[gopher] Re: Searches as defined by RFC1436

[Cameron Kaiser <spectre@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>     The client sends the server the selector string, a tab, and the search
>     string (words to search for).
> 
> When I try this with Veronica-2 on floodgap, I get a "resource not
> found" error (actually, FF refuses to even process the query):
> 
> gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/7/v2/vs%09nasa
> 
> However, this works fine in the following format:
> 
> gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/7/v2/vs?nasa
> 
> Is this a discrepancy between the RFC and how this particular search
> is implemented, or am I reading the RFC wrong?

It's not the RFC that's tripping you up, it's how Gopher URLs are encoded
in Firefox. To demonstrate,

% telnet gopher 70
Trying...
Connected to helsinki.floodgap.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
/v2/vs  proxy
1Floodgap Systems gopher root   /       gopher.floodgap.com     70
[...]

Firefox's handling is in fact contrary to RFC 4266, which says,

2.2.  Specifying URLs for Gopher Search Engines

   If the URL refers to a search to be submitted to a Gopher search
   engine, the selector is followed by an encoded tab (%09) and the
   search string.  To submit a search to a Gopher search engine, the
   Gopher client sends the <selector> string (after decoding), a tab,
   and the search string to the Gopher server.

Nevertheless, this appears to have been abstracted from RFC 3986,

3.4.  Query

   The query component contains non-hierarchical data that, along with
   data in the path component (Section 3.3), serves to identify a
   resource within the scope of the URI's scheme and naming authority
   (if any).  The query component is indicated by the first question
   mark ("?") character and terminated by a number sign ("#") character
   or by the end of the URI.

OverbiteFF accepts both syntaxes; the output of URLs

gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/v2/vs%09proxy
gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/v2/vs?proxy

are equivalent.

-- 
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
  Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser@xxxxxxxxxxxx
-- Remember, Windows is not a virus. Viruses actually do something. -----------