DO NOT REPLY [Bug 20491] New: - Connection: Close header ignored

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http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20491

Connection: Close header ignored

           Summary: Connection: Close header ignored
           Product: Tomcat 4
           Version: 4.1.24
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: Other
         Component: Catalina
        AssignedTo: tomcat-dev@jakarta.apache.org
        ReportedBy: jcourtney@inphonic.com


Referencing this copy of the HTTP 1.1 specification

http://www.zvon.org/tmRFC/RFC2616/Output/index.html

Per sections 8.1.2.1 and 14.10 any client not supporting persistent HTTP 
connections should send a "Connection: close" header.

Per section 4.2 header field names are case-insensitive but header field values 
are not specified.  It may therefore be assumed that the intent is to support 
case-sensitive header field values at the discretion of the implementing 
application.

We've found a product (formerly Cisco uOne) which implements an HTTP client 
which uses the slightly incorrect syntax of "Connection: Close" (note the upper 
case 'C').  While this does not quite comply with the HTTP 1.1 spec which 
refers to use of the string "close" only the HTTP 1.1 spec never makes mention 
of requiring that "close" be lower case.  Clearly the use of "Close" is a poor 
implementation but it would seem that Tomcat 4.1 is unnecessarily picky here.

Per section 19.3 it is recommended that applications be "tolerant of deviations 
whenever those deviations can be interpreted unambiguously".  I think that 
applies in this case and thus I suggest making Tomcat 4.x tolerant of the HTTP 
header "Connection: Close".

Below is a patch for jakarta-tomcat-
4.0/catalina/src/share/org/apache/catalina/connector/http/HttpProcessor.java.  
It may not be the ideal way to implement the fix as perhaps adding alternative 
case-insensitive comparison methods to the HttpHeader class would be more 
elegant.

RCS file: /home/cvspublic/jakarta-tomcat-
4.0/catalina/src/share/org/apache/catalina/connector/http/HttpProcessor.java,v
retrieving revision 1.46
diff -r1.46 HttpProcessor.java
680,681c680,681
<                 if (header.valueEquals
<                     (DefaultHeaders.CONNECTION_CLOSE_VALUE)) {
---
>                 if (value.equalsIgnoreCase(
>                     new String(DefaultHeaders.CONNECTION_CLOSE_VALUE))) {

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