or more header fields (also known as "headers"), an empty line (i.e.,
   a line with nothing preceding the CRLF) indicating the end of the
   header fields, and possibly a message-body.

        generic-message = start-line
                          *(message-header CRLF)
                          CRLF
                          [ message-body ]
        start-line      = Request-Line | Status-Line

   In the interest of robustness, servers SHOULD ignore any empty
   line(s) received where a Request-Line is expected. In other words, if
   the server is reading the protocol stream at the beginning of a
   message and receives a CRLF first, it should ignore the CRLF.

   Certain buggy HTTP/1.0 client implementations generate extra CRLF's
   after a POST request. To restate what is explicitly forbidden by the
   BNF, an HTTP/1.1 client MUST NOT preface or follow a request with an
   extra CRLF.

4.2 Message Headers

   HTTP header fields, which include general-header (section 4.5),
   request-header (section 5.3), response-header (section 6.2), and
   entity-header (section 7.1) fields, follow the same generic format as
   that given in Section 3.1 of RFC 822 [9]. Each header field consists
   of a name followed by a colon (":") and the field value. Field names
   are case-insensitive. The field value MAY be preceded by any amount
   of LWS, though a single SP is preferred. Header fields can be
   extended over multiple lines by preceding each extra line with at
   least one SP or HT. Applications ought to follow "common form", where
   one is known or indicated, when generating HTTP constructs, since
   there might exist some implementations that fail to accept anything




 
RFC 2616                        HTTP/1.1                       June 1999


   beyond the common forms.

       message-header = field-name ":" [ field-value ]
       field-name     = token
       field-value    = *( field-content | LWS )
       field-content  = <the OCTETs making up the field-value
                        and consisting of either *TEXT or combinations
                        of token, separators, and quoted-string>

   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 non-whitespace
   character of the field-value. Such leading or trailing LWS MAY be
   removed without changing the semantics of the field value. Any LWS
   that occurs between field-content MAY be replaced with a single SP
   before interpreting the field value or forwarding the message
   downstream.

   The order in which header fields with differing field names are
   received is not significant. However, it is "good practice" to send
   general-header fields first, followed by request-header or response-
   header fields, and ending with the entity-header fields.

   Multiple message-header fields with the same field-name MAY be
   present in a message if and only if the entire field-value for that
   header field is defined as a comma-separated list [i.e., #(values)].
   It MUST be possible to combine the multiple header fields into one
   "field-name: field-value" pair, without changing the semantics of the
   message, by appending each subsequent field-value to the first, each
   separated by a comma. The order in which header fields with the same
   field-name are received is therefore significant to the
   interpretation of the combined field value, and thus a proxy MUST NOT
   change the order of these field values when a message is forwarded.

4.3 Message Body

   The message-body (if any) of an HTTP message is used to carry the
   entity-body associated with the request or response. The message-body
   differs from the entity-body only when a transfer-coding has been
   applied, as indicated by the Transfer-Encoding header field (section
   14.41).

       message-body = entity-body
                    | <entity-body encoded as per Transfer-Encoding>

   Transfer-Encoding MUST be used to indicate any transfer-codings
   applied by an application to ensure safe and proper transfer of the
   message. Transfer-Encoding is a property of the message, not of the




 
RFC 2616                        HTTP/1.1                       June 1999


   entity, and thus MAY be added or removed by any application along the
   request/response chain. (However, section 3.6 places restrictions on
   when certain transfer-codings may be used.)