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Message-ID: <40D20926.7070501@astro.ch>
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 23:12:06 +0200
From: Alois Treindl <alois@astro.ch>
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Subject: [users@httpd] addhandler changes between Apache 1.3 and 2.0

Background story
----------------
I have upgraded a busy http server from Apache 1.3 to 2.0
and have run into a problem.

We run a CGI which handles all requests for html files,
by processing them to insert session onformation and other 
user-dependetn data.

In httpd.conf this is done by

Action link-translate /cgi/xa.cgi
AddHandler link-translate .htm
AddHandler link-translate .html

We run a multilingual website im 7 languages, and many html pages exist 
in various languages, usually indicated by the filename, like

file_g.htm   for german
file_e.htm   for english etc.

Not all files exist in all languages, and the CGI handler
has some intelligence built in.

if, for example, file_s.htm (spanish) does not exist, it serves the 
english version with a note saying that translation is missing.

Now the description of my problem:
----------------------------------

In Apache 1.3, the handler CGI was also called of the requested
html file did not actually exist. This allowed our language-replacement 
feature.

In Apache 2.0 the handler is only called when the requested file 
actually exists. If a file is missing, the handler CGI is never called, 
and the regular 'missing document' action is taken.

Can someone confirm that such a change of behaviour really exists
between 1.3 and 2.0, and is there a way to get the original mode back 
(handler for *.htm is always called, even if document is missing)?

of course there exist other solutions for my language-replacement 
(Rewrite), but I would first like to know whether the Addhandler logic 
has really changed, and whether anything can be done about it.

Alois

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