One document matched: draft-snell-httpbis-bohe-12.xml


<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM "rfc2629.dtd" [ 
  <!ENTITY rfc2119 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2119.xml'>
  <!ENTITY rfc6265 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.6265.xml'>
  <!ENTITY comp PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.draft-ietf-httpbis-header-compression-01.xml'>
  <!ENTITY http1 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml3/reference.I-D.draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-23.xml'>
]>
<?rfc toc="yes"?> 
<?rfc strict="yes"?> 
<?rfc symrefs="yes" ?> 
<?rfc sortrefs="yes"?> 
<?rfc compact="yes"?> 
<rfc category="info" ipr="trust200902" docName="draft-snell-httpbis-bohe-12"> 
  <front> 
    <title abbrev="Stored Header Encoding"> 
      HTTP/2.0 Discussion: Stored Header Encoding
    </title> 
 
    <author initials="J.M." surname="Snell" fullname="James M Snell"> 
      <address> 
        <email>jasnell@gmail.com</email> 
      </address> 
    </author> 
    
    <date month="August" year="2013" /> 
 
    <keyword>I-D</keyword> 
    <keyword>http</keyword>
    <keyword>spdy</keyword>
 
    <abstract> 
      <t>This memo describes a proposed alternative encoding for
      headers that combines the best concepts from the proposed
      Delta and HeaderDiff options with the typed value codecs
      introduced by previous versions of this draft.</t> 
    </abstract> 
 
  </front> 
  
  <middle> 

    <section title="Stored Header Encoding">
      
      <t>
        The Stored Header Encoding is a proposed alternative "compressed 
        header encoding" for HTTP/2.0 that offers reasonably good 
        compression ratios, support for a range of compressor strategies,
        efficient value type codecs, constrained state requirements, 
        routing-friendly header value ordering, and easier implementation 
        relative to the current header compression proposal.
      </t>
      
    </section>
    
    <section title="Model">
      
      <t>
        A "header" is a (name,value) pair. The name is a sequence of 
        lower-case ASCII characters. The value is either a UTF-8 string, 
        an integer, a date-time, or an arbitrary sequence of binary octets.
      </t>
      
      <t>
        The compressor and decompressor each maintain a synchronized cache 
        of up to 256 headers. Every header in the cache is referenced by an 
        8-bit identifier. Note that the Nil byte (0x00) is a valid identifier.
      </t>

      <t>
        The cache is managed in a "least recently written" 
        style, that is, as the cache fills to capacity in both number of 
        entries and maximum stored byte size, the least recently written items 
        are cleared and their index positions are reused.
      </t>

      <t>
        Index positions from the cache are assigned in "encounter order", 
        beginning from 0x00 and increasing monotonically to 0xFF. That is to 
        say, the positions are assigned in precisely the same order that they 
        are serialized, and thereby encountered by the decompressor upon 
        reading and processing the block.
      </t>

      <t>
        The available size of the stored compression state can be capped by the 
        decompressor using the SETTINGS_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE setting. Each stored 
        header contributes to the accumulated size of the storage state. 
        As new header pairs are assigned positions in the cache, the 
        least-recently assigned items must be cleared, if necessary, to free 
        up the required space. Clearing existing items does not change the 
        index positions of the remaining items in the cache.
      </t>
      
      <t>
        The SETTINGS_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE setting has an initial default value of
        4096 bytes. The decompressor can establish a new maximum buffer size
        at any time, possibly causing header (name,value) pairs to be 
        evicted from the cache.
      </t>
      
      <t>
        The decompressor can disable use of the storage cache completely by
        setting the SETTINGS_MAX_BUFFER_SIZE setting to 0, forcing the cache
        to empty completely.
      </t>

      <t>
        The size of a header is calculated as: The number of
        octets required for the name plus the number of octets required for
        the value plus 32-bytes to account for any internal storage overhead.
        The number of octets required for the value depends on the value 
        type:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>
            String values are measured by the number of UTF-8 encoded
            octets required to represent the character sequence.
          </t>
          <t>
            Number and Date-Time values are measured by the number of 
            unsigned variable length integer (uvarint) encoded bytes 
            required to represent the value using a 5-bit prefix.
          </t>
          <t>
            Legacy (HTTP/1.1) values are measured by the number of octets 
            required to represent the value.
          </t>
          <t>
            Binary values are measured by the number of octets contained
            by the sequence.
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
    </section>
    
