Changeset 538 for draft-ietf-httpbis
- Timestamp:
- 05/03/09 13:51:26 (13 years ago)
- Location:
- draft-ietf-httpbis/latest
- Files:
-
- 10 edited
Legend:
- Unmodified
- Added
- Removed
-
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p1-messaging.html
r532 r538 795 795 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.10"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">entity-body</a> = <entity-body, defined in <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a>, <a href="p3-payload.html#entity.body" title="Entity Body">Section 3.2</a>> 796 796 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">entity-header</a> = <entity-header, defined in <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.4"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a>, <a href="p3-payload.html#entity.header.fields" title="Entity Header Fields">Section 3.1</a>> 797 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.11"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> = <Cache-Control, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.pragma" title="Pragma">Section 15.4</a>>798 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Pragma</a> = <Pragma, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.pragma" title="Pragma">Section 15.4</a>>799 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Warning</a> = <Warning, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.warning" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a>>797 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.11"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> = <Cache-Control, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.pragma" title="Pragma">Section 3.4</a>> 798 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Pragma</a> = <Pragma, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.pragma" title="Pragma">Section 3.4</a>> 799 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Warning</a> = <Warning, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.warning" title="Warning">Section 3.6</a>> 800 800 </pre><h1 id="rfc.section.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2">2.</a> <a id="architecture" href="#architecture">HTTP architecture</a></h1> 801 801 <p id="rfc.section.2.p.1">HTTP was created with a specific architecture in mind, the World Wide Web, and has evolved over time to support the scalability … … 1295 1295 to the entity being transferred. These header fields apply only to the message being transmitted. 1296 1296 </p> 1297 <div id="rfc.figure.u.33"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.72"></span> <a href="#general.header.fields" class="smpl">general-header</a> = <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.5"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.cache-control" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>1297 <div id="rfc.figure.u.33"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.72"></span> <a href="#general.header.fields" class="smpl">general-header</a> = <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.5"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.cache-control" title="Cache-Control">Section 3.2</a> 1298 1298 / <a href="#header.connection" class="smpl">Connection</a> ; <a href="#header.connection" id="rfc.xref.header.connection.1" title="Connection">Section 8.1</a> 1299 1299 / <a href="#header.date" class="smpl">Date</a> ; <a href="#header.date" id="rfc.xref.header.date.1" title="Date">Section 8.3</a> 1300 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Pragma</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.6"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.pragma" title="Pragma">Section 15.4</a>1300 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Pragma</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.6"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.pragma" title="Pragma">Section 3.4</a> 1301 1301 / <a href="#header.trailer" class="smpl">Trailer</a> ; <a href="#header.trailer" id="rfc.xref.header.trailer.2" title="Trailer">Section 8.6</a> 1302 1302 / <a href="#header.transfer-encoding" class="smpl">Transfer-Encoding</a> ; <a href="#header.transfer-encoding" id="rfc.xref.header.transfer-encoding.4" title="Transfer-Encoding">Section 8.7</a> 1303 1303 / <a href="#header.upgrade" class="smpl">Upgrade</a> ; <a href="#header.upgrade" id="rfc.xref.header.upgrade.1" title="Upgrade">Section 8.8</a> 1304 1304 / <a href="#header.via" class="smpl">Via</a> ; <a href="#header.via" id="rfc.xref.header.via.1" title="Via">Section 8.9</a> 1305 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Warning</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.7"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.warning" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a>1305 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Warning</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.7"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.warning" title="Warning">Section 3.6</a> 1306 1306 </pre><p id="rfc.section.4.5.p.3">General-header field names can be extended reliably only in combination with a change in the protocol version. However, new 1307 1307 or experimental header fields may be given the semantics of general header fields if all parties in the communication recognize … … 2649 2649 <div id="rfc.figure.u.65"></div> <pre class="inline"><a href="#rule.whitespace" class="smpl">BWS</a> = OWS 2650 2650 2651 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> = <Cache-Control, defined in [Part6], Section 15.4>2651 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> = <Cache-Control, defined in [Part6], Section 3.4> 2652 2652 <a href="#chunked.transfer.encoding" class="smpl">Chunked-Body</a> = *chunk last-chunk trailer-part CRLF 2653 2653 <a href="#header.connection" class="smpl">Connection</a> = "Connection:" OWS Connection-v … … 2673 2673 <a href="#rule.whitespace" class="smpl">OWS</a> = *( [ obs-fold ] WSP ) 2674 2674 2675 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Pragma</a> = <Pragma, defined in [Part6], Section 15.4>2675 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Pragma</a> = <Pragma, defined in [Part6], Section 3.4> 2676 2676 2677 2677 <a href="#rule.whitespace" class="smpl">RWS</a> = 1*( [ obs-fold ] WSP ) … … 2704 2704 ] ) 2705 2705 2706 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Warning</a> = <Warning, defined in [Part6], Section 15.6>2706 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Warning</a> = <Warning, defined in [Part6], Section 3.6> 2707 2707 2708 2708 <a href="#uri" class="smpl">absolute-URI</a> = <absolute-URI, defined in [RFC3986], Section 4.3> … … 3236 3236 <li class="indline1"><em>Part6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.5">4.5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.6">4.5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.7">4.5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part6"><b>12.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.8">B.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.9">C</a><ul class="ind"> 3237 3237 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.9">C</a></li> 3238 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.5">4.5</a></li>3239 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.6">4.5</a></li>3240 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.7">4.5</a></li>3238 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.5">4.5</a></li> 3239 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.6">4.5</a></li> 3240 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">1.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.7">4.5</a></li> 3241 3241 </ul> 3242 3242 </li> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p1-messaging.xml
r532 r538 4436 4436 <x:ref>BWS</x:ref> = OWS 4437 4437 4438 <x:ref>Cache-Control</x:ref> = <Cache-Control, defined in [Part6], Section 15.4>4438 <x:ref>Cache-Control</x:ref> = <Cache-Control, defined in [Part6], Section 3.4> 4439 4439 <x:ref>Chunked-Body</x:ref> = *chunk last-chunk trailer-part CRLF 4440 4440 <x:ref>Connection</x:ref> = "Connection:" OWS Connection-v … … 4460 4460 <x:ref>OWS</x:ref> = *( [ obs-fold ] WSP ) 4461 4461 4462 <x:ref>Pragma</x:ref> = <Pragma, defined in [Part6], Section 15.4>4462 <x:ref>Pragma</x:ref> = <Pragma, defined in [Part6], Section 3.4> 4463 4463 4464 4464 <x:ref>RWS</x:ref> = 1*( [ obs-fold ] WSP ) … … 4491 4491 ] ) 4492 4492 4493 <x:ref>Warning</x:ref> = <Warning, defined in [Part6], Section 15.6>4493 <x:ref>Warning</x:ref> = <Warning, defined in [Part6], Section 3.6> 4494 4494 4495 4495 <x:ref>absolute-URI</x:ref> = <absolute-URI, defined in [RFC3986], Section 4.3> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html
