[mdlug] Evil URLs at OpenSuSE

[Raymond McLaughlin]

Robert Meier wrote:
> Ray,
> 
>> Maybe this usage has been around a while and I just haven't noticed,
>> but this week I did notice, urls like this:
>> http://software.opensuse.org/download/X11:/xfce/SUSE_Linux_10.0/i586/
>> The evil bit seems to be the inclusion of the colon ':' in the directory
>> name.
> 
> I didn't have a problem with this or other URLs are I tried using
> Netscape 7.  What browser are you using?

My browser resolves it just fine. The problem was with wget.

>>From the narrow range of dates,
> I suspect that an automated system generated the unconventional URLs,
> and has since been rendered more conventional.

The weird urls are rooted here:
<http://software.opensuse.org/download/>


>   "...
>    Within the <path> and <searchpart> components, "/", ";", "?" are
>    reserved.  The "/" character may be used within HTTP to designate a
>    hierarchical structure.
>    ...
>    urlpath        = *xchar    ; depends on protocol see section 3.1
>    ...
>    xchar          = unreserved | reserved | escape
>    ...
>    reserved       = ";" | "/" | "?" | ":" | "@" | "&" | "="
>    ..."
> 	-- RFC 1738

Thanks for the pointer, I'll read up.

> A colon appearing in the path section of an http url should cause no
> problems.  
>