[thelist] http response codes

[Ben Henick]

On Wed, 16 May 2001, iris wrote:

> Hits by Response Code 
> Code 200 - OK              4931

...Meaning that the GET request was honored in-full.

> Code 206 - Partial Content   11

...Meaning that the visitor stopped the transfer before the entire file
was sent.  It's entirely possible that the same response would be
generated if the file didn't end properly... but how this could happen, I
have no idea.

> Code 302 - Found             12

I wish like crazy that I could explain the difference between 301 & 302,
but I can't.  My own logs don't give me a clue.  The full replies are
classified as "Document Moved Permanently" - which I take to be a request
that's redirected as the result of a change to the server's root config
file - and "Document Found Elsewhere," (302) which means that for whatever
reason someone has ordered a redirect, probably in a dynamically generated
page or CGI script.

> Code 304 - Not Modified     674

...Meaning that the page hasn't changed since the last time it was visited
by the user whose browser made the relevant GET request, and the page was
pulled from their own local cache.

> Code 404 - Not Found        182

Duh.  If there's anyone out there who hasn't learned about this one, they
will.  Soon.  :-)

> 302, would that be the re-direction to the thank you
> page after filling in the feedback form?

If you've received 12 emails for the period covered by the log analysis,
I'd say that probably the case.  ;-)

> 304, it says "The document has not been modified since
> the last request, and the locally cached copy should
> be used instead."  how does it check when it was last
> modified.  i thought i had to include a metatag
> (HTTP-EQUIV="expires") for this. the high number of
> occurences is worrying me here.

Bzzzt!  Nope.

A Unix-based server will know from the file stats when the file was last
modified (an NTish box should as well FWIW).

The frequent occurrence of that code can be taken to mean that you're
getting a lot of repeat visits to static pages and/or graphics.  You're
better equipped than anyone else to determine whether that's good or bad.

What would concern me more is the fact that one of every 32 requests is
for a resource that's been moved or removed.  That's rather high (unless
you're doing an evolt-style serving hack on a section of the site).

If you're really curious to see what's going on, you can always grep/Find
stuff in the raw logfile itself (though I find grep to be quite the tool
for this job, personally).


-- 
Ben Henick
Web Author At-Large              Managing Editor
http://www.io.com/persist1/      http://www.digital-web.com/
persist1 at io.com                  bmh at digital-web.com
--
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