r532 r538 716 716 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">If-Range</a> = <If-Range, defined in <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>, <a href="p5-range.html#header.if-range" title="If-Range">Section 5.3</a>> 717 717 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Range</a> = <Range, defined in <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>, <a href="p5-range.html#header.range" title="Range">Section 5.4</a>> 718 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.6"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Age</a> = <Age, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.age" title="Age">Section 15.1</a>>719 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Vary</a> = <Vary, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a>>718 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.6"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Age</a> = <Age, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.age" title="Age">Section 3.1</a>> 719 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Vary</a> = <Vary, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a>> 720 720 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.7"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Authorization</a> = <Authorization, defined in <a href="#Part7" id="rfc.xref.Part7.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication">[Part7]</cite></a>, <a href="p7-auth.html#header.authorization" title="Authorization">Section 3.1</a>> 721 721 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Proxy-Authenticate</a> = … … 858 858 </p> 859 859 <div id="rfc.figure.u.11"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.7"></span> <a href="#response.header.fields" class="smpl">response-header</a> = <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Accept-Ranges</a> ; <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.6"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>, <a href="p5-range.html#header.accept-ranges" title="Accept-Ranges">Section 5.1</a> 860 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Age</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.age" title="Age">Section 15.1</a>860 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Age</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.age" title="Age">Section 3.1</a> 861 861 / <a href="#header.allow" class="smpl">Allow</a> ; <a href="#header.allow" id="rfc.xref.header.allow.2" title="Allow">Section 9.1</a> 862 862 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">ETag</a> ; <a href="#Part4" id="rfc.xref.Part4.10"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests">[Part4]</cite></a>, <a href="p4-conditional.html#header.etag" title="ETag">Section 6.1</a> … … 865 865 / <a href="#header.retry-after" class="smpl">Retry-After</a> ; <a href="#header.retry-after" id="rfc.xref.header.retry-after.1" title="Retry-After">Section 9.7</a> 866 866 / <a href="#header.server" class="smpl">Server</a> ; <a href="#header.server" id="rfc.xref.header.server.1" title="Server">Section 9.8</a> 867 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Vary</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.4"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a>867 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Vary</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.4"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a> 868 868 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">WWW-Authenticate</a> ; <a href="#Part7" id="rfc.xref.Part7.8"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication">[Part7]</cite></a>, <a href="p7-auth.html#header.www-authenticate" title="WWW-Authenticate">Section 3.4</a> 869 869 </pre><p id="rfc.section.5.p.3">Response-header field names can be extended reliably only in combination with a change in the protocol version. However, new … … 2251 2251 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Accept-Language</a> = <Accept-Language, defined in [Part3], Section 5.4> 2252 2252 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Accept-Ranges</a> = <Accept-Ranges, defined in [Part5], Section 5.1> 2253 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Age</a> = <Age, defined in [Part6], Section 15.1>2253 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Age</a> = <Age, defined in [Part6], Section 3.1> 2254 2254 <a href="#header.allow" class="smpl">Allow</a> = "Allow:" OWS Allow-v 2255 2255 <a href="#header.allow" class="smpl">Allow-v</a> = [ ( "," / Method ) *( OWS "," [ OWS Method ] ) ] … … 2312 2312 <a href="#header.user-agent" class="smpl">User-Agent-v</a> = product *( RWS ( product / comment ) ) 2313 2313 2314 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Vary</a> = <Vary, defined in [Part6], Section 15.5>2314 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Vary</a> = <Vary, defined in [Part6], Section 3.5> 2315 2315 2316 2316 WWW-Authenticate = … … 2680 2680 </li> 2681 2681 <li class="indline1"><em>Part6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.5">7.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part6"><b>13.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2682 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">5</a></li>2683 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">5</a></li>2682 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">5</a></li> 2683 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">5</a></li> 2684 2684 </ul> 2685 2685 </li> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.xml
r532 r538 3213 3213 <x:ref>Accept-Language</x:ref> = <Accept-Language, defined in [Part3], Section 5.4> 3214 3214 <x:ref>Accept-Ranges</x:ref> = <Accept-Ranges, defined in [Part5], Section 5.1> 3215 <x:ref>Age</x:ref> = <Age, defined in [Part6], Section 15.1>3215 <x:ref>Age</x:ref> = <Age, defined in [Part6], Section 3.1> 3216 3216 <x:ref>Allow</x:ref> = "Allow:" OWS Allow-v 3217 3217 <x:ref>Allow-v</x:ref> = [ ( "," / Method ) *( OWS "," [ OWS Method ] ) ] … … 3274 3274 <x:ref>User-Agent-v</x:ref> = product *( RWS ( product / comment ) ) 3275 3275 3276 <x:ref>Vary</x:ref> = <Vary, defined in [Part6], Section 15.5>3276 <x:ref>Vary</x:ref> = <Vary, defined in [Part6], Section 3.5> 3277 3277 3278 3278 WWW-Authenticate = -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p3-payload.html
r532 r538 655 655 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.3"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Last-Modified</a> = <Last-Modified, defined in <a href="#Part4" id="rfc.xref.Part4.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests">[Part4]</cite></a>, <a href="p4-conditional.html#header.last-modified" title="Last-Modified">Section 6.6</a>> 656 656 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.4"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Content-Range</a> = <Content-Range, defined in <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>, <a href="p5-range.html#header.content-range" title="Content-Range">Section 5.2</a>> 657 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.5"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Expires</a> = <Expires, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.expires" title="Expires">Section 15.3</a>>657 </pre><div id="rfc.figure.u.5"></div><pre class="inline"> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Expires</a> = <Expires, defined in <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.expires" title="Expires">Section 3.3</a>> 658 658 </pre><h1 id="rfc.section.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2">2.</a> <a id="protocol.parameters" href="#protocol.parameters">Protocol Parameters</a></h1> 659 659 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.1"><a href="#rfc.section.2.1">2.1</a> <a id="character.sets" href="#character.sets">Character Sets</a></h2> … … 838 838 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Content-Range</a> ; <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>, <a href="p5-range.html#header.content-range" title="Content-Range">Section 5.2</a> 839 839 / <a href="#header.content-type" class="smpl">Content-Type</a> ; <a href="#header.content-type" id="rfc.xref.header.content-type.2" title="Content-Type">Section 5.9</a> 840 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Expires</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.expires" title="Expires">Section 15.3</a>840 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Expires</a> ; <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>, <a href="p6-cache.html#header.expires" title="Expires">Section 3.3</a> 841 841 / <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Last-Modified</a> ; <a href="#Part4" id="rfc.xref.Part4.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests">[Part4]</cite></a>, <a href="p4-conditional.html#header.last-modified" title="Last-Modified">Section 6.6</a> 842 842 / <a href="#entity.header.fields" class="smpl">extension-header</a> … … 914 914 header fields not defined by this specification. 915 915 </p> 916 <p id="rfc.section.4.1.p.5">The Vary header field (<a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>) can be used to express the parameters the server uses to select a representation that is subject to server-driven negotiation.916 <p id="rfc.section.4.1.p.5">The Vary header field (<a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>) can be used to express the parameters the server uses to select a representation that is subject to server-driven negotiation. 917 917 </p> 918 918 <h2 id="rfc.section.4.2"><a href="#rfc.section.4.2">4.2</a> <a id="agent-driven.negotiation" href="#agent-driven.negotiation">Agent-driven Negotiation</a></h2> … … 1245 1245 <p id="rfc.section.5.7.p.5">A cache cannot assume that an entity with a Content-Location different from the URI used to retrieve it can be used to respond 1246 1246 to later requests on that Content-Location URI. However, the Content-Location can be used to differentiate between multiple 1247 entities retrieved from a single requested resource, as described in <a href="p6-cache.html#caching.negotiated.responses" title="Caching Negotiated Responses">Section 7</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.4"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>.1247 entities retrieved from a single requested resource, as described in <a href="p6-cache.html#caching.negotiated.responses" title="Caching Negotiated Responses">Section 2.6</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.4"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>. 1248 1248 </p> 1249 1249 <p id="rfc.section.5.7.p.6">If the Content-Location is a relative URI, the relative URI is interpreted relative to the request-target.</p> … … 1749 1749 <a href="#header.content-type" class="smpl">Content-Type-v</a> = media-type 1750 1750 1751 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Expires</a> = <Expires, defined in [Part6], Section 15.3>1751 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Expires</a> = <Expires, defined in [Part6], Section 3.3> 1752 1752 1753 1753 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">Last-Modified</a> = <Last-Modified, defined in [Part4], Section 6.6> … … 2068 2068 </li> 2069 2069 <li class="indline1"><em>Part6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">3.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">5.7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part6"><b>9.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.5">C.1</a><ul class="ind"> 2070 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 7</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">5.7</a></li>2071 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.3</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">3.1</a></li>2072 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">4.1</a></li>2070 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 2.6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.4">5.7</a></li> 2071 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.3</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">3.1</a></li> 2072 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">4.1</a></li> 2073 2073 </ul> 2074 2074 </li> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p3-payload.xml
