Question

I’m storing URLs in a database, and I want to be able to know if two URLs are identical.

Generally, a trailing slash at the end doesn’t change the response you’d get from a server. (ie. http://www.google.com/ is the same as http://www.google.com)

Can I always blindly remove the trailing slash from any URL, without looking at anything?
Is that safe?

What I mean by “without looking at anything” is that I’d remove the slash from:
http://www.google.com/q?xxx=something&yyy=something/

I know the web server could theoretically return completely different things if it wanted, and I know sometimes going to a URL without the slash will redirect to one with the slash. My only intention here is determining if both URLs are the same.

Is this method safe?

Answer 1

No it is not always safe. A web server could interpret the path part of the URL anyway it likes. You cannot tell what it will do (resolve the URI) without using a GET or HEAD on the URL.