[OpenID] URL normalization issues

Martin Atkins mart at degeneration.co.uk
Fri Mar 23 20:16:15 UTC 2007


John Panzer wrote:
> Martin Atkins wrote:
>> John Panzer wrote:
>>   
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>> Given two hCards,
>>>
>>> <a class="url fn uid" href="http://example.com/foo">Foo Bar</a>
>>> <a class="url fn uid" href="http://example.com/foo/">F. Bar</a>
>>>
>>> should I consider these two identities equivalent, or not?[1]  Or is 
>>> there a way to resolve them by asking the servers (not doing an auth 
>>> check, just a canonicalization check of some kind)? 
>>>
>>>     
>>
>> They are two distinct URLs. One of them might well issue a permanent 
>> redirect to the other, but that cannot be relied on unless you try it.
>>   
> So to check for identity, should a client attempt a GET or a HEAD and 
> look only for 301 redirects?
> 

No, one should do a character-for-character string comparison.

The author should get the URL right. This is an HTML document, not a 
browser address bar.




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