r532 r538 2667 2667 <x:ref>Content-Type-v</x:ref> = media-type 2668 2668 2669 <x:ref>Expires</x:ref> = <Expires, defined in [Part6], Section 15.3>2669 <x:ref>Expires</x:ref> = <Expires, defined in [Part6], Section 3.3> 2670 2670 2671 2671 <x:ref>Last-Modified</x:ref> = <Last-Modified, defined in [Part4], Section 6.6> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p4-conditional.html
r532 r538 878 878 header <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be ignored. 879 879 </p> 880 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.7">The meaning of "If-Match: *" is that the method <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be performed if the representation selected by the origin server (or by a cache, possibly using the Vary mechanism, see <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>) exists, and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be performed if the representation does not exist.880 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.7">The meaning of "If-Match: *" is that the method <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be performed if the representation selected by the origin server (or by a cache, possibly using the Vary mechanism, see <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>) exists, and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be performed if the representation does not exist. 881 881 </p> 882 882 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.8">A request intended to update a resource (e.g., a PUT) <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> include an If-Match header field to signal that the request method <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be applied if the entity corresponding to the If-Match value (a single entity tag) is no longer a representation of that resource. … … 962 962 If-None-Match header <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be ignored. (See <a href="#rules.for.when.to.use.entity.tags.and.last-modified.dates" title="Rules for When to Use Entity Tags and Last-Modified Dates">Section 5</a> for a discussion of server behavior when both If-Modified-Since and If-None-Match appear in the same request.) 963 963 </p> 964 <p id="rfc.section.6.4.p.8">The meaning of "If-None-Match: *" is that the method <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be performed if the representation selected by the origin server (or by a cache, possibly using the Vary mechanism, see <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>) exists, and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be performed if the representation does not exist. This feature is intended to be useful in preventing races between PUT operations.964 <p id="rfc.section.6.4.p.8">The meaning of "If-None-Match: *" is that the method <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be performed if the representation selected by the origin server (or by a cache, possibly using the Vary mechanism, see <a href="p6-cache.html#header.vary" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a> of <a href="#Part6" id="rfc.xref.Part6.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching">[Part6]</cite></a>) exists, and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be performed if the representation does not exist. This feature is intended to be useful in preventing races between PUT operations. 965 965 </p> 966 966 <p id="rfc.section.6.4.p.9">Examples:</p> … … 1326 1326 </li> 1327 1327 <li class="indline1"><em>Part6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.1">1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">6.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part6"><b>10.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 1328 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 15.5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">6.4</a></li>1328 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.2">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part6.3">6.4</a></li> 1329 1329 </ul> 1330 1330 </li> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p6-cache.html
r532 r538 359 359 <link rel="Index" href="#rfc.index"> 360 360 <link rel="Chapter" title="1 Introduction" href="#rfc.section.1"> 361 <link rel="Chapter" title="2 Overview" href="#rfc.section.2"> 362 <link rel="Chapter" title="3 Expiration Model" href="#rfc.section.3"> 363 <link rel="Chapter" title="4 Validation Model" href="#rfc.section.4"> 364 <link rel="Chapter" title="5 Response Cacheability" href="#rfc.section.5"> 365 <link rel="Chapter" title="6 Constructing Responses From Caches" href="#rfc.section.6"> 366 <link rel="Chapter" title="7 Caching Negotiated Responses" href="#rfc.section.7"> 367 <link rel="Chapter" title="8 Shared and Non-Shared Caches" href="#rfc.section.8"> 368 <link rel="Chapter" title="9 Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior" href="#rfc.section.9"> 369 <link rel="Chapter" title="10 Side Effects of GET and HEAD" href="#rfc.section.10"> 370 <link rel="Chapter" title="11 Invalidation After Updates or Deletions" href="#rfc.section.11"> 371 <link rel="Chapter" title="12 Write-Through Mandatory" href="#rfc.section.12"> 372 <link rel="Chapter" title="13 Cache Replacement" href="#rfc.section.13"> 373 <link rel="Chapter" title="14 History Lists" href="#rfc.section.14"> 374 <link rel="Chapter" title="15 Header Field Definitions" href="#rfc.section.15"> 375 <link rel="Chapter" title="16 IANA Considerations" href="#rfc.section.16"> 376 <link rel="Chapter" title="17 Security Considerations" href="#rfc.section.17"> 377 <link rel="Chapter" title="18 Acknowledgments" href="#rfc.section.18"> 378 <link rel="Chapter" href="#rfc.section.19" title="19 References"> 361 <link rel="Chapter" title="2 Cache Operation" href="#rfc.section.2"> 362 <link rel="Chapter" title="3 Header Field Definitions" href="#rfc.section.3"> 363 <link rel="Chapter" title="4 History Lists" href="#rfc.section.4"> 364 <link rel="Chapter" title="5 IANA Considerations" href="#rfc.section.5"> 365 <link rel="Chapter" title="6 Security Considerations" href="#rfc.section.6"> 366 <link rel="Chapter" title="7 Acknowledgments" href="#rfc.section.7"> 367 <link rel="Chapter" href="#rfc.section.8" title="8 References"> 379 368 <link rel="Appendix" title="A Compatibility with Previous Versions" href="#rfc.section.A"> 380 369 <link rel="Appendix" title="B Collected ABNF" href="#rfc.section.B"> … … 394 383 <meta name="DC.Date.Issued" scheme="ISO8601" content="2009-03"> 395 384 <meta name="DC.Relation.Replaces" content="urn:ietf:rfc:2616"> 396 <meta name="DC.Description.Abstract" content="The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP has been in use by the World Wide Web global information initiative since 1990.This document is Part 6 of the seven-part specification that defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1" and, taken together, obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 6 defines requirements on HTTP caches and the associated header fields that control cache behavior or indicate cacheable response messages.">385 <meta name="DC.Description.Abstract" content="The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. This document is Part 6 of the seven-part specification that defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1" and, taken together, obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 6 defines requirements on HTTP caches and the associated header fields that control cache behavior or indicate cacheable response messages."> 397 386 </head> 398 387 <body> … … 508 497 <h1 id="rfc.abstract"><a href="#rfc.abstract">Abstract</a></h1> 509 498 <p>The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information 510 systems. HTTP has been in use by the World Wide Web global information initiative since 1990. This document is Part 6 of the 511 seven-part specification that defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1" and, taken together, obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 512 6 defines requirements on HTTP caches and the associated header fields that control cache behavior or indicate cacheable response 513 messages. 499 systems. This document is Part 6 of the seven-part specification that defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1" and, 500 taken together, obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 6 defines requirements on HTTP caches and the associated header fields that control 501 cache behavior or indicate cacheable response messages. 