    <section title="Header Encoding and Decoding">

      <t>
        The set of headers is encoded for transmission using the following
        process:
        <list style="numbers">
          <t><!-- #1 -->
            For each header, determine if the (name,value) pair
            already exists in the table.
            <list style="symbols">
              <t>
                If an exact match is found in the header table, 
                encode the indexed position of the header as an
                Indexed Reference and advance to the next header
                (name,value) pair.
              </t>
              <t>
                Otherwise, move to the step #2.
              </t>
            </list>
          </t>
          <t><!-- #2 -->
            Determine if a header (name,value) pair with the 
            same name already exists in the table. If a matching
            name is found, make note of the indexed position of 
            the matching name and continue to step #3.
          </t>
          <t><!-- #3 -->
            Determine whether the new header (name,value) pair 
            ought to be added to the header table.
            <list style="symbols">
              <t>
                If the header is not to be added to the header table, 
                encode the header as a Non-Indexed Literal Representation
                and continue to the next header (name,value) pair.
              </t>
              <t>
                Otherwise, continue to step #4. 
              </t>
            </list>
          </t>
          <t><!-- #4 -->
            If an existing indexed header using the same name was 
            found in the header table in step #2, determine if the
            new header (name,value) pair ought to replace that 
            existing entry or if it ought to be added as a new 
            entry.
            <list style="symbols">
              <t>
                If the header is to replace the existing entry,
                encode the header as an Indexed Literal Replacement 
                Representation.
              </t>
              <t>
                Otherwise encode the header as an Indexed Literal 
                Representation.
              </t>
            </list>
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>

      <t>
        Following these steps, headers are serialized into one of four
        representation types, each represented by a two-bit prefix 
        code. The types and their codes are:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>10 - Indexed</t>
          <t>00 - Non-Indexed Literal</t>
          <t>01 - Indexed Literal</t>
          <t>11 - Indexed Literal Replacement</t>
        </list>
      </t>
     
      <t>
        Each representation type is encoded into groups of up to 64
        instances. Each group is prefixed by a single octet prefix.
        The two most significant bits identify the representation type,
        the six least significant bits specify the number of instances
        in the group, with 000000 indicating a single instance and 111111 
        indicating 64. 
      </t>
      
      <t>
        If a particular serialization block requires more than 64 instances of 
        a given type, then multiple occurrences of the group type can be  
        encoded. For instance, if a given message contains 65 Indexed 
        Representations, the encoded block would contain two separate 
        Indexed Representation groups.
      </t>
      
      <t>
        Decoding simply reverses the encoding steps:
        <list style="numbers">
          <t>
            First initialize an empty working set of headers.
          </t>
          <t>
            Begin iterating through each representation group:
            <list style="symbols">
              <t>
                If it is an Indexed group, iterate through
                each index included in the group, look up the corresponding
                (name,value) pair in the header table and add that 
                to the working set. If no matching (name,value) is 
                found, terminate and report an error.
              </t>
              <t>
                If it's a Non-Indexed Literal group, iterate through
                each (name,value) pair included in the group and 
                add that to the working set.
              </t>
              <t>
                If it's an Indexed Literal group, iterate through each
                (name,value) pair included in the group and 
                add that to both the header table and the working set.
              </t>
              <t>
                If it's an Indexed Literal Replacement group, iterate 
                through each (name,value) pair included in the group,
                replace the existing entry in the header table at the
                identified index, and add the new (name,value) to 
                the working set. If no matching (name,value) is found,
                terminate and report an error.
              </t>
            </list>
          </t>
          <t>
            Continue with each representation group until the complete
            block has been decoded.
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>
        When a single header name is used multiple times with different values, 
        the order in which those values are serialized and processed is 
        significant. The working set created by the decoding process above 
        MUST preserve the ordering of those values as received.
      </t>
        
    <section title="Literal (name,value) Representation" anchor="literal-name-value">
      
      <t>
        The structure of an encoded (name,value) pair consists of:
        <list style="symbols">
          <t>
            A 3-bit value type identifier,
          </t>
          <t>
            The name, encoded either as a literal string or as the header
            table index position of another existing header sharing the 
            same name, and
          </t>
          <t>
            The encoded value.
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>
        The three most-sigificant bits of the first octet identify the 
        value type.
      </t>
      
