[spec] relative link behavior definition

[Omar Polo]

Sgaith <Sgiath at pm.me> writes:

> Hi I am playing with server implementation for Gemini and I bumped into one case where I feel the behavior is not strictly specified so I would appreciate your help and clarification on it:
>
> Link in Gemini document can be relative link but how is actually defined behavior for relative link `../`? I have instinctively expected that it would work like `cd ..` on Linux but I have experienced that many clients treat it as "Back" button in classical browser - e.g. takes you to the previously visited page. What is the "correct"/expected/specified behavior for this case?
>
> Thanks for your help

It's really strange that a ../ link behaves like a back button, you may
want to report that to the authors of your clients; `..' should take you
"up" one level[0].

That said, if you're writing a server don't forget to clean the path you
receive, because a client could send a request with one or more
.. component in it.

Omar Polo


[0] the URL rfc specifies a cleaning algorithm that removes every
    .. path component with the preceding non-.. component.