514 502 </p> 515 503 <h1 id="rfc.note.1"><a href="#rfc.note.1">Editorial Note (To be removed by RFC Editor)</a></h1> … … 533 521 </ul> 534 522 </li> 535 <li class="tocline0">2. <a href="#caching.overview">Overview</a><ul class="toc"> 536 <li class="tocline1">2.1 <a href="#cache.correctness">Cache Correctness</a></li> 537 <li class="tocline1">2.2 <a href="#warnings">Warnings</a></li> 538 <li class="tocline1">2.3 <a href="#cache-control.mechanisms">Cache-control Mechanisms</a></li> 539 <li class="tocline1">2.4 <a href="#explicit.ua.warnings">Explicit User Agent Warnings</a></li> 540 <li class="tocline1">2.5 <a href="#exceptions.to.the.rules.and.warnings">Exceptions to the Rules and Warnings</a></li> 541 <li class="tocline1">2.6 <a href="#client-controlled.behavior">Client-controlled Behavior</a></li> 542 </ul> 543 </li> 544 <li class="tocline0">3. <a href="#expiration.model">Expiration Model</a><ul class="toc"> 545 <li class="tocline1">3.1 <a href="#server-specified.expiration">Server-Specified Expiration</a></li> 546 <li class="tocline1">3.2 <a href="#heuristic.expiration">Heuristic Expiration</a></li> 547 <li class="tocline1">3.3 <a href="#age.calculations">Age Calculations</a></li> 548 <li class="tocline1">3.4 <a href="#expiration.calculations">Expiration Calculations</a></li> 549 <li class="tocline1">3.5 <a href="#disambiguating.expiration.values">Disambiguating Expiration Values</a></li> 550 <li class="tocline1">3.6 <a href="#disambiguating.multiple.responses">Disambiguating Multiple Responses</a></li> 551 </ul> 552 </li> 553 <li class="tocline0">4. <a href="#validation.model">Validation Model</a></li> 554 <li class="tocline0">5. <a href="#response.cacheability">Response Cacheability</a></li> 555 <li class="tocline0">6. <a href="#constructing.responses.from.caches">Constructing Responses From Caches</a><ul class="toc"> 556 <li class="tocline1">6.1 <a href="#end-to-end.and.hop-by-hop.headers">End-to-end and Hop-by-hop Headers</a></li> 557 <li class="tocline1">6.2 <a href="#non-modifiable.headers">Non-modifiable Headers</a></li> 558 <li class="tocline1">6.3 <a href="#combining.headers">Combining Headers</a></li> 559 </ul> 560 </li> 561 <li class="tocline0">7. <a href="#caching.negotiated.responses">Caching Negotiated Responses</a></li> 562 <li class="tocline0">8. <a href="#shared.and.non-shared.caches">Shared and Non-Shared Caches</a></li> 563 <li class="tocline0">9. <a href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior">Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior</a></li> 564 <li class="tocline0">10. <a href="#side.effects.of.get.and.head">Side Effects of GET and HEAD</a></li> 565 <li class="tocline0">11. <a href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions">Invalidation After Updates or Deletions</a></li> 566 <li class="tocline0">12. <a href="#write-through.mandatory">Write-Through Mandatory</a></li> 567 <li class="tocline0">13. <a href="#cache.replacement">Cache Replacement</a></li> 568 <li class="tocline0">14. <a href="#history.lists">History Lists</a></li> 569 <li class="tocline0">15. <a href="#header.fields">Header Field Definitions</a><ul class="toc"> 570 <li class="tocline1">15.1 <a href="#header.age">Age</a></li> 571 <li class="tocline1">15.2 <a href="#header.cache-control">Cache-Control</a><ul class="toc"> 572 <li class="tocline1">15.2.1 <a href="#what.is.cacheable">What is Cacheable</a></li> 573 <li class="tocline1">15.2.2 <a href="#what.may.be.stored.by.caches">What May be Stored by Caches</a></li> 574 <li class="tocline1">15.2.3 <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism">Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism</a></li> 575 <li class="tocline1">15.2.4 <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls">Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls</a></li> 576 <li class="tocline1">15.2.5 <a href="#no-transform.directive">No-Transform Directive</a></li> 577 <li class="tocline1">15.2.6 <a href="#cache.control.extensions">Cache Control Extensions</a></li> 523 <li class="tocline0">2. <a href="#caching.overview">Cache Operation</a><ul class="toc"> 524 <li class="tocline1">2.1 <a href="#response.cacheability">Response Cacheability</a><ul class="toc"> 525 <li class="tocline1">2.1.1 <a href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior">Storing Partial and Incomplete Responses</a></li> 578 526 </ul> 579 527 </li> 580 <li class="tocline1">15.3 <a href="#header.expires">Expires</a></li> 581 <li class="tocline1">15.4 <a href="#header.pragma">Pragma</a></li> 582 <li class="tocline1">15.5 <a href="#header.vary">Vary</a></li> 583 <li class="tocline1">15.6 <a href="#header.warning">Warning</a></li> 528 <li class="tocline1">2.2 <a href="#constructing.responses.from.caches">Constructing Responses from Caches</a></li> 529 <li class="tocline1">2.3 <a href="#expiration.model">Freshness Model</a><ul class="toc"> 530 <li class="tocline1">2.3.1 <a href="#calculating.freshness.lifetime">Calculating Freshness Lifetime</a><ul class="toc"> 531 <li class="tocline1">2.3.1.1 <a href="#heuristic.freshness">Calculating Heuristic Freshness</a></li> 532 </ul> 533 </li> 534 <li class="tocline1">2.3.2 <a href="#age.calculations">Calculating Age</a></li> 535 <li class="tocline1">2.3.3 <a href="#serving.stale.responses">Serving Stale Responses</a></li> 536 </ul> 537 </li> 538 <li class="tocline1">2.4 <a href="#validation.model">Validation Model</a></li> 539 <li class="tocline1">2.5 <a href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions">Request Methods that Invalidate</a></li> 540 <li class="tocline1">2.6 <a href="#caching.negotiated.responses">Caching Negotiated Responses</a></li> 541 <li class="tocline1">2.7 <a href="#combining.headers">Combining Responses</a></li> 584 542 </ul> 585 543 </li> 586 <li class="tocline0">16. <a href="#IANA.considerations">IANA Considerations</a><ul class="toc"> 587 <li class="tocline1">16.1 <a href="#message.header.registration">Message Header Registration</a></li> 544 <li class="tocline0">3. <a href="#header.fields">Header Field Definitions</a><ul class="toc"> 545 <li class="tocline1">3.1 <a href="#header.age">Age</a></li> 546 <li class="tocline1">3.2 <a href="#header.cache-control">Cache-Control</a><ul class="toc"> 547 <li class="tocline1">3.2.1 <a href="#cache-request-directive">Request Cache-Control Directives</a></li> 548 <li class="tocline1">3.2.2 <a href="#cache-response-directive">Response Cache-Control Directives</a></li> 549 <li class="tocline1">3.2.3 <a href="#cache.control.extensions">Cache Control Extensions</a></li> 550 </ul> 551 </li> 552 <li class="tocline1">3.3 <a href="#header.expires">Expires</a></li> 553 <li class="tocline1">3.4 <a href="#header.pragma">Pragma</a></li> 554 <li class="tocline1">3.5 <a href="#header.vary">Vary</a></li> 555 <li class="tocline1">3.6 <a href="#header.warning">Warning</a></li> 588 556 </ul> 589 557 </li> 590 <li class="tocline0">17. <a href="#security.considerations">Security Considerations</a></li> 591 <li class="tocline0">18. <a href="#ack">Acknowledgments</a></li> 592 <li class="tocline0">19. <a href="#rfc.references">References</a><ul class="toc"> 593 <li class="tocline1">19.1 <a href="#rfc.references.1">Normative References</a></li> 594 <li class="tocline1">19.2 <a href="#rfc.references.2">Informative References</a></li> 558 <li class="tocline0">4. <a href="#history.lists">History Lists</a></li> 559 <li class="tocline0">5. <a href="#IANA.considerations">IANA Considerations</a><ul class="toc"> 560 <li class="tocline1">5.1 <a href="#message.header.registration">Message Header Registration</a></li> 561 </ul> 562 </li> 563 <li class="tocline0">6. <a href="#security.considerations">Security Considerations</a></li> 564 <li class="tocline0">7. <a href="#ack">Acknowledgments</a></li> 565 <li class="tocline0">8. <a href="#rfc.references">References</a><ul class="toc"> 566 <li class="tocline1">8.1 <a href="#rfc.references.1">Normative References</a></li> 567 <li class="tocline1">8.2 <a href="#rfc.references.2">Informative References</a></li> 595 568 </ul> 596 569 </li> … … 615 588 </ul> 616 589 <h1 id="rfc.section.1" class="np"><a href="#rfc.section.1">1.</a> <a id="caching" href="#caching">Introduction</a></h1> 617 <p id="rfc.section.1.p.1">HTTP is typically used for distributed information systems, where performance can be improved by the use of response caches, 618 and includes a number of elements intended to make caching work as well as possible. Because these elements interact with 619 each other, it is useful to describe the caching design of HTTP separately. This document defines aspects of HTTP/1.1 related 620 to caching and reusing response messages. 590 <p id="rfc.section.1.p.1">HTTP is typically used for distributed information systems, where performance can be improved by the use of response caches. 591 This document defines aspects of HTTP/1.1 related to caching and reusing response messages. 621 592 </p> 622 593 <div id="rfc.iref.c.1"></div> … … 627 598 </p> 628 599 <p id="rfc.section.1.1.p.2">Caching would be useless if it did not significantly improve performance. The goal of caching in HTTP/1.1 is to reuse a prior 629 response message to satisfy a current request. In some cases, the existing response can be reused without the need for a network 630 request, reducing latency and network round-trips; we use an "expiration" mechanism for this purpose (see <a href="#expiration.model" title="Expiration Model">Section 3</a>). Even when a new request is required, it is often possible to reuse all or parts of the payload of a prior response to satisfy 631 the request, thereby reducing network bandwidth usage; we use a "validation" mechanism for this purpose (see <a href="#validation.model" title="Validation Model">Section 4</a>). 632 </p> 633 <div id="rfc.iref.s.1"></div> 634 <p id="rfc.section.1.1.p.3">A cache behaves in a "<dfn>semantically transparent</dfn>" manner, with respect to a particular response, when its use affects neither the requesting client nor the origin server, 635 except to improve performance. When a cache is semantically transparent, the client receives exactly the same response status 636 and payload that it would have received had its request been handled directly by the origin server. 637 </p> 638 <p id="rfc.section.1.1.p.4">In an ideal world, all interactions with an HTTP cache would be semantically transparent. However, for some resources, semantic 639 transparency is not always necessary and can be effectively traded for the sake of bandwidth scaling, disconnected operation, 640 and high availability. HTTP/1.1 allows origin servers, caches, and clients to explicitly reduce transparency when necessary. 