jdMorgan - 5:49 am on Jan 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

Maybe Jeeves *does* understand what a 404-Not Found means... It means that the server can't find the file right now. The semantics of 404 imply no other meaning, so it doesn't mean the file was or was not intentionally removed, and it doesn't mean the file won't be restored 5 minutes from now -- or never. It just means the server can't find it.

However, Jeeves apparently does not understand what a 410-Gone response means. It takes them about a year to get that one right, IIRC.

My intent here is not to be picky, but just to highlight that the correct response for a file that was intentionally removed and is being requested via HTTP/1.1 [w3.org] is a 410-Gone. The earlier HTTP/1.0 does not define 410-Gone, leaving only the ambiguous 404 response... Which is how we (and Jeeves) got into this mess in the first place.

Jim