[htdig-dev] Re: defaults.cc and 'head_before_get'

[Lachlan A. <lh...@us...>]

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 21:51, Gabriele Bartolini wrote:

>     can you please revise the defaults.cc documentation for the
> 'head_before_get' attribute. I wrote something but it needs some
> revision by english mother-tongue developers.

Your English is fine.  I've made a few changes below, if you're=20
interested (but it was OK as it was).

Cheers,
Lachlan

If set to true, an HTTP/1.1 <em>HEAD</em>
call is made in order to retrieve header information about a document.
If the status code and the content-type returned show that the=20
document is parsable, then a subsequent 'GET' call is made.  In=20
general, it is recommended that this attribute be set to 'true',
as it can really improve performance (especially when used with=20
persistent connections).  This is particularly so during an=20
incremental dig, since in this case 'htdig' can ask the server if the=20
document has been modified since last dig. However there are a few=20
cases when it is better to switch it off:
<ul>
<li>the majority of documents are parsable (HTML or a type for which=20
an external parser has been provided) and must be retrieved anyway=20
(initial dig);</li>=20
<li>the server does not support the HEAD method or it is=20
disabled;</li>=20
<li>in some cases persistent connections
(<a href=3D\"#persistent_connections\">persistent_connections</a>) may=20
not work properly and either the 'head_before_get' attribute or the=20
'persistent_connections' attribute must be turned off.
</li>
</ul>

--=20
lh...@us...
ht://Dig developer DownUnder  (http://www.htdig.org)