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Re: Changing the reference in written cookie files

From: Dan Fandrich <dan_at_coneharvesters.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:50:48 -0800

On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 10:39:59PM +0100, Daniel Stenberg wrote:
> A while ago now there was an RFC published[*] that properly documents
> how cookies are used in modern HTTP and yet we still keep referring
> to the ancient Netscape spec in the header of the cookie files
> libcurl writes.
>
> What should we do about it?
>
> A) leave it as it is as it doesn't matter
>
> B) change the URL to instead point to the RFC or a more dedicated landing
> page that describe libcurl's cookie support?
>
> C) Remove the header and reference all together from cookie files?
>
> D) something else?

I don't see anything in RFC 6265 describing the Netscape cookie file format,
which is not the same as the spec for cookies sent over the wire. So changing
the comment to reference that RFC alone doesn't make sense. Just so
everyone knows, this is what's written at the beginning of a cookie file
right now:

    # Netscape HTTP Cookie File
    # http://curl.haxx.se/rfc/cookie_spec.html
    # This file was generated by libcurl! Edit at your own risk.

I'm happy leaving this as is, but changing the contents of the page at that
URL so that it references RFC 6265 and any other relevant standards.
Actually, that page right now also doesn't actually mention anything
about the format of the file as written by libcurl, so that's something
else that could be added for completeness to any mention of cookie
semantics.

>>> Dan
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Received on 2011-12-24