diff --git a/scheme/httpd/handler-lib.scm b/scheme/httpd/handler-lib.scm
index 1289101..e42c030 100644
--- a/scheme/httpd/handler-lib.scm
+++ b/scheme/httpd/handler-lib.scm
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-;;; A library of procs for handlers.
+;;; A library of procs for request handlers.
 
 ;;; This file is part of the Scheme Untergrund Networking package.
 
@@ -6,14 +6,52 @@
 ;;; the distribution.
 
 
-;; interpolate host info from our request's net connection.
-;; return string. Example: "134.2.12.72:7777"
-(define (get-socket-host-string req)
-  (let ((addr (socket-local-address (request-socket req))))
-    (call-with-values 
-	(lambda ()(socket-address->internet-address addr))
-      (lambda (ipaddr portnum) 
-	(string-append (format-internet-host-address ipaddr) ":" (number->string portnum))))))
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;; Reading in the message body of a request.
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+;;; Read in the message body of an HTTP message and return it as a string.
+;;;
+;;; READ-MESSAGE-BODY handles ordinary message bodies as well as
+;;; message bodies to which the transfer coding "chunked" has been
+;;; applied.
+;;;
+;;; Note: all request handlers should use READ-MESSAGE-BODY, and should not
+;;; read in message bodies by themselves: READ-MESSAGE-BODY implements
+;;; the correct order in which a message body's length is determined.
+;;; (See RFC 2616, 4.4 for precedence of Transfer-encoding header over Content-length header.)
+
+(define (read-message-body req)
+  (let ((inport (socket:inport (request-socket req))))
+    (if (chunked-transfer-coding? req)
+	(read-chunked-body inport)
+	(read-ordinary-body inport req))))
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;; Reading in ordinary bodies (no transfer coding applied)
+
+
+;;; Read in the message body, return it as a string.
+
+(define (read-ordinary-body inport req)
+  (let* ((body-length (get-body-length-from-content-length req)) ;make sure we have a valid Content-length header in request
+	 (maybe-body (read-string body-length inport)))
+    (or maybe-body
+	(fatal-syntax-error "EOF while reading in message body"))))
+
+
+;;Get length of the request's message body from Content-length header or
+;;throw fatal-syntax-error if no such header
+
+(define (get-body-length-from-content-length req)
+  (let 
+      ;;try to get field value of first Content-length header (RFC 2616 allows only one Content-length: header)
+      ((maybe-length (get-numeric-field-value req 'content-length)))
+    (or maybe-length
+	(fatal-syntax-error "No Content-Length header in request"))))
 
 
 ;; GET-NUMERIC-FIELD-VALUE
@@ -33,16 +71,13 @@
     (if field-content ;; request contained "field-name" header
 	(let ;;see * below
 	    ((field-value (string->number (string-trim-both field-content char-set:blank)))) ;;char-set:blank = Space + Tab = LWS from RFC2616 after folding
-	  (if (and (integer? field-value) (>= field-value 0)) ;;yes, field value contained only digits, and at least one digit.
+	  (if (and field-value (>= field-value 0)) ;;yes, field value contained only digits.
 	      field-value
-	      (http-error 
-	       (status-code bad-request) req
+	      (fatal-syntax-error
 	       (format #f 
 		       "~A header contained only whitespace, or characters other than digits, or whitespace between digits" 
 		       field-name))))
 	#f)))
-
-
 ;;* RFC 2616, 4.2: The field-content does not include any leading or
 ;;trailing LWS: linear white space occurring before the first
 ;;non-whitespace character of the field-value or after the last
@@ -51,22 +86,11 @@
 ;;field value.
 ;;(probably read-rfc822-headers in rfc822.scm should do the job of skipping leading and trailing whitespace?)
 