641 However, because non-transparent operation may confuse non-expert users and might be incompatible with certain server applications 642 (such as those for ordering merchandise), the protocol requires that transparency be relaxed 643 </p> 644 <ul> 645 <li>only by an explicit protocol-level request when relaxed by client or origin server</li> 646 <li>only with an explicit warning to the end user when relaxed by cache or client</li> 647 </ul> 648 <p id="rfc.section.1.1.p.5">Therefore, HTTP/1.1 provides these important elements: </p> 649 <ol> 650 <li>Protocol features that provide full semantic transparency when this is required by all parties.</li> 651 <li>Protocol features that allow an origin server or user agent to explicitly request and control non-transparent operation.</li> 652 <li>Protocol features that allow a cache to attach warnings to responses that do not preserve the requested approximation of semantic 653 transparency. 654 </li> 655 </ol> 656 <p id="rfc.section.1.1.p.6">A basic principle is that it must be possible for the clients to detect any potential relaxation of semantic transparency. </p> 657 <dl class="empty"> 658 <dd> <b>Note:</b> The server, cache, or client implementor might be faced with design decisions not explicitly discussed in this specification. 659 If a decision might affect semantic transparency, the implementor ought to err on the side of maintaining transparency unless 660 a careful and complete analysis shows significant benefits in breaking transparency. 661 </dd> 662 </dl> 600 response message to satisfy a current request. In some cases, a stored response can be reused without the need for a network 601 request, reducing latency and network round-trips; a "freshness" mechanism is used for this purpose (see <a href="#expiration.model" title="Freshness Model">Section 2.3</a>). Even when a new request is required, it is often possible to reuse all or parts of the payload of a prior response to satisfy 602 the request, thereby reducing network bandwidth usage; a "validation" mechanism is used for this purpose (see <a href="#validation.model" title="Validation Model">Section 2.4</a>). 603 </p> 663 604 <h2 id="rfc.section.1.2"><a href="#rfc.section.1.2">1.2</a> <a id="intro.terminology" href="#intro.terminology">Terminology</a></h2> 664 605 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.1">This specification uses a number of terms to refer to the roles played by participants in, and objects of, HTTP caching.</p> … … 667 608 <dl class="empty"> 668 609 <dd>A response is cacheable if a cache is allowed to store a copy of the response message for use in answering subsequent requests. 669 Even when a response is cacheable, there may be additional constraints on whether a cache can use the cached copy for a particular 670 request. 671 </dd> 672 </dl> 673 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.3"> <span id="rfc.iref.f.1"></span> <dfn>first-hand</dfn> 674 </p> 675 <dl class="empty"> 676 <dd>A response is first-hand if it comes directly and without unnecessary delay from the origin server, perhaps via one or more 677 proxies. A response is also first-hand if its validity has just been checked directly with the origin server. 678 </dd> 679 </dl> 680 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.4"> <span id="rfc.iref.e.1"></span> <dfn>explicit expiration time</dfn> 610 Even when a response is cacheable, there may be additional constraints on whether a cache can use the cached copy to satisfy 611 a particular request. 612 </dd> 613 </dl> 614 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.3"> <span id="rfc.iref.e.1"></span> <dfn>explicit expiration time</dfn> 681 615 </p> 682 616 <dl class="empty"> 683 617 <dd>The time at which the origin server intends that an entity should no longer be returned by a cache without further validation.</dd> 684 618 </dl> 685 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p. 5"> <span id="rfc.iref.h.1"></span> <dfn>heuristic expiration time</dfn>619 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.4"> <span id="rfc.iref.h.1"></span> <dfn>heuristic expiration time</dfn> 686 620 </p> 687 621 <dl class="empty"> 688 622 <dd>An expiration time assigned by a cache when no explicit expiration time is available.</dd> 689 623 </dl> 690 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p. 6"> <span id="rfc.iref.a.1"></span> <dfn>age</dfn>624 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.5"> <span id="rfc.iref.a.1"></span> <dfn>age</dfn> 691 625 </p> 692 626 <dl class="empty"> 693 627 <dd>The age of a response is the time since it was sent by, or successfully validated with, the origin server.</dd> 694 628 </dl> 629 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.6"> <span id="rfc.iref.f.1"></span> <dfn>first-hand</dfn> 630 </p> 631 <dl class="empty"> 632 <dd>A response is first-hand if the freshness model is not in use; i.e., its age is 0.</dd> 633 </dl> 695 634 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.7"> <span id="rfc.iref.f.2"></span> <dfn>freshness lifetime</dfn> 696 635 </p> … … 703 642 <dd>A response is fresh if its age has not yet exceeded its freshness lifetime.</dd> 704 643 </dl> 705 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.9"> <span id="rfc.iref.s. 2"></span> <dfn>stale</dfn>706 </p> 707 <dl class="empty"> 708 <dd>A response is stale if its age has passed its freshness lifetime .</dd>644 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.9"> <span id="rfc.iref.s.1"></span> <dfn>stale</dfn> 645 </p> 646 <dl class="empty"> 647 <dd>A response is stale if its age has passed its freshness lifetime (either explicit or heuristic).</dd> 709 648 </dl> 710 649 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.10"> <span id="rfc.iref.v.1"></span> <dfn>validator</dfn> 711 650 </p> 712 651 <dl class="empty"> 713 <dd>A protocol element (e.g., an entity tag or a Last-Modified time) that is used to find out whether a cache entry is an equivalent 714 copy of an entity. 715 </dd> 716 </dl> 652 <dd>A protocol element (e.g., an entity tag or a Last-Modified time) that is used to find out whether a stored response is an 653 equivalent copy of an entity. 654 </dd> 655 </dl> 656 <div id="shared.and.non-shared.caches"> 657 <p id="rfc.section.1.2.p.11"> <span id="rfc.iref.v.2"></span> <dfn>shared cache</dfn> 658 </p> 659 <dl class="empty"> 660 <dd>A cache that is accessible to more than one user. A non-shared cache is dedicated to a single user.</dd> 661 </dl> 662 </div> 717 663 <h2 id="rfc.section.1.3"><a href="#rfc.section.1.3">1.3</a> <a id="intro.requirements" href="#intro.requirements">Requirements</a></h2> 718 664 <p id="rfc.section.1.3.p.1">The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" … … 739 685 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">pseudonym</a> = <pseudonym, defined in <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.9"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>, <a href="p1-messaging.html#header.via" title="Via">Section 8.9</a>> 740 686 <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">uri-host</a> = <uri-host, defined in <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.10"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>, <a href="p1-messaging.html#uri" title="Uniform Resource Identifiers">Section 2.1</a>> 741 </pre><h1 id="rfc.section.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2">2.</a> <a id="caching.overview" href="#caching.overview">Overview</a></h1> 742 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.1"><a href="#rfc.section.2.1">2.1</a> <a id="cache.correctness" href="#cache.correctness">Cache Correctness</a></h2> 743 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.p.1">A correct cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> respond to a request with the most up-to-date response held by the cache that is appropriate to the request (see Sections <a href="#disambiguating.expiration.values" title="Disambiguating Expiration Values">3.5</a>, <a href="#disambiguating.multiple.responses" title="Disambiguating Multiple Responses">3.6</a>, and <a href="#cache.replacement" title="Cache Replacement">13</a>) which meets one of the following conditions: 744 </p> 745 <ol> 746 <li>It has been checked for equivalence with what the origin server would have returned by revalidating the response with the 747 origin server (<a href="#validation.model" title="Validation Model">Section 4</a>); 748 </li> 749 <li>It is "fresh enough" (see <a href="#expiration.model" title="Expiration Model">Section 3</a>). In the default case, this means it meets the least restrictive freshness requirement of the client, origin server, and 750 cache (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.1" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>); if the origin server so specifies, it is the freshness requirement of the origin server alone. If a stored response is 751 not "fresh enough" by the most restrictive freshness requirement of both the client and the origin server, in carefully considered 752 circumstances the cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> still return the response with the appropriate Warning header (see Sections <a href="#exceptions.to.the.rules.and.warnings" title="Exceptions to the Rules and Warnings">2.5</a> and <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.1" title="Warning">15.6</a>), unless such a response is prohibited (e.g., by a "no-store" cache-directive, or by a "no-cache" cache-request-directive; 753 see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.2" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>). 754 </li> 755 <li>It is an appropriate 304 (Not Modified), 305 (Use Proxy), or error (4xx or 5xx) response message.</li> 756 </ol> 757 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.p.2">If the cache can not communicate with the origin server, then a correct cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> respond as above if the response can be correctly served from the cache; if not it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> return an error or warning indicating that there was a communication failure. 