Subject: bug#35395: GUIX website redirections are failing

From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:40:56 +0200

Boruch,

Boruch Baum wrote:
> The guix homepage[1] links to other pages[2][3] that claim 
> "Redirecting
> to the new page location... ", but they don't, at least not for 
> me using
> emacs-w3m and firefox-esr v60.

The links aren't broken, but implemented in a very… special way:

  ~ λ curl 
  https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Features.html
  <!DOCTYPE html>
  <html lang="en">
    <head>
      <meta charset="UTF-8" />
      <title>Page has moved! — GNU Guix</title>
      <noscript><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; 
      url=../en/html_node/Features.html"></noscript>
    </head>
    <body onload="window.location = 
    '../en/html_node/Features.html';">
    […]

I.e. inject arbitrary code into the user's browser and if it 
catches us, fall back to http-equiv hackery.  Not good!

The fix is to send out real (HTTP 307/302) redirections, but the 
problem might be that gnu.org won't let us.

Kind regards,

T G-R

> This is also the case from the guix 'help' page[4] link to the 
> system
> manual[5]. Other links[6][7] on that page do work.
>
> references:
> [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/
> [2] 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Features.html
> [3] 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Using-the-Configuration-System.html
> [4] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/help/
> [5] 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/GNU-Distribution.html
> [6] https://www.gnu.org/manual/
> [7] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/