--- a/src/share/classes/sun/net/httpserver/ExchangeImpl.java	Sun May 02 15:54:20 2010 -0700
+++ b/src/share/classes/sun/net/httpserver/ExchangeImpl.java	Wed May 05 13:18:31 2010 +0100
@@ -26,16 +26,12 @@
 package sun.net.httpserver;
 
 import java.io.*;
-import java.nio.*;
-import java.nio.channels.*;
 import java.net.*;
 import javax.net.ssl.*;
 import java.util.*;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 import java.text.*;
-import sun.net.www.MessageHeader;
 import com.sun.net.httpserver.*;
-import com.sun.net.httpserver.spi.*;
 
 class ExchangeImpl {
 
@@ -65,6 +61,8 @@
         df.setTimeZone (tz);
     }
 
+    private static final String HEAD = "HEAD";
+
     /* streams which take care of the HTTP protocol framing
      * and are passed up to higher layers
      */
@@ -116,6 +114,10 @@
         return connection.getHttpContext();
     }
 
+    private boolean isHeadRequest() {
+        return HEAD.equals(getRequestMethod());
+    }
+
     public void close () {
         if (closed) {
             return;
@@ -220,24 +222,36 @@
             }
             contentLen = -1;
         }
-        if (contentLen == 0) {
-            if (http10) {
-                o.setWrappedStream (new UndefLengthOutputStream (this, ros));
-                close = true;
-            } else {
-                rspHdrs.set ("Transfer-encoding", "chunked");
-                o.setWrappedStream (new ChunkedOutputStream (this, ros));
+
+        if (isHeadRequest()) {
+            /* HEAD requests should not set a content length by passing it
+             * through this API, but should instead manually set the required
+             * headers.*/
+            if (contentLen >= 0) {
+                final Logger logger = server.getLogger();
+                String msg =
+                    "sendResponseHeaders: being invoked with a content length for a HEAD request";
+                logger.warning (msg);
             }
-        } else {
-            if (contentLen == -1) {
-                noContentToSend = true;
-                contentLen = 0;
+            noContentToSend = true;
+            contentLen = 0;
+        } else { /* not a HEAD request */
+            if (contentLen == 0) {
+                if (http10) {
+                    o.setWrappedStream (new UndefLengthOutputStream (this, ros));
+                    close = true;
+                } else {
+                    rspHdrs.set ("Transfer-encoding", "chunked");
+                    o.setWrappedStream (new ChunkedOutputStream (this, ros));
+                }
+            } else {
+                if (contentLen == -1) {
+                    noContentToSend = true;
+                    contentLen = 0;
+                }
+                rspHdrs.set("Content-length", Long.toString(contentLen));
+                o.setWrappedStream (new FixedLengthOutputStream (this, ros, contentLen));
             }
-            /* content len might already be set, eg to implement HEAD resp */
-            if (rspHdrs.getFirst ("Content-length") == null) {
-                rspHdrs.set ("Content-length", Long.toString(contentLen));
-            }
-            o.setWrappedStream (new FixedLengthOutputStream (this, ros, contentLen));
         }
         write (rspHdrs, tmpout);
         this.rspContentLen = contentLen;

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/test/com/sun/net/httpserver/bugs/HeadTest.java	Wed May 05 13:18:31 2010 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2010 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
+ * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
+ *
+ * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+ * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
+ * published by the Free Software Foundation.
+ *
+ * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
+ * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
+ * accompanied this code).
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
+ * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+ * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
+ *
+ * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
+ * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
+ * have any questions.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @test
+ * @bug 6886723
+ * @summary light weight http server doesn't return correct status code for HEAD requests
+ */
+
+import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpContext;
+import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpExchange;
+import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpHandler;
+import com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer;
+
+public class HeadTest {
+
+    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
+        server();
+    }
+
+    static void server() throws Exception {
+        InetSocketAddress inetAddress = new InetSocketAddress(0);
+        HttpServer server = HttpServer.create(inetAddress, 5);
+        try {
+            server.setExecutor(Executors.newFixedThreadPool(5));
+            HttpContext chunkedContext = server.createContext("/chunked");
+            chunkedContext.setHandler(new HttpHandler() {
+                @Override
+                public void handle(HttpExchange msg) {
+                    try {
+                        try {
+                            if (msg.getRequestMethod().equals("HEAD")) {
+                                msg.getRequestBody().close();
+                                msg.getResponseHeaders().add("Transfer-encoding", "chunked");
+                                msg.sendResponseHeaders(200, -1);
+                            }
+                        } catch(IOException ioe) {
+                            ioe.printStackTrace();
+                        }
+                    } finally {
+                        msg.close();
+                    }
+                }
+            });
+            HttpContext clContext = server.createContext("/content");
+            clContext.setHandler(new HttpHandler() {
+                @Override
+                public void handle(HttpExchange msg) {
+                    try {
+                        try {
+                            if (msg.getRequestMethod().equals("HEAD")) {
+                                msg.getRequestBody().close();
+                                msg.getResponseHeaders().add("Content-length", "1024");
+                                msg.sendResponseHeaders(200, -1);
+                            }
+                        } catch(IOException ioe) {
+                            ioe.printStackTrace();
+                        }
+                    } finally {
+                        msg.close();
+                    }
+                }
+            });
+            server.start();
+            String urlStr = "http://localhost:" + server.getAddress().getPort() + "/";
+            System.out.println("Server is at " + urlStr);
+
+            // Run the chunked client
+            for(int i=0; i < 10; i++) {
+                runClient(urlStr + "chunked/");
+            }
+            // Run the content length client
+            for(int i=0; i < 10; i++) {
+                runClient(urlStr + "content/");
+            }
+        } finally {
+            // Stop the server
+            ((ExecutorService)server.getExecutor()).shutdown();
+            server.stop(0);
+        }
+    }
+
+    static void runClient(String urlStr) throws Exception {
+        HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(urlStr).openConnection();
+        conn.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
+        int status = conn.getResponseCode();
+        if (status != 200) {
+            throw new RuntimeException("HEAD request doesn't return 200, but returns " + status);
+        }
+    }
+}