Bug 15822 – Error on empty or missing HTTP location header

• Component: Page Loading
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Jan Boeijink]

An empty Location header gives an error page, while FF does show the page. Try the URL. 
The page starts with this PHP code:
<?php
header("Location: ");
?>

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

Confirmed with a local debug build of WebKit r27408 with Safari 3 Public Beta v. 3.0.3 (522.12.1) on Mac OS X 10.4.10 (8R218).

Would be interesting to see how Leopard handles this.

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

On Safari 3.0.4 (5523.10) on Mac OS X 10.5 (9A581), it appears that the test page attempts to redirect to itself indefinitely (although it's stopped by Safari).

[Chris Roos]

I'm seeing this behaviour too.  I noticed it because Google Groups responds to requests for Files[1] with a 302 code, a body with the link to follow but no Location header.  Firefox renders the body OK but Safari (3.0.4 - 523.12.2) and Webkit (nightly build 31132) both fail to render the body (incidentally, Internet Explorer 6 fails to render the body too).  The HTTP spec[2] states that the Location header SHOULD (not MUST) be sent so it feels to me as though this is a bug in Webkit.

[1] http://delicious-trackbacks.googlegroups.com/web/installation.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.2

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

<rdar://problem/5814804>

[Peter Zion]

I think I may have found a similar (possibly related) bug: headers of the form "Location: ?foo" don't work correctly; the generate an error.  This form works correctly with IE and Firefox.

[David Kilzer (:ddkilzer)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I think I may have found a similar (possibly related) bug: headers of the form
> "Location: ?foo" don't work correctly; the generate an error.  This form works
> correctly with IE and Firefox.

This is a slightly different issue.  Could you please file a new bug and copy me on it?  Thanks!

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

This is an issue in closed source Apple frameworks below WebKit, closing as INVALID per our process. This will continue to be tracked by Apple internally as <rdar://problem/5509975>, thank you for filing this bug!

To get its status, please e-mail [e-mail] and ask about <rdar://problem/5509975>.

Note that the aforementioned bug only tracks the issue with an empty Location header. The issue with missing Location header is tracked as <rdar://problem/6089805>. I'm not sure if the issue with "Location: ?foo" is tracked already, I encourage you to file a bug at <http://bugreport.apple.com>.