Change History of libwww
This is a list of changes to the W3C Sample Code Library
in reverse chronological order.
This release was originally called 4.1 but because we now have a complete
HTTP/1.1 client side implemenation including
a persistent cache manager and full support
for uploading documents, we decided to call it version 5.0 instead.
The focus for version 5.0 of the W3C Sample Code Library
is to provide a set of higher level, application specific APIs for accessing
the Web. These APIs - called profiles
- will help the application, a Web client for example, to more easily use
the full potential of the application independent
Library core. Also, the Library contains
a significantly better interface for easy access to the Web through a
large set of functions specialized to
perform certain Web operations like PUT
, POST
,
DELETE
, GET
and HEAD
.
This release contains a TCL add-on to the Robot
example application and a Deja GNU Test suite
for the Library. Also, it support HTTP/1.1
including persistent connections, two-way PUT
, and the
host
header. There is also a sample PEP
implementation, that although incomplete can give an idea of where we're
headed using PEP.
Bug Fixes
-
Changed
HTGetTmpName
not to
use tempnam() anymore as it caused problems.
-
Added argument to
HTParseTime
so that we can
decide whether we want to expand relative times or not.
-
The request pointer passed to a progress
notification may be
NULL
-be aware!
Release 4.1b5 August 24 1996
Release 4.1b5 is mainly a bug fix release after intensive testing against
the Common Lisp Server which also
is a HTTP/1.1 application. However, it also has a few new features worth
noting.
New Features
-
Added support for the entity-tag validator headers:
If-Match
and If-None-Match
and also for the
date validators If-Modified-Since
and
If-Unmodified-Since
. We only use either etags or date stamps
and the entity-tag validators have precedence over the date
validators.
-
Added acinclude.m4 in the WWW directory. The
file is used by automake
-
Changed the configure script to handle the
location of the icons distributed as part of the libwww distribution package.
-
Added full support for
Cache-Control
header and
Connection
header. Both headers can have an association list
of name value pairs as directives.
-
Moved the memory cache handler (history handler) from the
line mode browser to be a BEFORE
filter which can be used by other applications
as well. It is now included as part of the
client profile.
-
Changed the expiration handling API to not
include any notification messages. Any messages to be transmitted to the
user is now handled by the Alert manager.
-
Added persistent cache manager to the
client profile.
-
Added validation command to the line mode browser
-
Changed the cache validation management in the
Request object. The validation scheme is now
compatible with HTTP/1.1 caching including handling of the history list.
We have changed the validation enumerations from
-
HT_ANY_VERSION
, HT_MEM_REFRESH
,
HT_CACHE_REFRESH
, HT_FORCE_RELOAD
-
HT_CACHE_OK
, HT_CACHE_FLUSH_MEM
,
HT_CACHE_VALIDATE
, HT_CACHE_FLUSH
.
Bug Fixes
-
Fixed problem when getting a
connection
header with the
close
directive. The problem caused libwww to loop as it recursively
tried to free the input stream pipe
-
Fixed bug in access authentication which could cause libwww to loop if the
top level of the site was protected.
-
Fixed bug that caused a core dump if receiving a message body without any
content-type
. Now the data is passed to the
guessing stream which hopefully can handle
it.
Release 4.1b4 August 20 1996
HTTP version 1.1 allows for effective use of persistent connections. However,
in orderto make this work, a client application must be capable of recovering
from a closed connection between sent requests. The beta 4 version of libwww
supports automatic connection recovery and provides the functionality for
performing pipelining of requests. That is, there can be multiple outstanding
requests on the same connection In order to do this, the release contains
modifications to the Channel Object,
the Host object and the
Net object.
New Features
-
Added support for case-insensitive searching for proxies via environment
variables
-
Added support for proxy authentication
-
Changed handling of proxies so that they are not included in the URL but
is now instead part of the request object. This allows for better handling
of proxies and also for more freely use of the proxy filter as it doesn't
affect the other filters anymore.
-
Added support for TRACE HTTP method in the
HTAccess module.
-
Updated News DLL and incorporated News patches from Maciej Puzio
-
HT_PERSISTENT
is now obsolete and should be replaced by
HT_PENDING
-
The
HTChannelMode
enumeration describing the flow of a channel
has been replaced by HTTransportMode
as it is now a part of
the transport object and not the channel object
-
HTNet_idle()
has been removed and replaced by
HTNet_isIdle()
. The function returns YES if there are no pending
requests in libwww at all.
-
Add support for checking public information about a host and use this information
when issuing a PUT, for example. Also add check for host element in
HTAccess when doing PUT. We may have public
information available
-
Changed the return codes defined in HTUtils
to reflect the values of the HTTP spec.
-
Added support for
305 Use Proxy
redirections
-
Updated HTDir module to better use the fact
that we know that an entry is a directory or not. Now it appends a '/' to
the URL if it is a directory. That way we often avoid a redirection.
-
Removed WWWRules as interface and merged it with the
WWWApp interface. The reason was that the
two were highly alike and depended on each other
Bug Fixes
-
Fixed problem with uploading directory listing using chunked encoding
-
Fixed autoconf to handle WAIS and updated the HTWAIS.c module
-
Fixed race problem in PUT on alphas
-
Tested reentrant version of libwww (uses
_REENTRANT
define)
-
Fixed problem in file name conversion from URL to local format on Windows
Release 4.1b3 July 20 1996
The file access module now does content
negotiation by default. This means that all local file access (including
from client applications) do content negotiation when accessing local
files. Content negotiation can be turned off by setting a flag in the
request object.
A main difference in beta 3 is that we now have a set of
"application profiles" that helps the
application to initialize libwww core to
work as a typical client, robot or other type of application. This should
replace the huge initialization procedure seen in previous versions. This
is in fact a result of the core being so flexible - it is inly a framework
for accessing the Web. The application must initialize all the functionality
at run-time. You can see the various profile functions in the
WWWInit interface.
The second main difference is that the BEFORE and AFTER filters
have been more explicit than before. The HTLoadStart
and
HTLoadTerminate
functions actually covered many typical
BEFORE and AFTER filter functions like looking for proxies,
searching the cache, looking for rule file matching, and logging etc.
However, two functions were not covered by this: redirection and
authentication. That is why the application in previous version had
to supply this functionality. However, in beta 3 we have split up the
HTLoadStart
and HTLoadTerminte
functions into a
set of filters which each perform only
a single function, for example looking for proxies. The split has two functions:
first it shows how you can use filtes to add new functionality to the Library
and second it can be used by more types of applications. A result of the
new filters is that we also have default redirection and authentication filters
so you don't have to provide this anymore.
The filters are set up as part of the
profiles so you will normally not have
to register them individually.
