Re: Handle HTTP error 511 Network Authentication Required (standard secure proxy authentification/captive portal detection)

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 08:06:46PM +0100, Daniel Stenberg wrote:

> > 3. Open a browser and say "Ah, I see. A captive portal".
> >
> >We should already be doing that. Adding more support could make
> >step 3 a little nicer, but like I said, I'd be more interested in
> >seeing a real case first. It may even be a feature that would be
> >more appropriate to curl (which git builds on for http access).
> 
> We're already discussing the 511 in the curl camp as well, but with
> even more sighs and hands in the air. 511 is clearly intended for
> HTML-understanding user agents and curl is not one of those. IMHO,
> curl will remain to simply help users to figure out that it is 511
> and leave it at that.

Thanks for the input. It sounds like our best bet is to just report the
URL from a 511 better, then. Do you have any idea yet how that
information will be available to curl library users?

> As a git user, I would probably be very surprised if using 'git'
> suddenly caused by browser to pop up a captive portal login. I would
> prefer git to instead properly explain to me that is being the victim
> of a 511 and what I should do to fix it.

I agree. Even if the "step 3" in my list is "then the user starts a
browser given the URL from git's error message", that is a huge
improvement over the current state. And it retains the principle of
least surprise.

-Peff