I got an email back from the apache dev who applied the patch in the changelog. Basically, html which is run thru mod_include will not get an etag header by design. The patch that he applied fixed a wrong behavior in how late the ETag header is dropped. Exempt files which need ETag headers with Location or Directory directives if they are run thru mod_include (Or don't have a braindead config which runs all files thru mod_include).

Patrick
p.s. Oh, and sorry for replying to my own post!


-----Original Message-----
From: centos-bounces@centos.org on behalf of Flaherty, Patrick
Sent: Fri 9/14/2007 8:01 PM
To: centos@centos.org
Subject: [CentOS] Apache 2.2.3 ETag weirdness.

I'm looking to clarify this entry I found in a changelog(line 2062ish) on a CentOS 5 box for Apache 2.2.3

  *) mod_include no longer allows an ETag header on 304 responses.
     PR 19355. [Geoffrey Young <geoff apache.org>, André Malo]

Loading the mod_include module prevents any ETags headers from being sent from the box. If I comment out mod_include, ETags are sent as expected. CentOS 4 2.0.59 with mod_include does not show the same behavior, and ETags are sent both with and without mod_include loaded.

If anyone can tell me the correct behavior, and if I need to file a bug I'd apreciate it. My assumption was anyfiles with an <!--- include ---> statement would not get an ETag, but regular html without includes would be fine.

Best
Patrick