Can we get rid of dependencies on OCLC for fallthru?

[cmungall]

It turns out we still rely on OCLC for fallthrus

$ wget http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/foobar
--2016-10-17 09:18:34--  http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/foobar
Resolving purl.obolibrary.org (purl.obolibrary.org)... 52.3.123.63
Connecting to purl.obolibrary.org (purl.obolibrary.org)|52.3.123.63|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: http://purl.oclc.org/obo/foobar [following]
--2016-10-17 09:18:34--  http://purl.oclc.org/obo/foobar
Resolving purl.oclc.org (purl.oclc.org)... 207.241.224.2
Connecting to purl.oclc.org (purl.oclc.org)|207.241.224.2|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 FOUND
Location: http://www.berkeleybop.org/ontologies/foobar [following]
--2016-10-17 09:18:35--  http://www.berkeleybop.org/ontologies/foobar

we want the fallthrough to go direct to the obo-central server.

Yes, we should avoid fallthroughs and register all purls, even if explicitly to obo-central. But there are still hidden dependencies. This caused the GO pipeline to break at a bad point last week. cc @mcourtot @kltm

[mcourtot]

Is the fall through due to the CNAME resolution from http://purl.obolibrary.org to occult or is it configured somewhere else?

[jamesaoverton]

It's configured here: https://github.com/OBOFoundry/purl.obolibrary.org/blob/master/www/.htaccess

It's very easy to change. I don't have any objections to changing it, just general anxiety. :)

[mcourtot]

well on the bright side it can't be more broken than currently :)
I guess the correct link would be http://www.berkeleybop.org/ontologies/$1. @cmungall?

[jamesaoverton]

This is still a problem, and maybe a bigger problem now than before.

I propose dropping the OCLC fall-through and serving our own 404 pages with some helpful documentation. What are the arguments against that proposal?

[matentzn]

I agree with that.. dropping them.