Received: (qmail 61330 invoked by uid 501); 10 Sep 2000 14:37:22 -0000
Message-Id: <20000910143722.61324.qmail@locus.apache.org>
Date: 10 Sep 2000 14:37:22 -0000
From: Andreas Pour <webmaster@kde.com>
Reply-To: webmaster@kde.com
To: submit@bugz.apache.org
Subject: Proxying does not support Content-Encoding
X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.110

>Number:         6511
>Category:       mod_proxy
>Synopsis:       Proxying does not support Content-Encoding
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    apache
>State:          open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   apache
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Sep 10 07:40:00 PDT 2000
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     webmaster@kde.com
>Release:        
>Organization:
apache
>Environment:
uname -a:  Linux ... 2.2.14 #1 SMP ... i686
apache -v: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix)
>Description:
When Apache is put in proxying mode, via mod_rewrite for example, it does
not properly handle the "Content-Encoding" header.  In fact it seems to
completely ignore this header.  When gzip'd data is sent back, the server
interprets the NULL byte in the gzip header as end of transmission and
closes the connection; in any event only 4 bytes get sent to the client.

Solution:  support content-encoding; and if you cant' do that at least
strip the accept-encoding header coming from the client.
>How-To-Repeat:
Use a gzip-enabled browser (like Netscape 4.7x) and visit http://www.kde.com/.
The page will display fine.  Now set up your web serer to proxy to that site.
Hit the same page.  It won't work the first time; the second time it will b/c
now I tag broken proxy servers and ignore Accept-Encoding headers from them.

Alternatively, it's easy enough to test on your own setup.

Take your favorite index.html file.  gzip it.  Serve it to a gzip-capable
client and be sure to set the "Content-Encoding:  gzip" header first.  Now
try it going through an Apache proxy. 
>Fix:
Yes :-). Look at the Content-Encoding header and if it's set to gzip use
the binary data subroutines to forward the data back rather than the string
ones.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
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