758 </p> 759 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.p.3">If a cache receives a response (either an entire response, or a 304 (Not Modified) response) that it would normally forward 760 to the requesting client, and the received response is no longer fresh, the cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> forward it to the requesting client without adding a new Warning (but without removing any existing Warning headers). A cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> attempt to revalidate a response simply because that response became stale in transit; this might lead to an infinite loop. 761 A user agent that receives a stale response without a Warning <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> display a warning indication to the user. 762 </p> 763 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2.2">2.2</a> <a id="warnings" href="#warnings">Warnings</a></h2> 764 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.1">Whenever a cache returns a response that is neither first-hand nor "fresh enough" (in the sense of condition 2 in <a href="#cache.correctness" title="Cache Correctness">Section 2.1</a>), it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> attach a warning to that effect, using a Warning general-header. The Warning header and the currently defined warnings are 765 described in <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.2" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a>. The warning allows clients to take appropriate action. 766 </p> 767 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.2">Warnings <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be used for other purposes, both cache-related and otherwise. The use of a warning, rather than an error status code, distinguish 768 these responses from true failures. 769 </p> 770 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.3">Warnings are assigned three digit warn-codes. The first digit indicates whether the Warning <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> or <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be deleted from a stored cache entry after a successful revalidation: 771 </p> 772 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.4"> </p> 773 <dl> 774 <dt>1xx</dt> 775 <dd>Warnings that describe the freshness or revalidation status of the response, and so <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted after a successful revalidation. 1xx warn-codes <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be generated by a cache only when validating a cached entry. It <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be generated by clients. 776 </dd> 777 <dt>2xx</dt> 778 <dd>Warnings that describe some aspect of the entity body or entity headers that is not rectified by a revalidation (for example, 779 a lossy compression of the entity bodies) and which <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be deleted after a successful revalidation. 780 </dd> 781 </dl> 782 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.5">See <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.3" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a> for the definitions of the codes themselves. 783 </p> 784 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.6">HTTP/1.0 caches will cache all Warnings in responses, without deleting the ones in the first category. Warnings in responses 785 that are passed to HTTP/1.0 caches carry an extra warning-date field, which prevents a future HTTP/1.1 recipient from believing 786 an erroneously cached Warning. 787 </p> 788 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.7">Warnings also carry a warning text. The text <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be in any appropriate natural language (perhaps based on the client's Accept headers), and include an <em class="bcp14">OPTIONAL</em> indication of what character set is used. 789 </p> 790 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.8">Multiple warnings <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be attached to a response (either by the origin server or by a cache), including multiple warnings with the same code number. 791 For example, a server might provide the same warning with texts in both English and Basque. 792 </p> 793 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.9">When multiple warnings are attached to a response, it might not be practical or reasonable to display all of them to the user. 794 This version of HTTP does not specify strict priority rules for deciding which warnings to display and in what order, but 795 does suggest some heuristics. 796 </p> 797 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.3"><a href="#rfc.section.2.3">2.3</a> <a id="cache-control.mechanisms" href="#cache-control.mechanisms">Cache-control Mechanisms</a></h2> 798 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.1">The basic cache mechanisms in HTTP/1.1 (server-specified expiration times and validators) are implicit directives to caches. 799 In some cases, a server or client might need to provide explicit directives to the HTTP caches. We use the Cache-Control header 800 for this purpose. 801 </p> 802 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.2">The Cache-Control header allows a client or server to transmit a variety of directives in either requests or responses. These 803 directives typically override the default caching algorithms. As a general rule, if there is any apparent conflict between 804 header values, the most restrictive interpretation is applied (that is, the one that is most likely to preserve semantic transparency). 805 However, in some cases, cache-control directives are explicitly specified as weakening the approximation of semantic transparency 806 (for example, "max-stale" or "public"). 807 </p> 808 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.3">The cache-control directives are described in detail in <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.3" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>. 809 </p> 810 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.4"><a href="#rfc.section.2.4">2.4</a> <a id="explicit.ua.warnings" href="#explicit.ua.warnings">Explicit User Agent Warnings</a></h2> 811 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.1">Many user agents make it possible for users to override the basic caching mechanisms. For example, the user agent might allow 812 the user to specify that cached entities (even explicitly stale ones) are never validated. Or the user agent might habitually 813 add "Cache-Control: max-stale=3600" to every request. The user agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> default to either non-transparent behavior, or behavior that results in abnormally ineffective caching, but <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be explicitly configured to do so by an explicit action of the user. 814 </p> 815 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.2">If the user has overridden the basic caching mechanisms, the user agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> explicitly indicate to the user whenever this results in the display of information that might not meet the server's transparency 816 requirements (in particular, if the displayed entity is known to be stale). Since the protocol normally allows the user agent 817 to determine if responses are stale or not, this indication need only be displayed when this actually happens. The indication 818 need not be a dialog box; it could be an icon (for example, a picture of a rotting fish) or some other indicator. 819 </p> 820 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.3">If the user has overridden the caching mechanisms in a way that would abnormally reduce the effectiveness of caches, the user 821 agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> continually indicate this state to the user (for example, by a display of a picture of currency in flames) so that the user 822 does not inadvertently consume excess resources or suffer from excessive latency. 823 </p> 824 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.5"><a href="#rfc.section.2.5">2.5</a> <a id="exceptions.to.the.rules.and.warnings" href="#exceptions.to.the.rules.and.warnings">Exceptions to the Rules and Warnings</a></h2> 825 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.1">In some cases, the operator of a cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> choose to configure it to return stale responses even when not requested by clients. This decision ought not be made lightly, 826 but may be necessary for reasons of availability or performance, especially when the cache is poorly connected to the origin 827 server. Whenever a cache returns a stale response, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> mark it as such (using a Warning header) enabling the client software to alert the user that there might be a potential problem. 828 </p> 829 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.2">It also allows the user agent to take steps to obtain a first-hand or fresh response. For this reason, a cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> return a stale response if the client explicitly requests a first-hand or fresh one, unless it is impossible to comply for 830 technical or policy reasons. 831 </p> 832 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.6"><a href="#rfc.section.2.6">2.6</a> <a id="client-controlled.behavior" href="#client-controlled.behavior">Client-controlled Behavior</a></h2> 833 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.1">While the origin server (and to a lesser extent, intermediate caches, by their contribution to the age of a response) are 834 the primary source of expiration information, in some cases the client might need to control a cache's decision about whether 835 to return a cached response without validating it. Clients do this using several directives of the Cache-Control header. 