Trailing slash in URLs

[Russ Jury]

On Fri, 13 Sep 1996, Mary-Ellen Mort wrote:

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> My non-technical understanding of this (and I'd love to know more about 
> exactly why this is..) is that LYNX looks for the "/" at the end of a 
> path name. Most servers are set up to read "jobsmart.org" as 
> "jobsmart.org/index.htm"  LYNX, apparently, cannot. It sees 
> "jobsmart.org" and says "can't find this file."

Interpretation/understanding of the trailing '/' is dependent solely upon 
the http _server_.  Most servers will understand either, but some early 
releases will not.  This is a problem that SHOULD be taken care of on the 
server even if it is a little work - it is IMHO just part of good server 
maintenance.

> You CAN fool around at the server level and correct this. But it's more 
> time and trouble than my server is willing to invest for the graphically 
> impoverished.

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Russ Jury
Information Technology
North Dakota State University Library
(701) 231-7288
jury at plains.nodak.edu
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