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action=raw should return a 404 header if the requested article does not exist.
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Description

When action=raw is used to retrieve the wikitext of an article, but no such
article exists, MediaWiki should respond with HTTP error 404 "Not Found".
Currently, it simply returns an empty text. Thus, there's no way for scripts to
tell if a page does not exist, or if it is simply blank. If a HTML message
should accompany the 404 code, or again an empty page, i'm not sure. The former
is nicer if tried with a browser, the latter is better for backward
compatibility with existing scripts.

Returning 404 for non-existing pages *regardles* if action=raw is used or not
should also be considered - but I expect there meight be issues with "smart"
error pages in some "advanced" browsers.

Not returning the 404 code if a nonexisting page is requested is actually
against the HTTP spec, so I marked this as minor bug, rather than a feature
request.


Version: 1.6.x
Severity: minor
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aslkdkfjalskdfj?action=raw

Details

Reference
bz4880

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Medium.Nov 21 2014, 9:04 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz4880.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

Possibly dupe this to bug 2585, or else cancel 2585 in favor of a raw-specific version.

"smart" error pages in some "advanced" browsers don't show if you provide a 404
page long enough. (or at least i have seen some 404 pages sending extra data to
bypasss it for IE). Our article-doesn't exist is long enough i think ;)

In any case, it needs browser-checking.

robchur wrote:

According to includes/RawPage.php, a 404 header *is* generated if the page can't
be found.

It *does* return 404 on action=raw, so i mark this as fixed.
There's bug 2585 for showing non-raw 404.
I think we had some excuse but i don't remember...