836 </p> 837 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.2">A client's request <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> specify the maximum age it is willing to accept of an unvalidated response; specifying a value of zero forces the cache(s) 838 to revalidate all responses. A client <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> also specify the minimum time remaining before a response expires. Both of these options increase constraints on the behavior 839 of caches, and so cannot further relax the cache's approximation of semantic transparency. 840 </p> 841 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.3">A client <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> also specify that it will accept stale responses, up to some maximum amount of staleness. This loosens the constraints on 842 the caches, and so might violate the origin server's specified constraints on semantic transparency, but might be necessary 843 to support disconnected operation, or high availability in the face of poor connectivity. 844 </p> 845 <h1 id="rfc.section.3"><a href="#rfc.section.3">3.</a> <a id="expiration.model" href="#expiration.model">Expiration Model</a></h1> 846 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.1"><a href="#rfc.section.3.1">3.1</a> <a id="server-specified.expiration" href="#server-specified.expiration">Server-Specified Expiration</a></h2> 847 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.1">HTTP caching works best when caches can entirely avoid making requests to the origin server. The primary mechanism for avoiding 848 requests is for an origin server to provide an explicit expiration time in the future, indicating that a response <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be used to satisfy subsequent requests. In other words, a cache can return a fresh response without first contacting the server. 849 </p> 850 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.2">Our expectation is that servers will assign future explicit expiration times to responses in the belief that the entity is 851 not likely to change, in a semantically significant way, before the expiration time is reached. This normally preserves semantic 852 transparency, as long as the server's expiration times are carefully chosen. 853 </p> 854 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.3">The expiration mechanism applies only to responses taken from a cache and not to first-hand responses forwarded immediately 855 to the requesting client. 856 </p> 857 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.4">If an origin server wishes to force a semantically transparent cache to validate every request, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> assign an explicit expiration time in the past. This means that the response is always stale, and so the cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> validate it before using it for subsequent requests. See <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" title="Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls">Section 15.2.4</a> for a more restrictive way to force revalidation. 858 </p> 859 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.5">If an origin server wishes to force any HTTP/1.1 cache, no matter how it is configured, to validate every request, it <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use the "must-revalidate" cache-control directive (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.4" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>). 860 </p> 861 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.6">Servers specify explicit expiration times using either the Expires header, or the max-age directive of the Cache-Control header.</p> 862 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.7">An expiration time cannot be used to force a user agent to refresh its display or reload a resource; its semantics apply only 863 to caching mechanisms, and such mechanisms need only check a resource's expiration status when a new request for that resource 864 is initiated. See <a href="#history.lists" title="History Lists">Section 14</a> for an explanation of the difference between caches and history mechanisms. 865 </p> 866 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.2"><a href="#rfc.section.3.2">3.2</a> <a id="heuristic.expiration" href="#heuristic.expiration">Heuristic Expiration</a></h2> 867 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.p.1">Since origin servers do not always provide explicit expiration times, HTTP caches typically assign heuristic expiration times, 868 employing algorithms that use other header values (such as the Last-Modified time) to estimate a plausible expiration time. 869 The HTTP/1.1 specification does not provide specific algorithms, but does impose worst-case constraints on their results. 870 Since heuristic expiration times might compromise semantic transparency, they ought to be used cautiously, and we encourage 871 origin servers to provide explicit expiration times as much as possible. 872 </p> 873 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.3"><a href="#rfc.section.3.3">3.3</a> <a id="age.calculations" href="#age.calculations">Age Calculations</a></h2> 874 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.1">In order to know if a cached entry is fresh, a cache needs to know if its age exceeds its freshness lifetime. We discuss how 875 to calculate the latter in <a href="#expiration.calculations" title="Expiration Calculations">Section 3.4</a>; this section describes how to calculate the age of a response or cache entry. 876 </p> 877 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.2">In this discussion, we use the term "now" to mean "the current value of the clock at the host performing the calculation." 878 Hosts that use HTTP, but especially hosts running origin servers and caches, <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use NTP <a href="#RFC1305" id="rfc.xref.RFC1305.1"><cite title="Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification, Implementation">[RFC1305]</cite></a> or some similar protocol to synchronize their clocks to a globally accurate time standard. 879 </p> 880 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.3">HTTP/1.1 requires origin servers to send a Date header, if possible, with every response, giving the time at which the response 881 was generated (see <a href="p1-messaging.html#header.date" title="Date">Section 8.3</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.11"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>). We use the term "date_value" to denote the value of the Date header, in a form appropriate for arithmetic operations. 882 </p> 883 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.4">HTTP/1.1 uses the Age response-header to convey the estimated age of the response message when obtained from a cache. The 884 Age field value is the cache's estimate of the amount of time since the response was generated or revalidated by the origin 885 server. 886 </p> 887 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.5">In essence, the Age value is the sum of the time that the response has been resident in each of the caches along the path 888 from the origin server, plus the amount of time it has been in transit along network paths. 889 </p> 890 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.6">We use the term "age_value" to denote the value of the Age header, in a form appropriate for arithmetic operations.</p> 891 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.7">A response's age can be calculated in two entirely independent ways: </p> 687 </pre><h1 id="rfc.section.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2">2.</a> <a id="caching.overview" href="#caching.overview">Cache Operation</a></h1> 688 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.1"><a href="#rfc.section.2.1">2.1</a> <a id="response.cacheability" href="#response.cacheability">Response Cacheability</a></h2> 689 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.p.1">A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store a response to any request, unless: 690 </p> 691 <ul> 692 <li>The request method is defined as being cacheable, and</li> 693 <li>the "no-store" cache directive (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.1" title="Cache-Control">Section 3.2</a>) does not appear in request or response headers, and 694 </li> 695 <li>the "private" cache response directive (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.2" title="Cache-Control">Section 3.2</a> does not appear in the response, if the cache is shared, and 696 </li> 697 <li>the "Authorization" header (see <a href="p7-auth.html#header.authorization" title="Authorization">Section 3.1</a> of <a href="#Part7" id="rfc.xref.Part7.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication">[Part7]</cite></a>) does not appear in the request, if the cache is shared (unless the "public" directive is present; see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.3" title="Cache-Control">Section 3.2</a>), and 698 </li> 699 <li>the cache understands partial responses, if the response is partial or incomplete (see <a href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" title="Storing Partial and Incomplete Responses">Section 2.1.1</a>). 700 </li> 701 </ul> 702 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.p.2">Note that in normal operation, most caches will not store a response that has neither a cache validator nor an explicit expiration 703 time, as such responses are not usually useful to store. However, caches are not prohibited from storing such responses. 