New features and Changes
-
Introduced HTUserprofile class to handle
host and user specific information
-
Added Chunked decoding and encoding module
-
A host name is not expanded to a fqdn name as it is not reliable enough.
Now we just keep it as is, that is we don't expand www to
www.w3.org, for example.
-
Updated HTML parser to support
BASE
tag and LINK
tag
-
Added new access methods to the HTAccess
module. It is now part of the WWWApp
interface
-
Updated the Icon module and added icons
to the distribution file
-
Added a Stream to Chunk converter for
easier conversion of streams into dynamic memory buffers
-
Introduced HTLib as a new core module. It
contains generic information about the core which used to be in the HTAccess
module.
-
Added support for HTTP/1.1. Most of the HTTP/1.1
specification is now in place, we still need some headers and some features
but this version can be considered to be compliant.
-
Added suport for proxy authentication as specified by HTTP/1.1
-
Added support for case-insensitive searching for proxies via environment
variables
-
Changed handling of proxies so that they are not included in the URL but
is now instead part of the request object. This allows for better handling
of proxies and also for more freely use of the proxy filter as it doesn't
affect the other filters anymore.
Bug Fixes
-
Fixed problem with uploading directory listing using chunked encoding
-
Fixed problem in the rule file parser. It didn't parse the last line of the
config file
-
Fixed autoconf to handle WAIS and updated the
HTWAIS.c module
-
Fixed race problem in PUT on alphas which caused the PUT operation to hang
under certain circumstances
Release 4.1b1 May 20 1996
New Features
-
Introduced GNU autoconf configure script for compiling on Unix platforms
instead of the old BUILD script. This should make it a lot easier to compile
on Unix as we get all the advantages of GNU autoconf.
-
Introduction of the HTUserprofile Class which
keeps track of a "user" known to the Library
-
New access authentication interface allowing for dynamic registration of
new access authentication mechanisms. It provides an easy API for hooking
in new schemes.
-
Improved handling of trace messages which allows for easy redirection of
trace messages
-
Support for registration of content coders/decoders and content transfer
encoders/decoders. This is done the same way as for media types by registering
a set of streams that can handle the various encodings.
-
Support for chunked decoding
-
Introduction of the HTHost Class which keeps
track of information about remote hosts
-
The DNS Class has been simplified to handle
DNS queries only. All additional information about the remote host is defined
by the HThost Class.
-
We have a new HTEvent module which allows
for dynamic registration of an event manager. This will make it much easier
to use external event managers together with libwww. If you wish to continue
to use the event loop from HTEvntrg, you must register it explicitly with
HTEventrgInit. This call is demonstrated
in HTBrowse.
-
The HTStream module has been created
containing a set of basiv streams such as an error stream etc.
-
Introduction of the HTTransport Class.
This allows for dynamic registration of transport protocols such as for example
the W3Mux protocol, TCP access, local file access etc.
-
All MIME parsing is now done with registered parsers. The
HTMIME module only unwraps the MIME
header fields and calls the best parser. The header parsing origonally done
in HTMIME can be found in HTInit.c and is
registered with HTMIMEInit. This call is
demonstrated in HTBrowse.
This upgrade release fixes some bugs and it adds functionality for posting
data from memory. This is the full list of changes:
-
Optimized HTTP request header by taken away an "Accept:" line pr accepted
content type and instead use the commna notation.
-
Introduced HTMemory as dynamic memory
handler. This module is a part of the WWWUtils
interface and it handles better management of dynamic memory. You can
find a full description in the User's Guide.
-
We now have an updated list of all public
functions exported from the Library.
-
We also present an updated list of all public interfaces available
in the Library. You can find it in the Library
Internals.
-
PUT and POST from memory is implemented. You can now post data from memory
using the POSTWeb model as for posting remote data objects. The Interface
is described in HTAccess module. There
is a very small dummy test implemented in the Line Mode browser. You can
activate it if you typeedit from the command line.
-
The Mini server now runs (although crude) as a proxy. It is capable of serving
data as a HTTP/HTTP proxy. It is based on the internal Library event loop
and is therefore highly portable. It is not intended to be a full featured
server but a test implementation which shows how to use the Library in server
applications.
-
Bug fixed that caused the following problem: If there hasn't been made a
connection between the net->target and the request->output_stream then
the latter is not freed if the request is interrupted.
-
The referer URL header can now contain a unlimited length URL
-
A resolver callback function has been introduced in the
HTTee stream. This allows the caller to assign
a callback function to resolve conflicts between the return codes of the
two streams.
-
The request object as been added as a calling parameter to the
HTFWrite stream creation method. This
allows errors from writing to a file to propagate back to the request object.
-
The three streams
HTSaveLocally
, HTSaveAndExecute
and HTSaveAndCallBack
have been optimized and they now all use
the HTFWrite stream creation method
-
We have a new module called HTTPGen. It
generates general HTTP headers. These headers were a part of the MIME header
generator, but by isolating them, we can use the MIME header as a generic
MIME entity header generator.
-
Created HTErrorStream which always returns
HT_ERROR
. It replaces the
HTBlackHole has been replace with
HTErrorStream in many places in order to speed up performance
-
Made HTTP response stream (which parses the response line only) into a converter
so that we can forward the output exactly as received from the remote HTTP
server. This is important for proxy applications and other applications that
want to see the output untouched.
-
The HTChunk module has been made more solid and the amount of memory allocations
has been limited.
-
Memory cleanup fixed in content length counter stream and FTP module
-
Introducing HT_CLOSED and HT_PAUSE for handling streams. This was required,
especially after HTTP supports persistent connections where a document is
not delimited by a closed connection.
Release 4.0C January 23 1996
-
Automatic redirection and Access authentication has been take n out of the
HTTP module. Instead the new mechanism with request callback functions are
used so that the application can register handlers to handle these situations.
The reason for this change is that not all applications are interested in
having this functionality performed automatically.
-
Authentication handler and redirection handler added to both the Line Mode
Browser and the Command Line Tool
-
Added three possible return codes on which a request callback function can
be called:
-
HT_PERM_REDIRECT for permanently moved objects
-
HT_TEMP_REDIRECT for temporarily moved objects
-
HT_NO_ACCESS for insufficient credentials
-
PUT and POST do now work reliably in the Line Mode Browser and the Command
Line Tool. Both can PUT or POST a document from either a remote HTTP
server or the local file system to a remote HTTP server.
-
An important bug-fix in the internal event manager that prevented a socket
to be registered for multiple events at the same time.
-
Cleanup of the POSTWeb management in the file module and the HTTP module
-
In addition to progress notification on READ we now support progress notification
when sending a data object
-
Spelling mistake fixed. preemtive is changed to preemptive
-
The W3C Mini Robot has now the ability to stop at a certain depth while
traversing the Web.
