4 files changed, 96 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/docs/howto/error-reporting.txt b/docs/howto/error-reporting.txt
index 063f943894..ddef93873e 100644
--- a/docs/howto/error-reporting.txt
+++ b/docs/howto/error-reporting.txt
@@ -66,15 +66,29 @@ a referer. (It doesn't bother to email for 404s that don't have a referer --
 those are usually just people typing in broken URLs or broken Web 'bots).
 
 You can tell Django to stop reporting particular 404s by tweaking the
-:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_ENDS` and :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` settings. Both
-should be a tuple of strings. For example::
+:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS` setting. It should be a tuple of compiled
+regular expression objects. For example::
 
-    IGNORABLE_404_ENDS = ('.php', '.cgi')
-    IGNORABLE_404_STARTS = ('/phpmyadmin/',)
+    import re
+    IGNORABLE_404_URLS = (
+        re.compile(r'\.(php|cgi)$'),
+        re.compile(r'^/phpmyadmin/'),
+    )
 
 In this example, a 404 to any URL ending with ``.php`` or ``.cgi`` will *not* be
 reported. Neither will any URL starting with ``/phpmyadmin/``.
 
+The following example shows how to exclude some conventional URLs that browsers and
+crawlers often request::
+
+    import re
+    IGNORABLE_404_URLS = (
+        re.compile(r'^/apple-touch-icon.*\.png$'),
+        re.compile(r'^/favicon.ico$),
+        re.compile(r'^/robots.txt$),
+    )
+
+
 The best way to disable this behavior is to set
 :setting:`SEND_BROKEN_LINK_EMAILS` to ``False``.
 
@@ -93,3 +107,10 @@ The best way to disable this behavior is to set
    records are ignored, but you can use them for error reporting by writing a
    handler and :doc:`configuring logging </topics/logging>` appropriately.
 
+.. seealso::
+
+   .. versionchanged:: 1.4
+
+   Previously, two settings were used to control which URLs not to report:
+   :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` and :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_ENDS`. They
+   were replaced by :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS`.
diff --git a/docs/internals/deprecation.txt b/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
index 98b2138bc1..8ebeb668e9 100644
--- a/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
+++ b/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
@@ -199,6 +199,10 @@ their deprecation, as per the :ref:`Django deprecation policy
           ISO 3166 code for United Kingdom). They have been depreacted since the
           1.4 release.
 
+        * The :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` and :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_ENDS`
+          settings have been superseded by :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS` in
+          the 1.4 release. They will be removed.
+
     * 2.0
         * ``django.views.defaults.shortcut()``. This function has been moved
           to ``django.contrib.contenttypes.views.shortcut()`` as part of the
diff --git a/docs/ref/settings.txt b/docs/ref/settings.txt
index 69892c7267..3a28745598 100644
--- a/docs/ref/settings.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/settings.txt
@@ -1020,25 +1020,23 @@ Available formats are ``DATE_FORMAT``, ``TIME_FORMAT``, ``DATETIME_FORMAT``,
 ``SHORT_DATETIME_FORMAT``, ``FIRST_DAY_OF_WEEK``, ``DECIMAL_SEPARATOR``,
 ``THOUSAND_SEPARATOR`` and ``NUMBER_GROUPING``.
 
-.. setting:: IGNORABLE_404_ENDS
+.. setting:: IGNORABLE_404_URLS
 
-IGNORABLE_404_ENDS
+IGNORABLE_404_URLS
 ------------------
 
-Default: ``('mail.pl', 'mailform.pl', 'mail.cgi', 'mailform.cgi', 'favicon.ico', '.php')``
-
-See also ``IGNORABLE_404_STARTS`` and ``Error reporting via email``.
-
-.. setting:: IGNORABLE_404_STARTS
+.. versionadded:: 1.4
 
-IGNORABLE_404_STARTS
---------------------
+Default: ``()``
 
-Default: ``('/cgi-bin/', '/_vti_bin', '/_vti_inf')``
+List of compiled regular expression objects describing URLs that should be
+ignored when reporting HTTP 404 errors via email (see
+:doc:`/howto/error-reporting`). Use this if your site does not provide a
+commonly requested file such as ``favicon.ico`` or ``robots.txt``, or if it
+gets hammered by script kiddies.
 
