Index: .
===================================================================
--- .	(revision 696168)
+++ .	(working copy)
@@ -39,10 +39,10 @@
 import org.apache.ivy.util.Message;
 
 /**
- * 
+ *
  */
 public class BasicURLHandler extends AbstractURLHandler {
-    
+
     private static final Pattern ESCAPE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("%25([0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F])");
 
     private static final int BUFFER_SIZE = 64 * 1024;
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
         static final int SC_OK = 200;
 
         static final int SC_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED = 407;
-        
+
         private HttpStatus() {
         }
     }
@@ -56,7 +56,13 @@
         }
     }
 
+    private int requestMethod;
+
     public BasicURLHandler() {
+        this(REQUEST_METHOD_HEAD);
+    }
+
+    public BasicURLHandler(int requestMethod) {
         Message.debug("installing " + IvyAuthenticator.INSTANCE.getClass()); // do not remove,
         // ensure
         // IvyAuthenticator
@@ -61,6 +67,7 @@
         // ensure
         // IvyAuthenticator
         // class loading!
+        this.requestMethod = requestMethod;
     }
 
     public URLInfo getURLInfo(URL url) {
@@ -75,7 +82,11 @@
             con.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Apache Ivy/" + Ivy.getIvyVersion());
             if (con instanceof HttpURLConnection) {
                 HttpURLConnection httpCon = (HttpURLConnection) con;
-                httpCon.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
+
+                if (this.requestMethod == REQUEST_METHOD_HEAD) {
+                    httpCon.setRequestMethod("HEAD");
+                }
+
                 if (checkStatusCode(url, httpCon)) {
                     return new URLInfo(true, httpCon.getContentLength(), con.getLastModified());
                 }
@@ -83,9 +94,8 @@
                 int contentLength = con.getContentLength();
                 if (contentLength <= 0) {
                     return UNAVAILABLE;
-                } else {
-                    return new URLInfo(true, contentLength, con.getLastModified());
                 }
+                return new URLInfo(true, contentLength, con.getLastModified());
             }
         } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
             Message.warn("Host " + e.getMessage() + " not found. url=" + url);
@@ -101,10 +111,10 @@
 
     private URL normalize(URL url) throws IOException {
         if ("http".equals(url.getProtocol()) || "https".equals(url.getProtocol())) {
-            try { 
-                URI uri = new URI(url.getProtocol(), url.getUserInfo(), url.getHost(), 
+            try {
+                URI uri = new URI(url.getProtocol(), url.getUserInfo(), url.getHost(),
                         url.getPort(), url.getPath(), url.getQuery(), url.getRef());
-                
+
                 // it is possible that the original url was already (partial) escaped,
                 // so we must unescape all '%' followed by 2 hexadecimals...
                 String uriString = uri.toString();
@@ -110,9 +120,9 @@
                 String uriString = uri.toString();
                 url = new URL(ESCAPE_PATTERN.matcher(uriString).replaceAll("%$1"));
             } catch (URISyntaxException e) {
-                IOException ioe = new MalformedURLException("Couldn't convert '" 
-                    + url.toString() + "' to a valid URI"); 
-                ioe.initCause(e); 
+                IOException ioe = new MalformedURLException("Couldn't convert '"
+                    + url.toString() + "' to a valid URI");
+                ioe.initCause(e);
                 throw ioe;
             }
         }
@@ -253,4 +263,12 @@
         }
     }
 
+    public int getRequestMethod() {
+        return this.requestMethod;
+    }
+
+    public void setRequestMethod(int requestMethod) {
+        this.requestMethod = requestMethod;
+    }
+
 }