Conflicting Link and <link>

[karlcow]

What is supposed to happen when at the HTTP level, we have

Link: </css/shiny.css>; as=style; rel=preload

and the HTML document has:

<link href="/css/shiny.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">

• Checking RFC8288 which obsoleted RFC5988, not clarifying the processing order.
• And HTML is not clear either about possible conflicts.
• yoohoo there is another spec talking about it CSSOM but still no clues.

[domfarolino]

whatwg/html#4224 discusses making it clear (in the HTML Standard) that the semantics of Link: and <link> are the same, so assuming that pans out, I think ultimately having both:

Link: </css/shiny.css>; as=style; rel=preload
<link href="/css/shiny.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">

...per spec, someday, will be the same "conflict" as:

<link href="/css/shiny.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="/css/shiny.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">

...in your document, which I don't think is unspecified.

[karlcow]

@domfarolino I guess you meant

<link href="/css/shiny.css" as="style" rel="preload">
<link href="/css/shiny.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">

[domfarolino]

Ah, yeah I kinda botched that. Thanks; point remains.

[yoavweiss]

I agree with @domfarolino's analysis. Closing this as this is not actionable.