113556 - META Refresh does not update back history as expected

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: DOM: Navigation, defect)

Description

[Arcterex]

On the referenced page, (http://personals.ufies.org) the main index.html has the
following code to forward you to home.html after 15 seconds:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="15;url=home.html">

When the forward occurs, the history for the back button does not seem to notice
the forward from index.html -> home.html

Expected results:
When a META refresh occurs you are sent to another page, therefor it sould be
expected that the history via the back button would be updated so that you could
go back to the page you were forwarded from.

To duplicate:
1 - start a fresh browser and go to mozilla.org (as a starting point) 
2 - go to http://personals.ufies.org/index.html
3 - wait 15 seconds for the forward to occur
4 - hit the back button.  You will now be back at mozilla.org.  the forward
button sends you to the home.html page as well.  right clicking on the
forward/back buttons does NOT show the index.html page
5 Repeat steps 1-3 except this time click the link instead of waiting for the
forward.  Now the forward/back buttons will be updated properly.

I can't think of any other pages that do this offhand, so I can't test if it's
just me.  The forward/back update does work properly under netscape 4.x though.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I believe we do this on purpose.  99% of the time neither the site nor the user
want the redirecting page to be accessible via history (for example, if the
redirecting page has a short redirect it makes going back in history past it
very difficult).

Comment 2

[Arcterex]

Yes, but this seems to me like you're modifying the past a bit.  Sometimes a
redirect is done so you don't see the previous page, sometimes maliciously, but
this isn't always the case (I don't think).  My issue is not so much how it's
used as you're modifying "history".

Comment 3

[Radha on family leave (not reading bugmail)]

*** Bug 113681 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Radha on family leave (not reading bugmail)]

Arcterex: The behavior you see is done on purpose, for the reason explained by
Boris Zbarsky. If the original page is kept in history, it would be impossible
to go past it, while using the back button.  The threshold for this behavior is
15 seconds. If the original page hung around beyond 15 seconds, it will be kept
in history. One could argue about this time limit.  But that is the best  we
could come up with  to keep most people happy. 

Comment 5

[Greg K.]

It sounds like redirects *are* added to _global_ history (bug 62114), but not
_session_.

Comment 6

[dolphinling]

*** Bug 312215 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***