Vary and future requests

[mnot@…]

p6 4.3 says:

"""A Vary header field value of "*" always fails to match, and subsequent requests to that resource can only be properly interpreted by the origin server."""

Someone reading this could take away that *any* stored response with a Vary: * has an effect on ALL other stored responses that share that primary key (and a couple of the issues we discussed reflected this confusion, from memory).

As I recall, the goal for 4.3 Using Negotiated Responses was to assure that stored responses were independent and self-describing; i.e., that a cache didn't have to rationalise the value of the Vary header among multiple stored responses.

So, I'd suggest changing this to just:

"A Vary header field value of "*" always fails to match."

Make sense?

On a related note, the text in p6 4.3 doesn't explicitly account for the case when there are stored responses both with and without Vary that might match.

I think this can be addressed by changing:

"If multiple selected responses are available..."

to

"If multiple selected responses (potentially including responses without a Vary header) are available..."

[mnot@…]

From [2248]:

Remove misleading language about Vary and future requests, and account for case where some stored responses don't have Vary; see #471