      <t>
        This design allows for a maximum of 7 value types,  
        five of which are defined by this specification. The two
        remaining types are reserved for future use. The 
        currently defined value types are:
        <list>
          <t>UTF-8 Text (000)</t>
          <t>Integer (001)</t>
          <t>Timestamp (010)</t>
          <t>Legacy (100)</t>
          <t>Raw Binary (111)</t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>
        Of the five types, the Legacy type is reserved for encoding
        header values conforming to the field-value construct defined
        by <xref target="I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging"/>, and is 
        used specifically for backwards compatibility with header 
        fields that have not yet been updated to use a more specific
        type value (see <xref target="backwards-compat"/>). 
      </t>
      
      <t>
        If the name is encoded using an index reference to another 
        existing (name,value) pair in the header table, the remaining
        five least significant bits of the first octet are set to 
        zero and the next byte identifies the referenced header table
        index position.
      </t>
            
      <t>
        If the name is encoded as a literal string, the number of 
        octets required to represent the name is encoded as a 
        unsigned variable length integer with a five-bit prefix,
        filling the 5-remaining least significant bits of the 
        first octet, followed by the sequence of ASCII octets 
        conforming to the following header-name construct:
      </t>
      
      <figure><preamble>Header name ABNF:</preamble><artwork><![CDATA[
 LOWERALPHA = %x61-7A
      
 header-name = "!" / "#" / "$" / "%" / "&" / "'" / 
               "*" / "+" / "-" / "." / "^" / "_" / 
               "`" / "|" / "~" / DIGIT / LOWERALPHA
      ]]></artwork></figure>
      
      <t>
        The encoding of the value depends on the value type.
        <list style="hanging">
          <t hangText="UTF-8 Text:">
            <vspace />
            First, the number of UTF-8 encoded bytes required to 
            represent the value is encoded as an unsigned variable
            length integer with a 0-bit prefix, followed by the
            full sequence of UTF-8 bytes.
          </t>
          <t hangText="Integer">
            <vspace />
            Integer values ranging from 0 to 2^64-1 are encoded as unsigned 
            variable length integers with a 0-bit prefix. Negative or fractional
            numbers cannot be represented.
          </t>
          <t hangText="Timestamp">
            <vspace />
            The timestamp is represented as the number of milliseconds 
            ellapsed since the standard Epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00 GMT), 
            encoded as an unsigned variable length integer with a 0-bit
            prefix. Timestamps that predate the Epoch cannot be 
            represented.
          </t>
          <t hangText="Legacy">
            <vspace />
            First, the number of octets required to represent the 
            value is encoded as an unsigned variable length integer
            with a 0-bit prefix, followed by the full sequence of 
            octets.
          </t>
          <t hangText="Raw Binary">
            <vspace />
            The number of octets in the sequence is encoded as an
            unsigned variable length integer with a 0-bit prefix, 
            followed by the full sequence of octets.
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
      <section title="Dealing with invalid name or value encodings">
        
        <t>
          Implementations encountering invalid name or value encodings
          MUST signal an error and terminate processing of the header 
          block. Examples of such errors include:
          <list style="symbols">
            <t>
              Header names that include any octets not explicitly 
              permitted by the above header-name ABNF construction;
            </t>
            <t>
              UTF-8 values that include a byte order mark, over-long or 
              invalid octet sequences, or octets representing invalid Unicode 
              codepoints;
            </t>
            <t>
              Integer or Date-Time values that encode numbers strictly 
              larger than 2^64-1;
            </t>
          </list>
        </t>
        
      </section>
      
    </section>
    
    <section title="Indexed Representation" anchor="indexed-representation">
      
      <t>
        The serialization of an Indexed Representation group consists of the 
        one-octet header group prefix followed by up to 64 single-octet 
        header table index references.
      </t>
      
      <figure><artwork><![CDATA[
  +--------+--------+--------+--------+---+
  |10xxxxxx| Index positions (1...64)  ...|
  +--------+--------------------------+---+
      ]]></artwork></figure>

      <t>
        For instance:
        <list style="hanging">
          <t hangText="0x80 0x00">
            <vspace />
            References item #0 from the header table.
          </t>
          <t hangText="0x81 0x00 0x01">
            <vspace />
            References items #0 and #1 from the header table.
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
                              
      <t>
        Indexed Representations do not modify the header table state in any 
        way. If an Indexed References specifies a header index that has not 
        yet been allocated or whose value has been cleared, decoding MUST 
        terminate with an error.
      </t>
      
    </section>
    
    <section title="Non-Indexed Literal Representation" anchor="non-indexed-literal">
      
      <t>
        The serialization of a group of Non-Indexed Literal representations
        consists of the one-octet header prefix followed by up to 64 
        Literal (name,value) Representations.
      </t>
      