Release 4.0A December 11 1995
-
Created the include HTTPUtil.html - a C file may follow
-
Changed HTDoAccept so that it automatically inserts the new socket descriptor
in the Net object.
-
HTLoad_terminate moved from HTReqMan to HTHome. It is not automatically set
up in HTLibInit anymore
-
Made HTAnchor and HTLink opaque data objects
-
changed HTLink_newResult to HTLink_result
-
changed HTLink_newMethod to HTLink_method
-
Changed HyperDoc to simply a void pointer. This makes it more generic and
the application does not have to actually treat it as a document anyway
-
Introduced the WWW_DEBUG internal format that can be used to redirect debug
information, for example from a HTTP redirection message etc.
-
Request object added to HText_new methods
-
changed HTExtParse to HTXParse throughout - H&kon
-
HTXParse now null-terminates buffer - H&kon
-
return codes from HTTee changed - H&kon
-
content-length initialized to -1 - H&kon
-
Fixed bug for handling HEAD in HTTP and MIME streams
-
Handles of persistent connection is now a semaphore and not a bool
-
Changes the event loop so that a timeout handler can return HT_OK or HT_ERROR.
If the code is not HT_OK then stop the event loop
-
Changed request of header enumeration:
-
General headers have the prefic HT_G_
-
Request headers have the prefic HT_C_
-
Server headers have the prefic HT_S_
-
Entity headers have the prefic HT_E_
-
Separated file suffix initialization into HTBInit
-
Changed the names in HTChunk to be consistent with the Module_method scheme
-
Introduced HTBInit.c for setup of file suffixes
Alpha Release 7, November 28 1995
Alpha Release 6, November 20 1995
Alpha Release 5, November 8 1995
The Library has now undergone a major restructuring in order to define the
APIs between the various parts and to make it more modular. The new architecture
is described in the Architecture
document and includes a new Net manager that handles a request queue,
a DNS manager that handles persistent connections and a well defined Request
manager where the HTRequest object is an opaque object.
Core Modules
-
Generalized the Error Manager to work on
lists instead of as directly on a request object. This makes it possible
to use the error manager in all situations.
-
Changed HTAppName and HTAppVersion to parameters to HTLibInit()
instead of as global parameters.
-
Introduced a new main include file called
WWWApp.h which contains applications specific
modules. None of these modules are actually required to compile and link
the Library, but the application can use them if needed.
-
None of the access modules (HTTP, FTP, NNTP, etc.) are set up by default
anymore. This is now for the applications to do.
-
Changed TRACE to WWWTRACE as it interferes with macro on
NT
-
The balanced binary tree in HTBtree is
not used anymore. The functionality is now provided by the new
HTArray module that is a dynamic array
of pointers. It is much like the HTChunk
module but for pointers instead of dynamic strings. The advantage is
that the fast qsort algorithm can be used on the array.
-
Moved the two functions
HTWWWTLocal()
and
HTLocalToWWW()
from the HTFile
Module to the HTString module for
converting between local file names and URLs
-
It is now possible to register a call back function together with a timeout
that is used in the select call of the event loop. When the select() call
times out, the call back function is called. The registration can either
be so that the call back always is called when that the select call
times out or only when Library sockets are in use.
-
We have a port to PowerMac and 68K!!! This has been provided by Steven T.
Roussey <sroussey@eng.uci.edu> and Brad Barber
<barber@well.com>
-
We have changed HTThread to HTNet.c as thread
was too confusing. This module has been cleaned up and rewritten so that
HTNet.c now contains the Net manager. The Net
manager controls the net access so that we only keeps a specified amount
of sockets open simultaneously (called a request queue). It also partly controls
the management of persistent connections together with the
DNS Manager.
-
The HTRequest Object is now known to the
Request Manager only. It is accessible through
a lot of methods just like the Anchor object
etc. The HTAccess module is now a user
interface to the Request Manager but it doesn't have to be used - you can
use the Request Manager directly but often it is easier to go through the
Access Module.
-
The Protocol object has been turned into an object internal to the
Protocol manager. This means that protocol
information can be accessed via a set of methods provided by the manager.
-
We have changed case sensitive search to insensitive search when finding
an access methods (HTTP, FTP, telnet etc.) for a URL. This catches silly
errors in URLs like HTTP://www.foo.com
-
The static protocol declarations have been replaced with a set of parameters
to the creation method of a protocol object in the
Protocol Manager which is more handy.
-
We added HTProtocol_delete() as method in the
Protocol manager. This means that it is
now possible to unregister a protocol at runtime. If you are on
a platform with dynamic linking (for example DLLs) then this can save a lot
of space.
-
Introduction of application call back function for memory cache. This is
a part of separating the HText module and
also to make the memory cache manager more flexible. An example implementation
can be found in the GridText module
in the Line Mode Browser.
-
Full support for the HTLink object
that binds together two anchors. This is a requirement for keeping track
of the Post Web.
-
URL fragment identifiers were case insensitive - they are now case sensitive
-
Added
result
field to the
HTLink so that the result of a posting operation is stored in the link
object. This means that the application can see which post operations succeeded
and which didn't. This can for example be used in a GUI client to show the
relations between the source and destination anchor as "dim" links.
-
Fixed bug in put mechanism that caused destinations to accumulate in the
postweb. Now `old' destinations are still registered but not included in
a new postweb - they can, however, be discarded all together, but often the
information is nice to have. On a GUI client, it can be shown as 'dimmed'
destinations.
-
Removed remaining outputs directly to stdout using fprintf(). Now
all goes through HTAlert module. This
was a problem in some of the protocol modules as well (especially in the
Telnet module).
-
The
CacheItems
structure is removed from anchor object and replaced
by (BOOL) CacheHit
. If CacheHit=YES
then the format
negotiation and suffix binding is not used in
HTFile Module but the object is loaded directly
(from the local file cache) using non-blocking I/O
-
Internal DNS/hostname cache optimized and made more flexible to support
persistent connections for all protocols that support this, for example
HTTP, FTP, and NNTP. The first version has support for HTTP only, but the
other ones will follow shortly. and multiple connections to same address.
You can now control the garbage collection of DNS entries based on time.
The DNS object keeps also information about the remote server (class of request,
for example HTTP or FTP and the type of server, for example HTTP/1.0, HTTP/0.0
etc.). This means that it is possible to adjust a request to a remote server
once the type is known. For example, the Library now distinguishes between
HTTP servers version 0.9, 1.0, and 1.1. New classes and versions can be
registered at run time just like protocol modules.
-
HTDoConnect rewritten as a state machine
which makes it a lot easier to understand and change. It is furthermore and
important part of the persistent connection management.
