[Info-vax] proper file format, attributes for non-binary files served by a web server

[Steven Schweda]

Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:

> A correct VMS server program should handle all valid
> VMS formats for text files.

   As I recall, I didn't say that I was describing a "correct
VMS server program".  What I said was, "any program which
uses the C RTL".

> Assuming that non correct VMS servers would prefer
> stream_lf is a weird assumption.

   It's not an assumption about a Web server, it's an
observation of programs which use the C RTL.  See, for
example, a relatively recent thread here:

      "Unexpected error using ZIP for OpenVMS"

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms/browse_thread/thread/3b0a571dda6a6435

(I'd ignore the later bulk of the thread, where the
discussion completely left the rails.)

   In this case, the program was Zip, and when it was using
normal C RTL functions to read a file, it had significantly
more trouble dealing with Stream and Stream_CR files than it
did with Stream_LF files.  It was news to me, too, but facts
are facts.  It's possible to work around the quirky behavior
of the C RTL, but I would not expect a typical Web server to
handle this stuff any better than Zip did.  (Making a program
"correct" can be more difficult, when it needs to deal with
strange RTL behavior.)


> They will be converted to CR LF for most protocols, so I am
> not so sure about the "natural".

   Read it again.  I was talking about what is more natural
for the C RTL, not for any network protocol.