-A tuple of strings that specify beginnings of URLs that should be ignored by
-the 404 emailer. See ``SEND_BROKEN_LINK_EMAILS``, ``IGNORABLE_404_ENDS`` and
-the :doc:`/howto/error-reporting`.
+This is only used if :setting:`SEND_BROKEN_LINK_EMAILS` is set to ``True`` and
+``CommonMiddleware`` is installed (see :doc:`/topics/http/middleware`).
 
 .. setting:: INSTALLED_APPS
 
@@ -1435,8 +1433,8 @@ Default: ``False``
 Whether to send an email to the ``MANAGERS`` each time somebody visits a
 Django-powered page that is 404ed with a non-empty referer (i.e., a broken
 link). This is only used if ``CommonMiddleware`` is installed (see
-:doc:`/topics/http/middleware`. See also ``IGNORABLE_404_STARTS``,
-``IGNORABLE_404_ENDS`` and :doc:`/howto/error-reporting`.
+:doc:`/topics/http/middleware`). See also ``IGNORABLE_404_URLS`` and
+:doc:`/howto/error-reporting`.
 
 .. setting:: SERIALIZATION_MODULES
 
@@ -2045,6 +2043,22 @@ DATABASE_USER
    This setting has been replaced by :setting:`USER` in
    :setting:`DATABASES`.
 
+.. setting:: IGNORABLE_404_ENDS
+
+IGNORABLE_404_ENDS
+------------------
+
+.. deprecated:: 1.4
+   This setting has been superseded by :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS`.
+
+.. setting:: IGNORABLE_404_STARTS
+
+IGNORABLE_404_STARTS
+--------------------
+
+.. deprecated:: 1.4
+   This setting has been superseded by :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS`.
+
 .. setting:: TEST_DATABASE_CHARSET
 
 TEST_DATABASE_CHARSET
@@ -2071,4 +2085,3 @@ TEST_DATABASE_NAME
 .. deprecated:: 1.2
    This setting has been replaced by :setting:`TEST_NAME` in
    :setting:`DATABASES`.
-
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.4.txt b/docs/releases/1.4.txt
index 3e82253116..1b8510f461 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.4.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.4.txt
@@ -176,3 +176,41 @@ Save this model manager in your custom comment app (e.g. in
 
 For more details see the docs about
 :doc:`customizing the comments framework </ref/contrib/comments/custom>`.
+
+`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` and `IGNORABLE_404_ENDS` settings
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Django can report 404 errors: see :doc:`/howto/error-reporting`.
+Until Django 1.3, it was possible to exclude some URLs from the reporting
+by adding prefixes to :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` and suffixes to
+:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_ENDS`.
+
+In Django 1.4, these two settings are superseded by
+:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS`, which is a list of compiled regular expressions.
+Django won't send an email for 404 errors on URLs that match any of them.
+
+Furthermore, the previous settings had some rather arbitrary default values::
+
+    IGNORABLE_404_STARTS = ('/cgi-bin/', '/_vti_bin', '/_vti_inf')
+    IGNORABLE_404_ENDS = ('mail.pl', 'mailform.pl', 'mail.cgi', 'mailform.cgi',
+                          'favicon.ico', '.php')
+
+It's not Django's role to decide if your website has a legacy ``/cgi-bin/``
+section or a ``favicon.ico``. As a consequence, the default values of
+:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_URLS`, :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` and
+:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_ENDS` are all now empty.
+
+If you have customized :setting:`IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` or
+:setting:`IGNORABLE_404_ENDS`, or if you want to keep the old default value,
+you should add the following lines in your settings file::
+
+    import re
+    IGNORABLE_404_URLS = (
+        # for each <prefix> in IGNORABLE_404_STARTS
+        re.compile(r'^<prefix>'),
+        # for each <suffix> in IGNORABLE_404_ENDS
+        re.compile(r'<suffix>$'),
+    )
+
+Don't forget to escape characters that have a special meaning in a regular
+expression.