Re: ERR customization for 404?

Warren Togami wrote:

> I see that these error messages are customizable, but is it
> possible to customize a 404 Error page and to override any
> 404 that would be supplied by the target web server?

Not without adding that doubtful feature yourself. Squid never changes
responses received from origin servers outside what is required by HTTP.
The customisable messages are those generated by Squid, not server
originated errors.

Replacing error messages usually has the undesireable effect of hiding
the cause to the error. See for example the error munging performed by
IE5, hiding any useful error messages received behind generic messages
Microsoft thinks is more suitful. It might be appealing to a user not
caring about the error, but it makes it damn harder for a person caring
about the error (bee it a developer or support personnel trying to help
the user seeing the error)

There are reasons to why HTTP says error responses should include a
helpful text explaining the error. To bad most servers provides way to
technical error responses not very helpful to the average user. I think
this is because most site designers never think about how error
conditions should be handled. But there are some sites who care, and
provides very helpful error messages often even allowing the user to
resolve the situation themselves without help from support personell.

RFC2616 section 10.4 Client Error 4xx

   The 4xx class of status code is intended for cases in which the
   client seems to have erred. Except when responding to a HEAD request,
   the server SHOULD include an entity containing an explanation of the
   error situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent
   condition. These status codes are applicable to any request method.
   User agents SHOULD display any included entity to the user.

And the same message is repeated in section 10.5 Sever Error 5xx

--
Henrik Nordstrom
Squid Hacker