RFC 2068                        HTTP/1.1                    January 1997


5.1.1 Method

   The Method token indicates the method to be performed on the resource
   identified by the Request-URI. The method is case-sensitive.

          Method         = "OPTIONS"                ; Section 9.2
                         | "GET"                    ; Section 9.3
                         | "HEAD"                   ; Section 9.4
                         | "POST"                   ; Section 9.5
                         | "PUT"                    ; Section 9.6
                         | "DELETE"                 ; Section 9.7
                         | "TRACE"                  ; Section 9.8
                         | extension-method

          extension-method = token

   The list of methods allowed by a resource can be specified in an
   Allow header field (section 14.7). The return code of the response
   always notifies the client whether a method is currently allowed on a
   resource, since the set of allowed methods can change dynamically.
   Servers SHOULD return the status code 405 (Method Not Allowed) if the
   method is known by the server but not allowed for the requested
   resource, and 501 (Not Implemented) if the method is unrecognized or
   not implemented by the server. The list of methods known by a server
   can be listed in a Public response-header field (section 14.35).

   The methods GET and HEAD MUST be supported by all general-purpose
   servers. All other methods are optional; however, if the above
   methods are implemented, they MUST be implemented with the same
   semantics as those specified in section 9.

5.1.2 Request-URI

   The Request-URI is a Uniform Resource Identifier (section 3.2) and
   identifies the resource upon which to apply the request.

          Request-URI    = "*" | absoluteURI | abs_path

   The three options for Request-URI are dependent on the nature of the
   request. The asterisk "*" means that the request does not apply to a
   particular resource, but to the server itself, and is only allowed
   when the method used does not necessarily apply to a resource. One
   example would be

          OPTIONS * HTTP/1.1

   The absoluteURI form is required when the request is being made to a
   proxy. The proxy is requested to forward the request or service it




 
RFC 2068                        HTTP/1.1                    January 1997


   from a valid cache, and return the response. Note that the proxy MAY
   forward the request on to another proxy or directly to the server
   specified by the absoluteURI. In order to avoid request loops, a
   proxy MUST be able to recognize all of its server names, including
   any aliases, local variations, and the numeric IP address. An example
   Request-Line would be:

          GET http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TheProject.html HTTP/1.1

   To allow for transition to absoluteURIs in all requests in future
   versions of HTTP, all HTTP/1.1 servers MUST accept the absoluteURI
   form in requests, even though HTTP/1.1 clients will only generate
   them in requests to proxies.

   The most common form of Request-URI is that used to identify a
   resource on an origin server or gateway. In this case the absolute
   path of the URI MUST be transmitted (see section 3.2.1, abs_path) as
   the Request-URI, and the network location of the URI (net_loc) MUST
   be transmitted in a Host header field. For example, a client wishing
   to retrieve the resource above directly from the origin server would
   create a TCP connection to port 80 of the host "www.w3.org" and send
   the lines:

          GET /pub/WWW/TheProject.html HTTP/1.1
          Host: www.w3.org

   followed by the remainder of the Request. Note that the absolute path
   cannot be empty; if none is present in the original URI, it MUST be
   given as "/" (the server root).

   If a proxy receives a request without any path in the Request-URI and
   the method specified is capable of supporting the asterisk form of
   request, then the last proxy on the request chain MUST forward the
   request with "*" as the final Request-URI. For example, the request