Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0
RFC 1945

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Network Working Group                                     T. Berners-Lee
Request for Comments: 1945                                       MIT/LCS
Category: Informational                                      R. Fielding
                                                               UC Irvine
                                                              H. Frystyk
                                                                 MIT/LCS
                                                                May 1996

                Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

IESG Note:

   The IESG has concerns about this protocol, and expects this document
   to be replaced relatively soon by a standards track document.

Abstract

   The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level
   protocol with the lightness and speed necessary for distributed,
   collaborative, hypermedia information systems. It is a generic,
   stateless, object-oriented protocol which can be used for many tasks,
   such as name servers and distributed object management systems,
   through extension of its request methods (commands). A feature of
   HTTP is the typing of data representation, allowing systems to be
   built independently of the data being transferred.

   HTTP has been in use by the World-Wide Web global information
   initiative since 1990. This specification reflects common usage of
   the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.0".

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction ..............................................  4
       1.1  Purpose ..............................................  4
       1.2  Terminology ..........................................  4
       1.3  Overall Operation ....................................  6
       1.4  HTTP and MIME ........................................  8
   2.  Notational Conventions and Generic Grammar ................  8
       2.1  Augmented BNF ........................................  8
       2.2  Basic Rules .......................................... 10
   3.  Protocol Parameters ....................................... 12

Berners-Lee, et al           Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 1945                        HTTP/1.0                        May 1996

       3.1  HTTP Version ......................................... 12
       3.2  Uniform Resource Identifiers ......................... 14
            3.2.1  General Syntax ................................ 14
            3.2.2  http URL ...................................... 15
       3.3  Date/Time Formats .................................... 15
       3.4  Character Sets ....................................... 17
       3.5  Content Codings ...................................... 18
       3.6  Media Types .......................................... 19
            3.6.1  Canonicalization and Text Defaults ............ 19
            3.6.2  Multipart Types ............................... 20
       3.7  Product Tokens ....................................... 20
   4.  HTTP Message .............................................. 21
       4.1  Message Types ........................................ 21
       4.2  Message Headers ...................................... 22
       4.3  General Header Fields ................................ 23
   5.  Request ................................................... 23
       5.1  Request-Line ......................................... 23
            5.1.1  Method ........................................ 24
            5.1.2  Request-URI ................................... 24
       5.2  Request Header Fields ................................ 25
   6.  Response .................................................. 25
       6.1  Status-Line .......................................... 26
            6.1.1  Status Code and Reason Phrase ................. 26
       6.2  Response Header Fields ............................... 28
   7.  Entity .................................................... 28
       7.1  Entity Header Fields ................................. 29
       7.2  Entity Body .......................................... 29
            7.2.1  Type .......................................... 29
            7.2.2  Length ........................................ 30
   8.  Method Definitions ........................................ 30
       8.1  GET .................................................. 31
       8.2  HEAD ................................................. 31
       8.3  POST ................................................. 31
   9.  Status Code Definitions ................................... 32
       9.1  Informational 1xx .................................... 32
       9.2  Successful 2xx ....................................... 32
       9.3  Redirection 3xx ...................................... 34