Re: lynx-dev '\' reloading documents

[Chuck Martin]

On Thu, May 29, 2003 at 10:50:46AM +0900, Henry Nelson wrote:
> Does Lynx follow the server directives to not cache when source cache
> is turned on in Lynx, i.e., not cache the document?  (If so, that would
> explain why sometimes cacheing _appears_ to not be working.  OTOH, if
> Lynx ignores those directives, that seems broken to me.)

I will have to respectfully disagree with you here.  I believe the source
cache should not be treated in the same way as a normal cache because its
purpose is different.  Perhaps cache isn't even the appropriate name for
it.

The problem is that in lynx, the normal behavior, if source cache is
turned off, is to discard the source after rendering, so that if the
user wants to change the view using \, ', ", `, or * (did I miss any?),
the source has to be reloaded.  Turning source cache on eliminates this
need.  Other browsers don't have most of those features, with the exception
of an option to view source, and although I haven't taken the time to
check them out, I would be extremely surprised if they reload the source
when using this feature, even if the server tells the browser not to cache
the document, simply because this isn't the same thing as caching the
document.

> I don't have any idea how cacheing of https would work.  Does the cache
> somehow keep state on the handshake between the server and client?  Along
> lines that Doug mentioned, I'd be rather concerned about any confidential
> information that the server may have put into the cached source, and about
> any information I may have entered into a form.

I set my source cache to memory, so I don't see how there would be any
security problems.  If you set it to cache the source in a file, I think
all that would need to be done is to make sure that no one else can read
that file, and your security shouldn't be compromised.  I'm not sure if
that's the case or not.

Chuck


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