ikiwiki/doc/todo/redirect.mdwn

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I suppose this isn't technically a bug, but whetever.
I want symbolic links to be rendered as HTTP redirects. For example,
if we do this,
touch foo.mkdwn
ln -s foo.mkdwn bar.mkdwn
git push baz.branchable.com
then the following command should print 302
curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}" http://baz.thomaslevine.com/bar/
> An interesting idea, but it conflicts somewhat with wanting symlinks to be
> treated as the referenced file when it's safe to do so, which would be
> great for [[todo/git-annex support]], and also good to avoid duplication
> for files in system-wide underlays.
>
> Also, I don't think this is possible without help from the web server
> configuration: for instance, under Apache, I believe the only way to get
> an HTTP 302 redirect is via Apache-specific `.htaccess` files or
> system-level Apache configuration.
>
> In current ikiwiki, you can get a broadly similar effect by either
> using \[[!meta redir=foo]] (which does a HTML `<meta>` redirect)
> or reconfiguring the web server. --[[smcv]]
>> The CGI spec (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3875) says that a CGI can cause a redirect by returning a Location: header.
>> So it's possible; desirable (due to your point about conflicting with git-annex support) is a different matter.
>>> One of the major things that separates ikiwiki from other wiki software
>>> is that ikiwiki is a wiki compiler: ordinary page-views are purely
>>> static HTML, and the CGI only gets involved when you do something
>>> that really has to be dynamic (like an edit).
>>>
>>> However, there is no server-independent static content that ikiwiki
>>> could write out to the destdir that would result in that redirect.
>>>
>>> If you're OK with requiring the [[plugins/404]] plugin (and a
>>> web server where it works, which I think still means Apache) then
>>> it would be possible to write a plugin that detected symlinks,
>>> stored them in the `%wikistate`, and used them to make the
>>> [[plugins/404]] plugin (or its own hook similar to the one
>>> in that plugin) do a 302 redirect instead of a 404.
>>> Similarly, a plugin that assumed a suitable Apache
>>> configuration with fairly broad `AllowOverrides`,
>>> and wrote out `.htaccess` files, would be a feasible thing
>>> for someone to write.
>>>
>>> I don't think this is a bug; I think it's a request for a
>>> feature that not everyone will want. The solution to those
>>> is for someone who wants the feature to
>>> [[write a plugin|plugins/write]]. --[[smcv]]