Re: url-cache - (require 'url)

[Mark Plaksin <happy@usg.edu>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> BTW, the docstring of url-retrieve says:
>
>    CALLBACK is called when the object has been completely retrieved, with
>    the current buffer containing the object, and any MIME headers associated
>    with it.
>
> so the headers should be readily available already.

Hmm, you're right.  Perhaps the docstring should say "any MIME or protocol
headers".  When I read the docstring the first time I assumed it didn't
include HTTP headers.

Maybe there's a better approach to the problem I'm trying to solve.  I want
to add support for ETags to nnrss in Gnus.  To do that, nnrss needs access
to HTTP headers.  nnrss currently uses mm-url-insert which calls
url-insert-file-contents.  Those seem like the right functions to use but
they don't provide access to the HTTP headers.

Should I try changing mm-url-insert so it doesn't use
url-insert-file-contents and gives access to the headers?  I can also
advise one of the functions and have the advice fetch the headers.  It
seems like it would be useful to have that functionality in
url-insert-file-contents (or some part of the URL package itself) but maybe
not.

What do you think?

Thanks!