-
Removed
HTMaxRedirect
as a global variable. It is now private
to Request manager with two methods to access
it
-
Support for context swapping and call back function in the
HTRequest object. This allows the application
to distinguish between multiple ongoing requests. See more information in
the User's Guide.
-
Bug fix in HTTCP.c HTGetHostName thanks to "dave
(d.) mielke" <davem@bnr.ca>
Protocol Modules
Stream Modules
-
We now have a MIME multipart parser stream
which supports nested MIME multipart messages. This stream sets up a new
MIME parser stream each time it finds a new body. Preamble and epilog messages
are ignored by default but can be redirected to the special
Debug Stream output of the Request object.
-
We have added a content counter stream and a buffer stream in
HTConLen module. This can be used to count
the number of bytes in a data object either to be sent to a remote server
or as a check of a received body. Together with the Content Length counter
stream there is also a buffer stream that can buffer up to a certain amount
of dat before it goes transparent.
-
We have replaced the internal format identifier
www/mime
with
the MIME conforming message/rfc822
format. This may affect the
setup of stream converters that used the old format.
-
We have also added a new HTMIMERq module
which is responsible for creatin MIME metainformation when sending requests.
This is used, for example, by the HTTP protocol
module and the NNTP protocol module
-
For the first time, it is not required to define dummy definitions
of the external declared function in the HText
Interface. It is now only referenced from the
HTML module and the
Plain Text Presentation module. This means
that applications that do not use the HTML/HText interface no more have the
modules linked into the final object code.
-
The SGML module is no longer included anywhere
anymore except where necessary. The structured stream definition can be found
in HTStruct module
-
Make registration of callback function for unknown MIME headers in the
MIME parser. The application can now more
easily experiment with new headers. The registration process is described
in the section How to get Started Writing an App
-
Added support for png (lossless graphics format) (patch from unknown?) into
the Guess stream
-
Bug fixed in HTML parser It couldn't handle
more than 20 nested HTML tags which can happen for example in auto-generated
HTML documents.
-
HTLoadError taken out completely. Replaced by the
error manager. It was for (stupid) historic
reasons put into the HTML parser.
Application Modules
-
HTInteractive made a private flag to
HTAlert.c. It can now be reached via two methods
in the module.
-
All functions in the Alert Module now has
a request object as part of the calling parameters. The reason is that then
the implementation of this module can call a registered call back function
(as described above) so that the user message can be put into the right context.
-
Mem leak fixed in HTLog module and added
result of request to the log file. The log module is no longer called in
the Library at all so if you do not use then it is not included in the
application.
-
Rewritten HTHistory module to perform a
better history mechanism - the old version did not work properly. Some of
the new features are
-
Support for multiple history lists. You can use the context information in
the request object to find the right list at any given time.
-
The list now supports both back and forward for navigation.
The list is no more "back trace with deletion".
See User's Guide for more information
-
Introduced HTProgress() notifications for
the following operations
-
DNS lookup
-
connect to remote host (either passive or active)
-
read data from network
-
write data to network
-
request finished
-
waiting for free socket
On each of these operations, the library calls HTProgress() with
a code so that the application can define what to do with it.
Generic Utilities
-
Introduced HTChunkData() and HTChunkSize() as methods in the
HTChunk module. No more need to look into
the HTChunk object itself.
-
Changed HTStat to HT_STAT and HTLStat to HT_LSTAT as they are macros
-
The
HTSimplify()
function in the
HTParse module now follows the
RFC 1808
Specification
-
Fixed bug in HTCanon() that got confused about
<http://teller.datawave.net:80/test/../imx/weelogo.gif> thanks to Henry
Minsky
-
HTCanon() made private to
HTParse module as it is called from
HTSimplify() only
-
All replaced with (wb|ab) if known binary output. This
was a problem on Windows 3.1 platform as it inserted extra CRLF
line terminators.
-
Created HTNumToStr() in HTString Module
to convert a number to a string using prefixes. This can be used in the progress
notification to write Read 1.6K etc.
Library 3.1, November 14 1995
Official release
Library 3.1pre3 Release Notes, November 13
This is a last test of the 3.1 release. The official 3.1 release will follow
in a few days. The purpose of this third pre-release is simply to avoid any
obvious problems while we still have time. Very little will change in the
final release! The big difference is that Windows NT is fully supported!
New Features and Interfaces
-
Changed "rs6000" to "AIX" and "decstation" to "ultrix" in BUILD script. The
previous names were not obvious
-
Have created HTProt module which handles
protocol module registration. It used to be in
HTAccess module, but this module is now
uniquely for user requests
-
Changed the names of the following functions in the
HTProt module
HTRegisterProtocol -> HTProtocol_add
HTProtocolDispose -> HTProtocol_deleteAll
HTProtocolBlocking -> HTProtocol_isBlocking
-
Canonicalization now understands host names terminated with a ":", for example
"www.w3.org:" is converted into "www.w3.org"
-
HTEvnttd.c is removed from the source tree; it's no longer needed. Likewise,
HTEvent.c is no longer needed; it has been superseded by HTEvntrg.c and
HTEvntrg.html.
-
Added support for REENTRANT versions of
getlogin_r
gethostbyname_r
gethostbyaddr_r
ctime_r
localtime_r
gmtime_r
asctime_r
ctermid_r
rand_r
readdir_r
except in HTFTP module as it will
be changed later. Some of the function cause problems on Solaris...
Bug Fixes
-
Fixed bug in HTBind_getSuffix that caused garbage file suffixes
-
Fixed memory leak in HTAnchor if a child has more than one destination
Library 3.1 Prerelease 2, November 1 1995
The code word for the 3.1 release is support for remote collaborate work
where people can use HTTP and the Web as a remote authoring environment.
The reason for the slight delay is that this release has a new "Post Web"
model for implementing PUT and POST, the documentation has been reorganized
and rewritten, and some other important features have been incorporated.
The Post Web model is described in the new documentation, see the reference
below.
In addition to the new set of features and functionality this release also
is the first example of source code distributed under the W3C conditions.
This means that the code is available to consortium members only within a
month from the release date.
A lot of the work put into this release has been to update the API of the
Library. This is mainly described in the new "User Guide", so please do read
this and remember that comments are welcome!
New Features and Interfaces
-
The Post Web model is supported by the following methods to handle the HTRequest
object
-
HTRequest_removeDestination()
-
HTRequest_linkDestination()
-
HTRequest_unlinkDestination()
-
HTRequest_removePostWeb()
-
HTRequest_killPostWeb()
-
HTFile module is completely rewritten as
a state machine much like the HTTP module.
It is now possible to have non-blocking, interruptible I/O and to PUT and
POTS from a local file as well as from a remote HTTP server.
