Strange behaviour of web directory requests without a trailing slash

For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))

When you call up a web page and you give a directory name WITHOUT a training slash, the web server return a "moved temporarily" page - code 302 - giving you the same name WITH a trailing slash as your new page:

Dorothy:~ grahamellis$ telnet 192.168.200.162 80

Trying 192.168.200.162...

Connected to 192.168.200.162.

Escape character is '^]'.

GET /jdemo HTTP/1.0

 

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily

Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:20:08 GMT

Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1

Location: http://192.168.200.162/jdemo/

Content-Length: 0

Connection: close

Content-Type: text/plain

and that's followed by

Dorothy:~ grahamellis$ telnet 192.168.200.162 80

Trying 192.168.200.162...

Connected to 192.168.200.162.

Escape character is '^]'.

GET /jdemo/ HTTP/1.0

 

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:20:55 GMT

Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1

Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=51F67B6EBA96D532A6E405BAD2129968; Path=/latmjdemo

Content-Type: text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1

Content-Length: 1070

Connection: close

This extra loop means that you'll get very odd behavior if you call for a page without a trailing slash on a server on which either
a) You don't have the server name properly set up or
b) You are proxying, and your ProxyPassReverse isn't compatibly configured.
(written 2008-03-06)

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

A657 - Web Application Deployment - Using httpd to front Tomcat
  [576] Why run two different web servers - (2006-01-25)
  [631] Apache httpd to Tomcat - jk v proxy - (2006-03-03)
  [1377] Load Balancing with Apache mod_jk (httpd/Tomcat) - (2007-10-02)
  [1939] mod_proxy_ajp and mod_proxy_balancer examples - (2008-12-13)
  [1940] URL rewriting with front and back servers - (2008-12-14)
  [1944] Forwarding session and cookie requests from httpd to Tomcat - (2008-12-14)
  [2483] Clustering on Tomcat - (2009-10-30)
  [3018] Tuning Apache httpd and Tomcat to work well together - (2010-10-27)
  [3999] Handling failures / absences of your backend server nicely - (2013-02-08)

A608 - Web Application Deployment - Apache httpd mod_proxy
  [934] Clustering, load balancing, mod_rewrite and mod_proxy - (2006-11-21)
  [1006] Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat together tips - (2006-12-24)
  [1121] Sharing the load with Apache httpd and perhaps Tomcat - (2007-03-29)
  [1376] Choosing between mod_proxy and mod_rewrite - (2007-10-02)
  [1767] mod_proxy and mod_proxy_ajp - httpd - (2008-08-22)
  [2062] Virtual hosting and mod_proxy forwarding of different domains (httpd) - (2009-03-01)
  [2273] Three recent questions on Tomcat Convertors - (2009-07-07)
  [2325] Apache, Tomcat, mod_proxy - (2009-08-06)
  [2482] Load balancing with sticky sessions (httpd / Tomcat) - (2009-10-29)
  [3293] Distributing the server load - yet ensuring that each user return to the same system (Apache httpd and Tomcat) - (2011-05-18)
  [3339] Simplest ever proxy configuration? - (2011-06-28)
  [3680] How can I run multiple web servers behind a single IP address? - (2012-04-02)
  [3892] Distributed, Balanced and Clustered Load Sharing - the difference - (2012-10-13)

A603 - Web Application Deployment - Further httpd Configuration
  [345] Spotting a denial of service attack - (2005-06-12)
  [466] Separating 'per instance' data from binaries and web sites - (2005-10-16)
  [526] Apache httpd - serving web documents from different directories - (2005-12-12)
  [550] 2006 - Making business a pleasure - (2006-01-01)
  [649] Denial of Service ''attack'' - (2006-03-17)
  [662] An unhelpful error message from Apache httpd - (2006-03-30)
  [755] Using different URLs to navigate around a single script - (2006-06-11)
  [853] To list a directory under httpd on a web server, or not? - (2006-09-02)
  [1009] Passing GET parameters through Apache mod_rewrite - (2006-12-27)
  [1080] httpd.conf or .htaccess? - (2007-02-14)
  [1207] Simple but effective use of mod_rewrite (Apache httpd) - (2007-05-27)
  [1351] Compressing web pages sent out from server. Is it worth it? - (2007-09-14)
  [1355] .php or .html extension? Morally Static Pages - (2007-09-17)
  [1381] Using a MySQL database to control mod_rewrite via PHP - (2007-10-06)
  [1551] Which modules are loaded in my Apache httpd - (2008-02-23)
  [1554] Online hotel reservations - Melksham, Wiltshire (near Bath) - (2008-02-24)
  [1564] Default file (MiMe types) for Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat - (2008-03-04)
  [1619] User and Group settings for Apache httpd web server - (2008-04-22)
  [1636] What to do if the Home Page is missing - (2008-05-08)
  [1707] Configuring Apache httpd - (2008-07-12)
  [1762] WEB-INF (Tomcat) and .htaccess (httpd) - (2008-08-20)
  [1778] Pointing all the web pages in a directory at a database - (2008-08-30)
  [1954] mod_rewrite for newcomers - (2008-12-20)
  [1955] How to avoid duplicating web page maintainance - (2008-12-20)
  [1974] Moving a directory on your web site - (2009-01-03)
  [2060] Database connection Pooling, SSL, and command line deployment - httpd and Tomcat - (2009-03-01)
  [2272] Monitoring and loading tools for testing Apache Tomcat - (2009-07-07)
  [2478] How did I do THAT? - (2009-10-26)
  [2900] Redirecting a page - silent, temporary or permanent? - (2010-08-03)
  [3133] An image from a website that occasionally comes out as hyroglyphics - (2011-01-14)
  [3449] Apache Internal Dummy Connection - what is it and what should I do with it? - (2011-09-19)
  [3635] Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING on brand new web site - why? - (2012-03-03)
  [3862] Forwarding a whole domain, except for a few directories - Apache http server - (2012-09-17)
  [3955] Building up from a small PHP setup to an enterprise one - (2012-12-16)
  [4001] Helping search engines with appropriate 400 error codes - (2013-02-11)
  [4307] Identifying and clearing denial of service attacks on your Apache server - (2014-09-27)

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