[PATCH 06/14] reword behaviour on missing repository or objects

[Tay Ray Chuan <rctay89@gmail.com>]

From: "Shawn O. Pearce" <spearce@spearce.org>

Signed-off-by: Tay Ray Chuan <rctay89@gmail.com>
--
To Shawn: sign-off-by needed.

Based on:

  From: "Shawn O. Pearce" <spearce@spearce.org>
  Message-ID: <20091016142135.GR10505@spearce.org>

  Mike Hommey <mh@glandium.org> wrote:
  > On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 10:59:25PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
  > > On 10/10/2009 03:12 AM, Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho wrote:
  > > > On 2009-10-09, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
  > > >>> +If there is no repository at $GIT_URL, the server MUST respond with
  > > >>> +the '404 Not Found' HTTP status code.
  > > >>
  > > >> We may also want to add
  > > >>
  > > >>     If there is no object at $GIT_URL/some/path, the server MUST respond
  > > >>     with the '404 Not Found' HTTP status code.
  > > >>
  > > >> to help dumb clients.
  > > >
  > > > In both cases - is it really necessary to forbid the use of 410 (Gone)?

  My original text got taken a bit out of context here.  I guess MUST
  was too strong of a word.  I more ment something like:

    If there is no repository at $GIT_URL, the server MUST NOT respond
    with '200 OK' and a valid info/refs response.  A server SHOULD
    respond with '404 Not Found', '410 Gone', or any other suitable
    HTTP status code which does not imply the resource exists as
    requested.

In addition, address behaviour on missing objects, as suggested by
Junio. His text (see quote in above excerpt) was not used, in favour of
a more general treatment (locations matching $GIT_URL, not just
objects).
---
 Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt b/Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt
index a8d28ba..412b898 100644
--- a/Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt
+++ b/Documentation/technical/http-protocol.txt
@@ -91,8 +91,12 @@ Except where noted, all standard HTTP behavior SHOULD be assumed
 by both client and server.  This includes (but is not necessarily
 limited to):
 
-If there is no repository at $GIT_URL, the server MUST respond with
-the '404 Not Found' HTTP status code.
+If there is no repository at $GIT_URL, the server MUST NOT respond with
+'200 OK' and a valid info/refs response.  Also, if the resource pointed
+to by a location matching $GIT_URL does not exist, the server MUST NOT
+respond with '200 OK'.  A server SHOULD respond with
+'404 Not Found', '410 Gone', or any other suitable HTTP status code
+which does not imply the resource exists as requested.
 
 If there is a repository at $GIT_URL, but access is not currently
 permitted, the server MUST respond with the '403 Forbidden' HTTP
-- 
1.8.4.rc4.527.g303b16c