[Zope] perplexed by hanging Python script

[Skip Montanaro]

Environment:
    OS: MacOSX 10.2.2
    Server: Zope 2.5.1
    Browsers: MSIE 5.2, Opera 6.0beta2, links 0.96, httpget, wget

This simple Python script hangs when accessed via direct URL or the ZMI (I
didn't try the ZMI with links):

    ## Script (Python) "empty"
    ##bind container=container
    ##bind context=context
    ##bind namespace=
    ##bind script=script
    ##bind subpath=traverse_subpath
    ##parameters=
    ##title=
    ##
    return []

If I call it via xmlrpc it succeeds:

    % python
    Python 2.3a0 (#6, Nov 13 2002, 19:57:35) 
    [GCC 3.1 20020420 (prerelease)] on darwin
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import xmlrpclib
    >>> utils = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy("http://localhost:8080/dcII/utils")
    >>> print utils.empty()
    []

If I fetch the URL using wget, it responds:

    % wget http://localhost:8080/dcII/utils/empty
    --14:34:52--  http://localhost:8080/dcII/utils/empty
               => `empty'
    Resolving localhost... done.
    Connecting to localhost[127.0.0.1]:8080... connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 204 No Content
    Length: 0

        [ <=>                                                ] 0             --.--K/s             

    14:34:52 (0.00 B/s) - `empty' saved [0/0]

httpget tells me:

    % httpget http://localhost:8080/dcII/utils/empty
    URL host = localhost
    URL port = 8080
    URL path = /dcII/utils/empty
    Connected to localhost:8080
    Sending request...
    GET /dcII/utils/empty HTTP/1.0
    Host: localhost
    User-agent: httpget
    Accept: text/html, */*

    Reading reply...
    ----- HTTP reply header follows -----
    HTTP/1.0 204 No Content
    Server: Zope/(unreleased version, python 2.1.3, darwin6) ZServer/1.1b1
    Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 20:37:36 GMT
    Connection: close
    Etag: 
    Content-Length: 0

    ----- HTTP reply header end -----
    Connection closed.
    Total of 182 bytes read in 0.126 seconds

It seems there is some sort of protocol problem (miscalculation of response
length perhaps?).  Is this a known bug in 2.5.1?  If so, is there a patch
available to fix it (I'm not in a position to upgrade Zope).  I tried
searching the Zope Collector but saw nothing obvious in about five minutes
of searching.

Thx,

-- 
Skip Montanaro - skip@pobox.com
http://www.mojam.com/
http://www.musi-cal.com/