-
HTCopyAnchor is rewritten to use the PostWeb
-
The thread model is extended to include a HTThread_kill() function so that
threads are terminated immediately upon request
-
HTProxy module is introduced. This module
substitutes the environment variables for defining gateways and proxies.
It can now be done dynamically at run time. For backwards compatibility
HTProxy_getEnvVar() can be used to read the most used environment variables.
-
Taken socket read/write functionality out of HTFormat and created
HTSocket module which handles all the
basic network access
-
Spawned HTMethod module from HTAccess
module
-
Better handling of WAIS src files and use of gateway information
-
Upgraded the WAIS to handle version 0.5 of the freeWAIS library.
-
Better handling of media types from WAIS responses (guessing)
-
All HTTP headers can now be transmitted and received and they can all be
enabled/disabled using a bitmask.
-
New functions to support accept encoding, language, and charset
-
Guess stream now handles macbinhex format
-
No more circular references in any of the Library include files
-
Introduced REMOVE and RMDIR as macros instead of direct system calls
-
Removed HTRequest_clear() - it's not safe to reuse a request object
-
HTStrip() is now placed in the HTString module
-
introducing the method used in the link object in the anchor
-
HTTP modified to support PostWeb
Bug Fixes
-
Cache is now avoided if in secure mode (no access to local file system)
-
Bug fix to allow simultaneous read and write on the same socket
-
Stream stack now dumps to local file if no conversion can be made
-
Bug fix that caused core dumps for HTTP 0.9 servers
-
Bug fixed in stream stack if system() call is not present. This release has
a new model called "Post Web" for handling put and post from a source to
a multiple number of destinations. Furthermore
Library 3.1 Prerelease 1, May 20 1995
A lot of the work put into this release has been to update the API of the
Library. This is mainly described in the new User
Guide, so please do read this and remember that comments are welcome!
New Features and Interfaces
-
Windows NT Support (and possibly Windows 3.1 with Win32S) thanks to Charlie
Brooks, <cbrooks@osf.org>
-
A lot easier handling of headers in the HTTP module including support for
extra headers
-
Improved HTTP/MIME parser which recognizes
99% of the HTTP headers The rest will be ready in the next release! This
includes support for "charset" and "level" parameter
-
Support for PUT and POST. This is not yet fully implemented but it is possible
to experiment with it
-
Big enhancement of the anchor module with support for all HTTP/1.0 headers,
garbage collection etc.
-
The Cache manager is made more object oriented with a broader set of methods.
The garbage collector is not the best
-
HTBind module created for better bindings to file system with new hash function
for improved speed and more functionality than before
-
Created HTDateTimeStr() and HTMessageID() in
HTString
-
Separated HTStructured into its own stream definition module
(HTStruct.h)
-
Introduced STREAM_TRACE and BIND_TRACE as new debug flag
-
Original reason messages are now passed back as a parameter by the error
handler when talking to a remote HTTP server
-
Introduction of error_format in the request object. This can be used to get
debug information out of the Library
-
Better handling of media types in FTP and Gopher including recognition of
UU encoded files
Bug Fixes
-
Eventloop responds now faster on events as it more often does a select
-
HTTP version strings are now string and not floats
-
Many platform dependent macros introduced and a lot of cleanup
CERN terminated
its direct engagement in the World Wide Web with the release of Library version
3.0. The code is now developed and maintained by
W3C.
Library 3.0, Mar 21 1995
Many of the modifications and new features are mentioned under the pre-releases.
-
Changed all float to double in order get it consistent
with the working floating type in C
-
Fixed problems with memory in HTML.c
-
Introduced definition of
errno
constants for WIN32, as WinSock
doesn't define them using BSD notation
Library 3.0 Prerelease 3, Mar 10 1995
New or Changed Features
-
All library include files which contains public information for applications
are now contained in the single include file
WWWLib.h which is the only one necessary
PLEASE DON'T USE ANYTHING ELSE!!!
-
Changed TRACE messages so that the target is the macro TDEST and not stderr.
This means that on platforms that don't support stderr, TRACE messages can
be redirected to a local file.
-
Due to the PC Port some modules (definition and declaration files) have changed
names so that the max length is 8 characters:
-
Move EnableFrom to HTAccess module. This
variable determines whether the HTTP header From: should be generated.
The default value is off
-
Sockets are no longer assumed to be small, non-negative integers, but uses
macros. This should ensure portability to Windows NT.
-
Introduced socerrno and errno so that WinSock can use its own definition
whereas `local' errno can still use the well-known version.
-
Introduced
error_stream
as field a HTRequest object. All information
contained in HTTP responses which don't naturally contain a body entity,
for example redirection codes (3xx) and client error codes (4xx) will be
put down this stream so that it can be put into a debug window.
-
HTNewsHost is now a local variable in the HTNews
module. Use HTGetNewsHost and HTSetNewsHost to set and get the current
value. The news module will be rewritten in the near future as it has many
problems.
-
The HTTP module understands all HTTP/1.0 return
codes and is more solid
-
Many portability problems has been solved and optimized. Most system dependent
things are now put into tcp module
-
Interface to CSO name server made nicer - generates correct HTML
Bug Fixes
-
file:// no more tries ftp:// if host=localhost
-
Improved proxy support and fixed bug when reloading a document from a proxy
-
Bug fixed in HTGetHostName() which didn't include a dot <.>
-
Bug fixed if UserID/passwd was not correct and don't want to retry
-
HTErrorAdd and HTErrorSysAdd no always return HT_ERROR
-
Fixed bug in HTGetDomainName when no domain name is present at all
-
Add output_flush to request object
-
Uses IOCTL as a macro now - not fcntl
-
and a lot of other stuff...
Library 3.0 Prerelease 2, Dec 2 1994
-
Introduced memory cleanups from Eric Sink into
HTLibTerminate()
-
Now the client can provocate a call to
HTEventRequestTerminate()
even when the request never enters the eventloop. This is necesary so that
the client can cancel busy icons, spinning globes etc.
-
Introduced
EVENT_TERM
as return code for the HTEventHandler
function
-
HTEventHandler() now
has a double pointer so that the request
pointer can be modified from the client
-
Fixed bug in
HTSearch()
and HTLoadRelative()
where
wrong return code was returned (BOOL instead of int)
-
Introduced BlockingIO field in the request object to override the the mode
registered in the protocol object. This can be used as an easy way to make
blocking I/O
Library 3.0 Prerelease 1, Nov 26 1994
New and Changed Features
-
Introduced the function HTLibInit() and HTLibTerminate() which MUST be called
when the application starts up and terminates.