-;;get request's message-body length from Content-length: header or
-;;throw http-error if no such header
-(define (get-body-length-from-content-length req)
-  (let 
-      ;;try to get field value of first Content-length header (RFC 2616 allows only one Content-length: header)
-      ((maybe-length (get-numeric-field-value req 'content-length)))
-    (or maybe-length
-	(http-error (status-code bad-request) req "No Content-Length header in request"))))
+
 
 
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
-;;; Decode chunked entity bodies: "chunked transfer-coding"
-
-
-;;; See RFC 2616, 3.6.1 and 19.4.6 for the composition of chunked entity bodies.
-;;; See RFC 2616, 4.4 for precedence of Transfer-encoding header over Content-length header.
+;;; Decoding chunked entity bodies: "chunked transfer-coding"
 
 
 ;;; Is the request's entity body sent in chunked transfer-encoding?
@@ -89,3 +113,83 @@
 
                ; the first token of the (extracted last) transfer-coding must be "chunked" to indicate chunked transfer coding
 	      (string-prefix? "chunked" last-transfer-coding)))))
+
+
+
+;;; Read in the chunked entity body, return it as a string.
+;;; (See RFC 2616, 3.6.1 and 19.4.6 for the composition of chunked entity bodies.)
+
+(define (read-chunked-body inport)
+  (let read-chunks ((chunk-size (get-chunk-size inport))
+		    (res ""))
+    (if (= 0 chunk-size) ;last-chunk
+	(begin (read-and-discard-trailer inport); see comment *1
+	       res)
+	(let ((maybe-chunk-data (read-string chunk-size inport)))
+	  (if maybe-chunk-data
+	      (begin (discard-line-terminator inport)
+		     (read-chunks (get-chunk-size inport) (string-append res maybe-chunk-data)))
+	      (fatal-syntax-error "EOF while reading in chunk-data in chunked entity body"))))))
+
+;comment *1:
+;
+;This is were we don't achieve conditional compliance: we ought to read
+;in the entity-headers in the trailer and incorporate them into the
+;request record. Within our current scheme (where reading in the
+;entity-body is the request-handlers job - while the request-handler
+;is only called _after_ the request record has been built) this is not
+;possible.
+;
+;Note that in their current state (04/2005) the handlers actually
+;disregard most request headers anyway (even the request headers
+;parsed into the request record).
+;
+;Alternatively we could check the request for a Trailer header and
+;respond with 500 if we find one. Problem here: the clients "SHOULD
+;include a Trailer header field in a message using chunked
+;transfer-coding with a non-empty trailer" (14.40) - they are not
+;obliged to! So even if we check for a Trailer header we may still
+;silently disregard a trailer.
+
+
+;;;Read in a chunk-size line within a chunked entity body; return the chunk-size as an integer.
+;;; (See RFC 2616, 3.6.1 and 19.4.6 for the composition of chunked entity bodies.)
+
+(define (get-chunk-size inport)
+  (let ((chunk-size-line (read-crlf-line inport)))
+    (if (eof-object? chunk-size-line)
+	(fatal-syntax-error "EOF while reading in chunk-size in chunked entity body")
+	(let* ((chunk-extensions-index (string-contains chunk-size-line "; "))
+	       (hex-string (if chunk-extensions-index
+			       (string-take chunk-size-line chunk-extensions-index)
+			       chunk-size-line))
+	       (chunk-size-int (string->number (string-trim-both hex-string char-set:blank) 16)))
+	       (if (and chunk-size-int (>= chunk-size-int 0)) ; yes, chunk-size contained only hex chars
+		   chunk-size-int
+		   (fatal-syntax-error "Chunk-size within chunked entity body is incorrect or syntactically faulty"))))))
+
+(define (read-and-discard-trailer inport)
+  (with-fatal-error-handler
+   (lambda (c decline)
+     (fatal-syntax-error "Illegal RFC 822 field syntax within trailer of entity message body"))
+   (read-rfc822-headers inport)))
+
+(define (discard-line-terminator inport)
+ (read-char inport) (read-char inport)) ;;assuming the line terminator is CRLF as required by RFC 2616 
+
+
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;; Misc
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
+
+
+;; interpolate host info from our request's net connection.
+;; return string. Example: "134.2.12.72:7777"
+(define (get-socket-host-string req)
+  (let ((addr (socket-local-address (request-socket req))))
+    (call-with-values 
+	(lambda ()(socket-address->internet-address addr))
+      (lambda (ipaddr portnum) 
+	(string-append (format-internet-host-address ipaddr) ":" (number->string portnum))))))