term% cat index.txt WEBCOOKIES(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual WEBCOOKIES(4)
NAME
webcookies - HTTP cookie manager
SYNOPSIS
webcookies [ -f cookiefile ] [ -m mtpt ] [ -s service ]
DESCRIPTION
Webcookies manages a set of HTTP cookies, which are used to associate
HTTP requests with persistent state (such as user profiles) on many web
servers.
Webcookies reads cookiefile (default $home/lib/webcookies) and mounts
itself at mtpt (default /mnt/webcookies). If service is specified,
cookiefs will post a service file descriptor in /srv/service.
The cookie file contains one cookie per line; each cookie comprises
some number of attr=value pairs. Cookie attributes are:
name=name
The name of the cookie on the remote server.
value=value
The value associated with that name on the remote server. The
actual data included when a cookie is sent back to the server is
``name=value'' (where, confusingly, name and value are the val‐
ues associated with the name and value attributes.
domain=domain
The domain within which the cookie can be used. If domain is an
IP address, the cookie can only be used when connecting to a web
server at that IP address. If domain is a pattern beginning
with a dot, the cookie can only be used for servers whose name
has domain as a suffix. For example, a cookie with do‐
main=.bell-labs.com may be used on the web sites www.bell-
labs.com and www.research.bell-labs.com.
path=path
The cookie can only be used for URLs with a path (the part after
http://hostname) beginning with path.
version=version
The version of the HTTP cookie specification, specified by the
server.
comment=comment
A comment, specified by the server.
expire=expire
The cookie expires at time expire, which is a decimal number of
seconds since the epoch.
secure=1
The cookie may only be used over secure (https) connections.
explicitdomain=1
The domain associated with this cookie was set by the server
(rather than inferred from a URL).
explicitpath=1
The path associated with this cookie was set by the server
(rather than inferred from a URL).
netscapestyle=1
The server presented the cookie in ``Netscape style,'' which
does not conform to the cookie standard, RFC2109. It is assumed
that when presenting the cookie to the server, it must be sent
back in Netscape style as well.
Webcookies serves a directory containing two files. The first, cook‐
ies, is a textual representation of the cookie file, which can be
edited to change the set of cookies currently held. The second, http,
is intended to be used by HTTP clients to access cookies. Upon opening
http, the client must write a full URL to it. After writing the URL,
reading from the file will yield any HTTP Cookie: headers that should
be included in the request for this particular URL. Once the request
has been made, any Set-Cookie: lines in the HTTP response header should
be written to the file to save them for next time. If cookiefs decides
not to accept the cookie (as outlined in RFC2109, section 4.3.4), no
indication is given.
Hget(1) uses /mnt/webcookies/http, when it exists, to manage cookie
state. Webfs does not (yet).
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/webcookies.c
SEE ALSO
hget(1)
BUGS
It's not clear what the relationship between cookiefs and something
like webfs should be.
WEBCOOKIES(4)