-
Introduced the modules HTThread and HTEvent. HTEvent is the client interface
when using multithreaded functionality and HTThread is the internal socket
management
-
All __STDC__ defines now concentrated to HTUtils.html where it is called
_STANDARD_CODE_ so that _cplusplus also handles this
-
`new' and `template' not used a names anymore (confuses C++)
-
Removed from field in HTRequest object. This is now handled by the functions
HTGetMailAddres and HTSetMailAddress and the flag HTEnableFrom in the HTTP
module.
-
Changed HTSetMailAddress so that a call with parameter equals NULL or ""
clears the contents of the mail-address.
-
The number of parameters to Streamstack function is now compatible with the
arguments to a stream converter, so that we don't loose any information while
putting up the stream stack.
-
HTOutputSource variable is removed. You should use WWW_SOURCE in the request
object
-
HTGuess stream is a a converter compatible stream so that it actually can
be setup as a converter
-
The stream methods `abort' and `_free' now returns int instead of void. On
success from these methods `_free' returns 0 and `abort' return EOF
-
Taken HTEscape and HTUnescape and put them into the HTEscape module. The
functionality is the same but now they can be used in utility programs without
linking in the whole Library
Bug Fixes
-
Removed bug in WAIS module which caused a lot of core dumps
-
Removed bug in format classification from URL suffix in HTGoper when the
file was plaintext
-
localhost is now recognized again after canonicalization in
HTLoadFile()
-
WAIS SEARCH now produces proper HTML
-
Max number of lines in WAIS decreased to 200 as 250 (previous) dumps core
-
Bug fixed in
HTGetHostName()
if we must use the getdomainname()
function.
-
Added some support for SCO
-
Handling of gopher items of type ERROR (3) changed so no more core dumps
in server
2.17 Release on November 25 1994
New and Changed Features
-
The host-cache is now extended so that it tries all IP-addresses
before it fails the request. It always starts with the fastest
IP-address.Different penalty is added to the connect times dependent of the
errno returned from
connect()
.
-
In addition to HTSimplify which canonicalizes the URL path, a new function
now canonicalizes the host-part of the URL. This means that URLs like
http://info/ = http://www.w3.org:80/ = http://INFO.CeRn.CH/ =
http://www.w3.org. = http://www.w3.org/
now all are treated identical. This is useful for all the caches based on
URLs such like the Server document cache and the hostname cache
-
TRACE is now differentiated into a bit flag so that TRACE messages can be
turned on and off for individual groups of messages. This was necessary as
the amount of verbose output was growing too much
-
Redirection understands now `URI:' and `Location:'. Implemented after discussion
on www-talk
-
Changed 404 Error Message to `Access Forbidden'. The URL is no more included
in the message as it is sensitive information
-
FTP client now sends full email address of the user as the password for anonymous
access instead of USER@. This allows access to some servers which don't accept
the old format
-
The data connection in a FTP session is now based on the return value sent
by the PASV return code rather than the URL. It is not always the case that
the data connection is on the same host as the control connection
-
UserID and Passwd in FTP URLs can now contain special characters, like '@'
etc.
-
The Gopher listings are now slightly lighter and don't contain the `name'
and `files' any more
-
Support of Gopher info items. They are treated as normal messages. The gopher
code for this is `i'
-
WAIS module now guesses the stream format when TEXT is returned from the
WAIS library as it might be HTML.
-
The Protocol modules: FTP, WAIS, and Gopher now produce proper HTML with
etc. in the beginning
-
Added a function that returns the domain name taken from the same location
as HTGetHostName(). The functionality of obtaining current host names, mail
addresses etc. have improved, see HTTCP.html for more
-
Introduced the flag HTInteractive in HTAccess.html to tell whether functions
in HTAlert can prompt the User from within the Library or not. Default is
YES.
-
The common BUILD for the Line Mode Browser, the CERN Server and the W3C Sample Code
Library now accepts a command line option:
BUILD linemode | daemon | library
to build a specific component. The default action is to build all three parts.
BUILD is now also provided in a Bourne Shell version
Bug Fixes
-
Fixed memory leak in HTWAIS Doc retrieval. However, the functionality or
performance has not changes
-
If no host is found in the URL then no attempt is made to connect to host
0.0.0.0 that is localhost. Some hosts do have an alias for this address
-
Fixed free memory read in redirections. Put redirection counter into request
object. Now no more than (default) 10 redirections are allowed
-
Fixed bug in FTP module to handle really slow hosts in the select call. The
select timed out without the right action taken.
-
FTP module chopped off the first line of a Windows NT ftp server as it doesn't
send a traditional first UNIX line. Fixed! Well, it did look like
UNIX, but no more than that :-(
-
Problem in HTTeXGen. Some markups was spread over a new line, and LaTeX doesn't
like that.
-
Remove the
ACCESS_AUTH
define as it is never used anymore (no
more compilation without access authentication)
-
Fixed bug in the ISO Latin 1 translation table in HTML.c. This was a problem
for estonian documents or other with many special characters
-
Fixed bug in HTSimplify not skipping host names. HTSimplify is made faster
and is now only called once (both from the server and the client). Before
it was called 2-3 times.
-
Bug found in FTP URLs containing UserID and Passwd fixed
-
Bug fixed in name generation in client cache
-
Removed bug in FTP and IP-rotation on multi-homed hosts. When FTP server
is in PASV mode it sends back a port number on a specific host. In this case
we can't use IP-address rotation.
-
Bug with FTP IP-address network order fixed for PASV mode
-
Gopher errors (code 3) are now just put as a string as they are not
real error
-
Bug fixed in HTWriter.c function
flush()
where a partial success
in NETWRITE would produce a wrong output (repeated buffer)
2.16 Prerelease 2, November 1994
WAIS Client
The WAIS client has been improved and some bugs have been fixed:
-
Bug in the parser of the search result from the WAIS module fixed
-
Maximum number of lines presented from a search made a configuration variable.
Default value is 100 (was 40)
-
Introduced WAIS's own error messages as they are returned from the WAIS library
-
The presentation of WAIS on the screen made nicer (well - I think it is!)
HTTCP Module
-
Bug in the host cache fixed
Access Authorisation
-
Premature free of memory fixed
-
Missing initialization fixed
2.16 Prerelease 1, April 1994
New Features and Changed Interfaces
HTTP Client
HTTP module contains the code for the HTTP
client. The module is now reorganized and made more modular.
-
Automatic Redirection
-
Now supported by the HTTP Module. The name of the new URL is parsed to the
client via the error_stack as a ERR_INFO message, see
HTError module. The maximum number of
redirections is set by the variable HTMaxRedirections.
-
Referer Field in HTTP request
-
Clients are provided the possibility of sending a
Referer Field in a
HTTP Request. This is done by filling out
the HTRequest->parentAnchor field.
-
From field in HTTP Request
-
Clients can now send the full email address of the current user in the
HTTP From field. The feature is turned off
by default as it might get a bit tricky through a Proxy.
