Transfer-Encoding
Without the use of persistent connections, a Web client can be assured that the Web server is finished sending the HTTP response once it closes the TCP connection. When using persistent connections, however, it becomes necessary for the Web server to indicate the length of the content being sent so that the Web client knows when the transmission is complete.
The only drawback to having to specify the length of the content is when that content is dynamically generated. Instead of being able to send the content as it is generated, the Web server must wait for all of the content to be generated before it can adequately calculate and report its length. Thus, the use of persistent connections requires that the Web server wait until ...
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