Questions about Jetty 11.0.12

[headlamp-software]

Jetty Version
11.0.12

Java version
17 SDK

OS
Windows 10

This may or may not be an issue. I was using Jetty 9.4.49 for a long time. I switched to Jetty 11.0.12. I found that Jetty 9.4.49 created a Host header in an inbound HTTP2 request if a Host header was not present. It appears that Jetty 11.0.12 does not do this. Should it? Some sources suggest that the 9.4.49 behavior was correct. See nodejs/node#29858 for an opinion on the subject.

A closely related point is accessing the HTTP2 pseudo-headers. An HTTP2 client (such as Google Chrome) does not send a Host header (nor should it). It does send an Authority (actually ':authority') pseudo-header. Is their a way to access the pseudo-headers? I never found an API for doing so.

Thank you

Peter Schaeffer

[joakime]

Host header is a mess of conflicting history and confusing specs.

When HTTP/2 was being worked on, all of those issues ("What is the authority of this request?") were going to be resolved once and for all.
The solution was to split the 4 pieces of information coming from 2 overlapping places in HTTP/1 into 3 pseudo headers.

• :authority is host (with optional port) - required
• :scheme is just the scheme - required
• :path is just the path - required

In HTTP/1, the authority can come from the Request Line AND the Host header, and when they don't match, then what?
Also, how do you resolve the authority on HTTP/1 reliably when you mix the Request Line + Host header + Proxy headers?
In HTTP/2 there's no ambiguity.

That (in a nutshell) is why HTTP/2 doesn't have a Host header.
(FYI: HTTP/2 also doesn't have other headers from HTTP/2, like Content-Length and Connection)

It is far wiser, and far more future proof, to not rely on the Host header and properly update your application for HTTP/2.

As for how to access the pseudo headers, use the Servlet API, don't try to access the headers directly.

Pseudo Header	Servlet API
:authority	HttpServletRequest.getServerName() / HttpServletRequest.getServerPort() / URI.create(HttpServletRequest.getRequestURL()).getAuthority()
:scheme	URI.create(HttpServletRequest.getRequestURL()).getScheme()
:path	HttpServletRequest.getRequestURI() / URI.create(HttpServletRequest.getRequestURL()).getPath()

To limp along with the Jetty 9.x behavior you can add the HostHeaderCustomizer to your HttpConfiguration