-
204 Response
-
Support of return code `204 No Response'
FTP Client
HTFTP module contains the code for the FTP
client. The FTP client has changed a lot in this release. It is now a complete
state machine where the actual action executed is a function of the current
state.
Gopher Client
The Gopher has been revised and improved
error handling has been implemented.
-
Information Messages
-
Some Gopher servers send back information messages in a line containing
"error.host". This information is treated like login information from FTP
servers so that it is represented as a message before or after the actual
listing.
-
Iconized Listings
-
Listings now contain icons in the same way as the other listings.
-
CSO Name Server
-
The CSO Name Server client outputs in HTML and not only <PRE> as before.
-
Content Type Recognition
-
The Gopher module uses it's own content-type recognition inherited from HTTP
when handling gopher text and gopher binary files. This means, that e.g.
PostScript files get handled correctly.
Local File Access
The new version of HTFile module is a lot smaller as all Directory listing
stuff has moved to HTDirBrw module. New error handling has been implemented.
Passive and Active Connection Establishment
Calls to connect() and accept() now go through the functions HTDoConnect()
and HTDoAccept() respectively.
Cache of Host Names and Addresses
HTInetParse() that is called from within HTDoConnect now has an internal
cache of the names and (possible multiple) IP-addresses of visited hosts.
This minimizes the access to the file /etc/hosts and the Domain Name Server,
even though aliases are not recognized in the cache.
The default cache size is 500 entries and a host stays as long as a connect()
succeeds. That is, if connection is refused for some reason, the host is
taken out of the cache.
The time to make a connection to a multihomed host is measured every time
and a mean access time is calculated so that HTDoConnect always takes the
fastest IP-address, see Future plans.
Improved Functionality of DNS requests
The Library now provides functionality for obtaining the full mail address
of the user, full domain name of the host and also the possibility for setting
both values. This means that the user can use his official email address,
e.g. in the HTTP request.
Long directory listings for HTTP, FTP and files on the local file system
supported. For the moment only a part of the functionality, e.g, sorting,
which columns to show etc. is exploited, see Future
Plans.
Icon Management
Icons in directory listings are bound to MIME content-types and encoding.
They can be found in the HTIcons module.
The default set of icons is set up using HTStdIconInit() and new icons can
be added dynamicly using HTAddIcon().
File Descriptions in Directory Listings
File descriptions are supported for long HTTP directory listings. The default
thing is to peek the title of the HTML files.
Error and Information Message Management
A new error handling module is introduced in
HTError. It uses the error_stack entry
in the HTRequest object. It handles nested
error messages so that we can give a reason for the error, e.g.
Error in ...
This error occurred because ...
This is caused by ...
etc.
It also makes it possible for the Library to pass information back to the
client so that the the Library doesn't act like a `black hole'. An example
is HTTP redirection with status code `Moved 301'. Now the new URL is parsed
back to the client via the error_stack so that the client can update the
reference when possible.
The function that generates and outputs the error messages to the user is
put into HTErrorMsg Module so that it can be overwritten by a smart client
or server.
Guessing the Content Type of a Stream
The HTGuess module reads a part a stream and determines the content type
with the highest probability from a statistical analysis.
Minor Stuff
-
tmpnam()
-
Because of problems on NeXT platforms the tmpnam() function is now replaced
by HTFWriter_filename() in HTFWriter.c. The function has two modes: Give
back a hash name or the last part of the URL (which normally is more readable).
-
HTMLPutImg()
-
New function to make it easier to put out an HTML <IMG> tag.
-
HTParseInet()
-
Added one more parameter to tell whether it is a multihomed host or not.
(This is used in the host cache).
-
HTInetStatus()
-
Should no more be used directly but is called from HTErrorAdd so that the
message goes all the way back to the user
-
HTError
-
This typedef is now obsolete and will be removed in future releases
-
HTLoad()
-
Added new parameter to HTLoad: BOOL keep_error_stack. If YES then the error_stack
is not cleared. This is used in redirection etc.
-
HTLoadError()
-
Because of the new HTError module, this
function in HTML.c is not needed anymore.
Bug Fixes
This is a list of fixed bugs from earlier versions.
-
Memory faults in HTSimplify() in HTParse.c has been fixed
-
README files in directory listings now know how to handle '<', '>'
and '&' correctly. Though the file still has to be Ascii. See
future plans for handling this file.
-
tmpnam is no more used in the Library because of problems on NeXT platform.
Instead a new function called HTFWriter_filename() in HTFWriter.c is written.
-
HTInputSocket_getCharacter now returns a int and not a char so that EOF is
no longer a member of the char set.
-
HTMLGen_start_element() is only allowed to put extra '\n' in <PRE>
mode if it is between parameters in a tag
-
Changed type of <IMG> into SGML_EMPTY so that it doesn't expect end
tag <\IMG>
-
Nested <PRE> is no more a problem in HTMLGen_start_element.
-
Removed all #elif as not all compilers on HPUX likes it.
-
Changed HTChunk such that chunk->data is '\0' terminated at any time.
This actually makes HTChunkTerminate less needed but be aware that
HTChunk->size changes.
-
Removed non-portable d_namlen field in HTMulti.
-
Moved definition of NO_GROUPS to tch.html
-
Moved definition of HT_MAX_PATH to tch.html
-
Proxy server now closes connection in HTTP.c. This was only problem in
non-forking servers (VMS).
-
Definition of HT_NO_DATA moved to HTUtils.html where the other return codes
are placed.
-
Functions from HTAlert Module that prompt
the user don't get confused about ctrl-D anymore.
27 March 94 2.16beta VMS version
25 March 94 - 2.15
General Upgrade
International
Bug Fixes
-
Bug fixed in HTFile.c prevented .multi multiformat links from working under
Solaris, maybe other SYSV.
-
Bug fix in client HTTP: "Accept" line params preceded by ";" now as per spec.
-
Bug fixed in HTBTree.c that crashed for some large directories.
15 December 2.14vms
17 November 2.14
-
Contains port to VMS.
-
Bug fix in HTML generation -- line wrapping code produced garbage. Affected
servers working as gateways and also editors writing back HTML.
-
Buf fix: static string returned by crypt() was free() 'd.
4 Nov 93 Version 2.13
-
Bug fix: FTP text transfer don't end when 8 bit characters used. Still end
on character -1. Thanks to Bjoern Stabell (bjoerns@staff.cs.uit.no)
-
A single function HTPromptUsernameAndPassword() so that GUIs can have a single
authentication dialog box.
-
Extensive filename suffix recognition defaults.
11 Oct 93 Version 2.12
-
Authroization in. See Ari's documentation. Everything is back-compatible,
but there are large extenions to the rule file syntax, plus new ACL and
protection setup files. Authorization is done by password in the clear now,
with hooks for public key later.
