data you expect to send.

-- 
				-- rouilj

John Rouillard       System Administrator
Renesys Corporation  603-244-9084 (cell)  603-643-9300 x 111




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