Re:Web servers should refuse requests for random, unnecessar...
by jjav on Thursday July 06, 2023 @04:12PM
(#36622112)
> Posting on a blog saying that people 'SHOULD' do something
To be fair, it's not about some rando on a blog post. The HTTP response codes and their semantics are in the RFCs. And while it's true the RFCs say SHOULD and not MUST, there are also now ~30 decades of experience and expectation that a non-existent resource is more likely a 404 not 200.
Sure a server can always do what it likes but can't expect it to play well with the outside world if it goes against both convention and documentation.
To be fair, it's not about some rando on a blog post. The HTTP response codes and their semantics are in the RFCs. And while it's true the RFCs say SHOULD and not MUST, there are also now ~30 decades of experience and expectation that a non-existent resource is more likely a 404 not 200.
Sure a server can always do what it likes but can't expect it to play well with the outside world if it goes against both convention and documentation.