-
Some other bug fixes. Not all the reported ones.
8 Sept 93 Version 2.11
-
Binary transfer problems tackled in HTTP. Yukky problem of existing illegal
0.9 server producing binary which looks like text is unsolved. No problems
with HTTP 1.0 transfer.
-
Streams: end_document method removed. "Abort" method added as requested at
W5 -- use this when a pipe (stream stack) is broken by an error prevents
execution etc of partially written files for example.
-
New stream HTNetToText for converting Net ASCII to local C representation.
-
Bug fix: Directories represented with anchors all with empty string (as opposed
to no) names: many NAME="" in anchors.
-
Bug fix: application/octet-stream replaces application/binary as per MIME.
-
CSO Nameserver code to HTGopher added as Mosaic originally from ???. (AS)
-
Bug fix: HTTPD would return an old-style (non-MIME) response when sending
back a file in unrecognised format, evn if client was using HTTP 1.0.
Version 2.10 Not released due to WWWWW
-
Bug fix: crashed with error message when doing a Gopher search.
-
WAIS type "HTML" recognised as HTML. Other types treated as application/binary.
30 November 1993, version 2.09a
-
Bug fix: A space was not allowed befoe the tagcloser (>) of an end tag.
Now it is. Also (untested), empty close tags should be allowed a la
"<h1>heading</>". Not recommended, but in.
-
Bug fix: HTML nesting stack overflow check.
-
Bug fix: Compilation under IBM MVS didn't work.
23 November 1993, version 2.09
At last this stupid library is aware of content-transfer-encoding. When defining
file suffixes you must define not only the content-type (eg
application/postscript) but also the encoding (eg binary, or 7bit). The first
effect of this is to get the proper mode selected for FTP transfers. This
means you can do a
www -source ftp:/xx.yy.edu/pub/junk/foo.tar.Z > junk.tar.Z
and it will work as expected.
On the client side, you can define the presentation method for any given
MIME-style 'content type". This is done in the rule file too.
2.08
-
You can define file suffix conventions in the server and/or client rule files.
This allows you to set up a server which for example, trateas .ai files as
application/postscript, etc, or specifies that .ME is generally text.
-
You can define how a new content type will be rendered in the rule file of
a client.
15 November 93, version 2.07
-
If you telnet to the www client (-h option): 1. it is more secure: No local
file access. 2. you can use /etc/www-remote.url file to specify the url of
the home page for telnet users.
-
Library uses fopen() rather than open(), allowing file access on non-unix
machines.
7 November 93, 2.06
-
Check against local hostname in file access is now string insensitive.
-
HTML parser: entities were not expanded at outer level.
-
HTTP client sends client name and version. Requires HTAppName
-
FTP client fix: Continuation lines which do not have - in are now handled
properly as per the spec.
May 1993 version 2.05a
-
Bug fix in directory reading of local files -- it didn't work! The stopped
the daemon working on directories.
-
Bug fix in DIR handling for browers: tabs work again in directory listsings.
22 April 1993 version 2.04
-
WAIS handling code in library, no need to go through a gateway of you compile
with the right options abd link with freeWAIS. First version of this, no
bells or whistles.
-
sysdep.h systems specifics for SCO picked up from mosaic but directory handling
not fixed yet ...
20 April 1993 version 2.03c:
-
Use of identifier "this" removed to prevent conflicts with C++
-
_AIX cpp defined picked up for AIX.
-
In networking code, no assumption that \n is 10 on even on ASCII machines
(for Mac/MPW).
-
Server bug fix after Sebastian.Wilhelmi@isst.fhg.de -- exited with bad status
even if all OK.
19 April 1993 version 2.03b
-
Distribution bug fix: s/Specific/All/ on line 2 of WWW/All/Makefile.product
-
SGML bug fix: treatment of entities was on when would be off and vice-cversa.
-
Sun binaries linked with -Bstatic to make them transportable
-
Bug fix: Sometimes, client would ignore first part of returned file.
17 Mar 93 Version 2.02-beta
-
Bug fix: Falls back to old HTTP with servers which don't like the new HTTP.
-
BUILD file for easy installation of library, httpd and www
15 Mar 93 Version 2.0 alpha:
Incompatible library release has cleaned up interfaces. Developers read the
.h files! Version 2 libraries must be compiled with version 2 products and
vice-versa. Version 2 clients will access (most) version 1 servers OK, version
2 servers will respond correctly to (all) version 1 clients.
-
Bug fix: Gopher connections wasted socket numbers and eventually used them
all up. (Thanks Marc Andreessen)
-
Rule file used by clients as well as servers.
-
MIME parser takes content-type field from MIME messages and invokes appropriate
registerd presentation method for each type.
-
Local and remote multiformat files.
-
***HTSearch and HTLoadRelative parameters changed! HTMainAnchor and HTMainText
globals are no longer used by the library.
-
HTAccess package now registers known protocols in list.
-
HT{G,S}etNewsHost available from HTNews module.
-
SGML parser speeded up
-
New software intrerface introduced: HTStructuredClass. This should make use
of the library easier with clients, and allow more code in common between
clients and servers.
-
Hooks for handling new formats with other applications
-
General hooks for status messages, user query, progress monitoring, etc.
(HTAlert module)
6 January 1993, Version1.1a
-
Can revisit telnet nodes.
-
Tn3270 access type accepted.
-
FTP password for anonymous is now WWWuser@ withouyt a hostname, for software
on ftp.uu.net etc.
-
Bug fix in HTML.c: Would crash when a list was the first visible element
in a text object.
-
Added <PRE> tag as in new HTML spec.
-
Added numeric character reference handling for future use.
December 1992, Version 1.0c
-
Fixed bug in FTP handling (FTP file retrieve put control connection in bad
state)
-
Fixed bug in Gopher handling on non-ASCII platforms. Also, bug fix in Gopher
search of index whose name contained characters (like blanks) escapes with
%.
-
Fixed bug in NEWS handling, failed on non-ASCII platforms.
November 1992 Version1.0b
-
Fix some bugs in Make system.
-
Memory bug fixed: On failure to connect to HTTP server, it would free() an
uninitialized pointer!
-
Some trace messages were output to stdout instead of stderr
-
Allow "ftp:" prefix on URL . Effect is currently equivalent to that of the
"file:" prefix.
-
Local file access not allowed in secure mode. (telnet access was never allowed
in this mode). Secure mode is used for telnet server and mail robot.
November 1992 version 1.0
-
Library libwww.a made independently of browsers to save time and space and
to force good modularity
Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, libwww@w3.org,
@(#) $Id: History.html,v 1.32 1997/02/16 18:41:22 frystyk Exp $