note 26870 added to function.rawurlencode

About the ";" reserved character in URLs: rawurlencode() will encode it with a "%2A" triplet. When used on the path part of a URL, this will break the usage defined in URL RFCs, that allows specifying additional parameters to *EACH* element of a path (separated by "/"). So if a path element contains a ";" character (some filesystems allow it, but this is not recommanded) as part of a directory name, this character must be encoded so that it won't be mixed with a parameter extension. This mapping is allowed on URLs that use a hierarchical scheme (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FILE, ...), so that each path element prefixed by "/" can have additional navigational parameters such as authorization strings or semantic parameters. The generic format of a path element may include path elements such as: "/." or "/.." or "/.specialname" or "/regularname" Each part may be followed by a ";" and other parameters separated by ";". These parameters can be eithger ordered or unordered. Unordered parameters have a symbolic name separated from their value with an equal sign. Do not mix path element parameters with a query string: these parameters are directly attached to the individual path element, and this makes a difference when this path element is not the last one of the URL. These parameters are part of the resource name (unlike the query string), and the semantic of "." and ".." apply to the full path element with its parameters, so that: "/subdir1/subdir2/page.html;charset=UTF-8/../index.html" will resolve to "/subdir1/index.html". Note that: "/subdir1/subdir2/page.html;charset=UTF-8" designates a DISTINCT resource name from: "/subdir1/subdir2/page.html" It does not necessarily involves a query, and so it can be cached by default (unlike URLs that contain a query string). When using path element parameters, their optional name and required value must be rawurlencode()'d separately before inserting ";" and "=" parameters and creating the path elements that will be imploded in the full path. The consequence is that you MUST not urlencode() or rawurlencode individual path elements, without first parsing them: - first explode the path into its path lements separated by "/" - then explode each path element in their name and parameters separated by ";" characters - then split path element parameters that contain a "=" sign into a name/value pair. - make sure that unordered path paremeters (that have been cut according to "=" into a pair) are specified *after* ordered parameters (including the main path element name) in each path element, and that no two unordered parameters have the same name (this restriction does not occur on unordered, unnamed parameters which only supply a value). - finally you can interpret rawurlencoded names and values that constitute each path element. Note also that some non-compliant HTTP servers consider that named parameters are ordered, and don't add a semantic to the ";" and "=" used to break up the list of path element parameters. On client agents, when validating URLs, it's best then not to try to interpret this list, and you should just split the main part of a path element and the parameters list by isolating the first ";" that introduces this list. However, the encoded parameter list cannot include any "/" parameter. Caveats: note that path element parameters (introduced by ";") may be used on upper levels of a hierarchic URL, even before the final document name and its query parameters. When building lists of URLs, you should not separate URLs blindly with a ";" separator, as each URL may include a ";" character, in their path part (the ";" character cannot ocur safely in a query string). In that case, use a surrounding pair such as "<>" or quotes to enclose each URL in such a list. -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.rawurlencode.php http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+26870 http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+26870 http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+26870