      <figure><artwork><![CDATA[
  +--------+--------+--------+--------+---+
  |00xxxxxx| (name,value)'s (1...64)    ...
  +--------+--------------------------+---+
      ]]></artwork></figure>
      
      <t>
        For instance:
        <list style="hanging">
          <t hangText="0x00 0x01 0x61 0x01 0x62">
            <vspace />
            Specifies a single header with name "a" and a UTF-8 String
            value of "b" is to be handled as a Non-Indexed header (it
            is not added to the header table).
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
    </section>
    
    <section title="Indexed Literal Representation" anchor="indexed-literal">
      
      <t>
        The serialization of a group of Indexed Literal representations
        consists of the one-octet header prefix followed by up to 64 
        Literal (name,value) Representations.
      </t>
      
      <figure><artwork><![CDATA[
  +--------+--------+--------+--------+---+
  |01xxxxxx| (name,value)'s (1...64)    ...
  +--------+--------------------------+---+
      ]]></artwork></figure>
      
      <t>
        For instance:
        <list style="hanging">
          <t hangText="0x40 0x01 0x61 0x01 0x62">
            <vspace />
            Specifies a single header with name "a" and a UTF-8 String
            value of "b" is to be handled as an Indexed header (it
            will be added to the header table).
          </t>
          <t hangText="0x40 0x21 0x61 0x03">
            <vspace />
            Specifies a single header with name "a" and Integer
            value of 3 is to be handled as an Indexed header (it
            will be added to the header table).
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
    </section>
    
    <section title="Indexed Literal Replacement Representation" anchor="indexed-literal-replacement">
      
      <t>
        The serialization of a group of Indexed Literal representations
        consists of the one-octet header prefix followed by up to 64 
        single octet index references identifying an existing header table
        entry followed by the new Literal (name,value) representation meant
        to replace it.
      </t>
      
      <figure><artwork><![CDATA[
  +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
  |11xxxxxx| (INDEX | (name,value)(1...64))  ...
  +--------+--------------------------+--------+
      ]]></artwork></figure>
      
      <t>
        For instance:
        <list style="hanging">
          <t hangText="0xC0 0x03 0x01 0x61 0x01 0x62">
            <vspace />
            Specifies that a single header with name "a" and a UTF-8 String
            value of "b" is to replace the existing (name,value) entry
            in the header table located at index position #3.
          </t>
          <t hangText="0xC0 0x03 0x21 0x61 0x03">
            <vspace />
            Specifies that a single header with name "a" and Integer
            value of 3 is to replace the existing (name,value) entry
            in the header table located at index position #3.
          </t>
        </list>
      </t>
      
    </section>
      
    </section>
          
      <section title="Unsigned Variable Length Integer Syntax" anchor="uvarint">
        
        <t>
          Unsigned integers are encoded as defined in 
          <xref target="I-D.ietf-httpbis-header-compression" />.
        </t>

      </section>
    
    <section title="Security Considerations">
      <t>TBD</t>
    </section>
        
  </middle> 

  <back>
    <references title="Normative References"> 
      &rfc2119;
      ∁
    </references>    
    
    <references title="Informational References">
      &rfc6265;
      &http1;
    </references>
    
    <section title="Initial Header Table Entries" anchor="prefilled">
      
      <texttable>
        <ttcol>Index</ttcol>
        <ttcol>Name</ttcol>
        <ttcol>Value</ttcol>
        <ttcol>Type</ttcol>
      <c>0</c><c>:scheme</c><c>http</c><c>Text</c>
      <c>1</c><c>:scheme</c><c>https</c><c>Text</c>
      <c>2</c><c>:host</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>3</c><c>:path</c><c>/</c><c></c>
      <c>4</c><c>:method</c><c>GET</c><c>Text</c>
      <c>5</c><c>accept</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>6</c><c>accept-charset</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>7</c><c>accept-encoding</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>8</c><c>accept-language</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>9</c><c>cookie</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>10</c><c>if-modified-since</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>11</c><c>keep-alive</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>12</c><c>user-agent</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>13</c><c>proxy-connection</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>14</c><c>referer</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>15</c><c>accept-datetime</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>16</c><c>authorization</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>17</c><c>allow</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>18</c><c>cache-control</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>19</c><c>connection</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>20</c><c>content-length</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>21</c><c>content-md5</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>22</c><c>content-type</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>23</c><c>date</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>24</c><c>expect</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>25</c><c>from</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>26</c><c>if-match</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>27</c><c>if-none-match</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>28</c><c>if-range</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>29</c><c>if-unmodified-since</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>30</c><c>max-forwards</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>31</c><c>pragma</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>32</c><c>proxy-authorization</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>33</c><c>range</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>34</c><c>te</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>35</c><c>upgrade</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>36</c><c>via</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>37</c><c>warning</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>38</c><c>:status</c><c>200</c><c>Integer</c>
      <c>39</c><c>age</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>40</c><c>cache-control</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>41</c><c>content-length</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>42</c><c>content-type</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>43</c><c>date</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>44</c><c>etag</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>45</c><c>expires</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>46</c><c>last-modified</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>47</c><c>server</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>48</c><c>set-cookie</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>49</c><c>vary</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>50</c><c>via</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>51</c><c>access-control-allow-origin</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>52</c><c>accept-ranges</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>53</c><c>allow</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>54</c><c>connection</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>55</c><c>content-disposition</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>56</c><c>content-encoding</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>57</c><c>content-language</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>58</c><c>content-location</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>59</c><c>content-md5</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>60</c><c>content-range</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>61</c><c>link</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>62</c><c>location</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>63</c><c>p3p</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>64</c><c>pragma</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>65</c><c>proxy-authenticate</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>66</c><c>refresh</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>67</c><c>retry-after</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>68</c><c>strict-transport-security</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>69</c><c>trailer</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>70</c><c>transfer-encoding</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>71</c><c>warning</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>72</c><c>www-authenticate</c><c></c><c></c>
      <c>73</c><c>user-agent</c><c></c><c></c>
      </texttable>
      
    </section>
            
    <section anchor="backwards-compat" title="Updated Standard Header Definitions">
      
      <t>To properly deal with the backwards compatibility concerns
      for HTTP/1, there are several important rules for use of Typed Codecs
      in HTTP headers:
      <list style="symbols">
        <t>All header fields MUST be explicitly defined to use the new header 
          types. All existing HTTP/1 header fields will continue to be
          represented in conformance to the field-value construct defined by 
          <xref target="I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging" /> unless their specific 
          definitions are updated. Such fields MUST specify the Legacy value 
          type when serialized. The HTTP/2 specification would update the 
          definitions of specific known header fields (e.g. content-length, 
          date, if-modified-since, etc).</t>
        <t>For translation to HTTP/1.1, header fields that use the typed codecs 
          will have specific normative transformations defined.
          <list style="symbols">
            <t>UTF-8 Text will be converted to ISO-8859-1 with extended
               characters pct-encoded</t>
            <t>Numbers will be converted to their ASCII equivalent values.</t>
            <t>Date Times will be converted to their HTTP-Date equivalent values.</t>
            <t>Binary fields will be Base64-encoded.</t>
            <t>Legacy fields are passed through untranslated.</t>
          </list>
        </t>
        <t>There will be no normative transformation from legacy values
        into the typed codecs. Implementations are free to apply
        transformation where they determine it to be appropriate, but it
        will be perfectly acceptable for an implementation to pass a text value
        through as a Legacy type even if it is known that a given header has a 
        typed codec equivalent.</t>
      </list>
      </t>
      
      <t>A Note of warning: Individual header fields MAY be defined such 
        that they can be represented using multiple types. Numeric fields, 
        for instance, can be represented using either the uvarint encoding 
        or using the equivalent sequence of ASCII numbers. Implementers will 
        need to be capable of supporting each of the possible variations. 
        Designers of header field definitions need to be aware of the 
        additional complexity and possible issues that allowing for 
        such alternatives can introduce for implementers.</t>
      
      <t>Based on an initial survey of header fields currently defined by
        the HTTPbis specification documents, the following header field 
        definitions can be updated to make use of the new types</t>
        
      <texttable>
        <ttcol>Field</ttcol>
        <ttcol>Type</ttcol>
        <ttcol>Description</ttcol>
        
        <c>content-length</c>
        <c>Numeric or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either an unsigned, variable-length
          integer or a sequence of ASCII numbers.
        </c>
          
        <c>date</c>
        <c>Timestamp or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either a uvarint encoded timestamp
          or as text (HTTP-date).
        </c>
          
        <c>max-forwards</c>
        <c>Numeric or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either an unsigned, variable-length
          integer or a sequence of ASCII numbers.
        </c>
        
        <c>retry-after</c>
        <c>Timestamp, Numeric or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either a uvarint encoded timestamp,
          an unsigned, variable-length integer, or the text equivalents
          of either (HTTP-date or sequence of ASCII numbers)
        </c>
          
        <c>if-modified-since</c>
        <c>Timestamp or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either a uvarint encoded timestamp
          or as text (HTTP-date).
        </c>
        
        <c>if-unmodified-since</c>
        <c>Timestamp or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either a uvarint encoded timestamp
          or as text (HTTP-date).
        </c>
        
        <c>last-modified</c>
        <c>Timestamp or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either a uvarint encoded timestamp
          or as text (HTTP-date).
        </c>
        
        <c>age</c>
        <c>Numeric or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either an unsigned, variable-length
          integer or a sequence of ASCII numbers.
        </c>

        <c>expires</c>
        <c>Timestamp or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either a uvarint encoded timestamp
          or as text (HTTP-date).
        </c>
          
        <c>etag</c>
        <c>Binary or Text</c>
        <c>
          Can be represented as either an opaque sequence of binary octets 
          or using the currently defined text format. When represented
          as binary octets, the Entity Tag MUST be considered to be a
          Strong Entity tag. Weak Entity Tags cannot be represented 
          using the binary octet option.
        </c>
        
      </texttable>
      
    </section>
      
    <section title="Example">
      
      <section title="First Header Set:">
        
        <t>
          The first header set to represent is the following:
        </t>
        
        <figure><artwork>
  :path: /my-example/index.html
  user-agent: my-user-agent
  x-my-header: first
        </artwork></figure>
  
        <t>
          The header table is prefilled as defined in 
          <xref target="prefilled" />, however, none of 
          the values represented in the initial set 
          can be found in the header table. All headers, 
          then, are encoding using the Indexed Literal
          Representation:
        </t>
        
        <figure><artwork>
  43 00 03 16 2f 6d 79 2d 65 78 
  61 6d 70 6c 65 2f 69 6e 64 65 
  78 2e 68 74 6d 6c 00 49 6d 79 
  2d 75 73 65 72 2d 61 67 65 6e 
  74 0b 78 2d 6d 79 2d 68 65 61 
  64 65 72 05 66 69 72 73 74 
        </artwork></figure>
        
        <t>
          Three new entries are added to the header table:
        </t>
        
        <texttable>
          <ttcol>Index</ttcol>
          <ttcol>Name</ttcol>
          <ttcol>Value</ttcol>
          
          <c>74</c>
          <c>:path</c>
          <c>/my-example/index.html</c>
          
          <c>75</c>
          <c>user-agent</c>
          <c>my-user-agent</c>
          
          <c>76</c>
          <c>x-my-header</c>
          <c>first</c>
          
        </texttable>
        
      </section>
      
      <section title="Second Header Set:">
        
        <t>
          The second header set to represent is the following:
        </t>
        
        <figure><artwork>
  :path: /my-example/resources/script.js
  user-agent: my-user-agent
  x-my-header: second
        </artwork></figure>
        
        <t>
          Comparing this second header set to the first, we see that the 
          :path and x-my-header headers have new values, while the user-agent
          value remains unchanged. For the sake of the example let's encode the 
          :path and x-my-header headers using Indexed Literal Replacement
          representations. The user-agent header will be encoded as an
          Indexed Representation.
        </t>
        
        <figure><artwork>
  80 4b a3 4a 00 4a 1f 2f 6d 79 
  2d 65 78 61 6d 70 6c 65 2f 72 
  65 73 6f 75 72 63 65 73 2f 73 
  63 72 69 70 74 2e 6a 73 00 4c
  06 73 65 63 6f 6e 64
        </artwork></figure>
        
        <t>
          Items #74 and #76 added by the previous header set are replaced:
        </t>
        
        <texttable>
          <ttcol>Index</ttcol>
          <ttcol>Name</ttcol>
          <ttcol>Value</ttcol>
          
          <c>74</c>
          <c>:path</c>
          <c>/my-example/resources/script.js</c>
          
          <c>75</c>
          <c>user-agent</c>
          <c>my-user-agent</c>
          
          <c>76</c>
          <c>x-my-header</c>
          <c>second</c>
          
        </texttable>
        
      </section>
      
      <section title="Third Header Set:">
        
        <t>
          Let's suppose a third header set that is identical to the
          second is sent:
        </t>
        
        <figure><artwork>
  82 4b 4c 4d
        </artwork></figure>
        
      </section>
      
    </section>
                
  </back>
</rfc> 
 

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-24 05:39:03