704 </p> 705 <h3 id="rfc.section.2.1.1"><a href="#rfc.section.2.1.1">2.1.1</a> <a id="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior">Storing Partial and Incomplete Responses</a></h3> 706 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.1.p.1">A cache that receives an incomplete response (for example, with fewer bytes of data than specified in a Content-Length header) 707 can store the response, but <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> treat it as a partial response <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>. Partial responses can be combined as described in <a href="p5-range.html#combining.byte.ranges" title="Combining Ranges">Section 4</a> of <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>; the result might be a full response or might still be partial. A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> return a partial response to a client without explicitly marking it as such using the 206 (Partial Content) status code. 708 </p> 709 <p id="rfc.section.2.1.1.p.2">A cache that does not support the Range and Content-Range headers <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store incomplete or partial responses. 710 </p> 711 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2.2">2.2</a> <a id="constructing.responses.from.caches" href="#constructing.responses.from.caches">Constructing Responses from Caches</a></h2> 712 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.1">For a presented request, a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> return a stored response, unless: 713 </p> 714 <ul> 715 <li>The presented Request-URI and that of the stored response match (see <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.1: TBD]</span>), and 716 </li> 717 <li>the request method associated with the stored response allows it to be used for the presented request, and</li> 718 <li>selecting request-headers nominated by the stored response (if any) match those presented (see <a href="#caching.negotiated.responses" title="Caching Negotiated Responses">Section 2.6</a>), and 719 </li> 720 <li>the presented request and stored response are free from directives that would prevent its use (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.4" title="Cache-Control">Section 3.2</a> and <a href="#header.pragma" id="rfc.xref.header.pragma.1" title="Pragma">Section 3.4</a>), and 721 </li> 722 <li>the stored response is either: 723 <ul> 724 <li>fresh (see <a href="#expiration.model" title="Freshness Model">Section 2.3</a>), or 725 </li> 726 <li>allowed to be served stale (see <a href="#serving.stale.responses" title="Serving Stale Responses">Section 2.3.3</a>), or 727 </li> 728 <li>successfully validated (see <a href="#validation.model" title="Validation Model">Section 2.4</a>). 729 </li> 730 </ul> 731 </li> 732 </ul> 733 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.2"><span class="comment">[rfc.comment.2: TODO: define method cacheability for GET, HEAD and POST in p2-semantics.]</span></p> 734 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.3">When a stored response is used to satisfy a request, caches <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> include a single Age header field <a href="#header.age" id="rfc.xref.header.age.1" title="Age">Section 3.1</a> in the response with a value equal to the stored response's current_age; see <a href="#age.calculations" title="Calculating Age">Section 2.3.2</a>. <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.3: DISCUSS: this currently includes successfully validated responses.]</span></p> 735 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.4">Requests with methods that are unsafe (<a href="p2-semantics.html#safe.methods" title="Safe Methods">Section 7.1.1</a> of <a href="#Part2" id="rfc.xref.Part2.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics">[Part2]</cite></a>) <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be written through the cache to the origin server; i.e., A cache must not reply to such a request before having forwarded 736 the request and having received a corresponding response. 737 </p> 738 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.5">Also, note that unsafe requests might invalidate already stored responses; see <a href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions" title="Request Methods that Invalidate">Section 2.5</a>. 739 </p> 740 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.6">Caches <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> use the most recent response (as determined by the Date header) when more than one suitable response is stored. They can also 741 forward a request with "Cache-Control: max-age=0" or "Cache-Control: no-cache" to disambiguate which response to use. 742 </p> 743 <p id="rfc.section.2.2.p.7"> <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.4: TODO: end-to-end and hop-by-hop headers, non-modifiable headers removed; re-spec in p1]</span> 744 </p> 745 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.3"><a href="#rfc.section.2.3">2.3</a> <a id="expiration.model" href="#expiration.model">Freshness Model</a></h2> 746 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.1">When a response is "fresh" in the cache, it can be used to satisfy subsequent requests without contacting the origin server, 747 thereby improving efficiency. 748 </p> 749 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.2">The primary mechanism for determining freshness is for an origin server to provide an explicit expiration time in the future, 750 using either the Expires header (<a href="#header.expires" id="rfc.xref.header.expires.1" title="Expires">Section 3.3</a>) or the max-age response cache directive (<a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>). Generally, origin servers will assign future explicit expiration times to responses in the belief that the entity is not 751 likely to change in a semantically significant way before the expiration time is reached. 752 </p> 753 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.3">If an origin server wishes to force a cache to validate every request, it can assign an explicit expiration time in the past. 754 This means that the response is always stale, so that caches should validate it before using it for subsequent requests. <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.5: This wording may cause confusion, because the response may still be served stale.]</span></p> 755 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.4">Since origin servers do not always provide explicit expiration times, HTTP caches may also assign heuristic expiration times 756 when they are not specified, employing algorithms that use other header values (such as the Last-Modified time) to estimate 757 a plausible expiration time. The HTTP/1.1 specification does not provide specific algorithms, but does impose worst-case constraints 758 on their results. 759 </p> 760 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.5">The calculation to determine if a response is fresh is:</p> 761 <div id="rfc.figure.u.3"></div> <pre class="text"> response_is_fresh = (freshness_lifetime > current_age) 762 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.7">The freshness_lifetime is defined in <a href="#calculating.freshness.lifetime" title="Calculating Freshness Lifetime">Section 2.3.1</a>; the current_age is defined in <a href="#age.calculations" title="Calculating Age">Section 2.3.2</a>. 763 </p> 764 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.8">Additionally, clients may need to influence freshness calculation. They can do this using several request cache directives, 765 with the effect of either increasing or loosening constraints on freshness. See <a href="#cache-request-directive" title="Request Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.1</a>. 766 </p> 767 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.9"> <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.6: ISSUE: there are not requirements directly applying to cache-request-directives and freshness.]</span> 768 </p> 769 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.p.10">Note that freshness applies only to cache operation; it cannot be used to force a user agent to refresh its display or reload 770 a resource. See <a href="#history.lists" title="History Lists">Section 4</a> for an explanation of the difference between caches and history mechanisms. 771 </p> 772 <h3 id="rfc.section.2.3.1"><a href="#rfc.section.2.3.1">2.3.1</a> <a id="calculating.freshness.lifetime" href="#calculating.freshness.lifetime">Calculating Freshness Lifetime</a></h3> 773 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.1.p.1">A cache can calculate the freshness lifetime (denoted as freshness_lifetime) of a response by using the first match of: </p> 774 <ul> 775 <li>If the cache is shared and the s-maxage response cache directive (<a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>) is present, use its value, or 776 </li> 777 <li>If the max-age response cache directive (<a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>) is present, use its value, or 778 </li> 779 <li>If the Expires response header (<a href="#header.expires" id="rfc.xref.header.expires.2" title="Expires">Section 3.3</a>) is present, use its value minus the value of the Date response header, or 780 </li> 781 <li>Otherwise, no explicit expiration time is present in the response, but a heuristic may be used; see <a href="#heuristic.freshness" title="Calculating Heuristic Freshness">Section 2.3.1.1</a>. 782 </li> 783 </ul> 784 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.1.p.2">Note that this calculation is not vulnerable to clock skew, since all of the information comes from the origin server.</p> 785 <h4 id="rfc.section.2.3.1.1"><a href="#rfc.section.2.3.1.1">2.3.1.1</a> <a id="heuristic.freshness" href="#heuristic.freshness">Calculating Heuristic Freshness</a></h4> 786 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.1.1.p.1">If no explicit expiration time is present in a stored response that has a status code of 200, 203, 206, 300, 301 or 410, a 787 heuristic expiration time can be calculated. Heuristics <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be used for other response status codes. 788 </p> 789 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.1.1.p.2">When a heuristic is used to calculate freshness lifetime, the cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> attach a Warning header with a 113 warn-code to the response if its current_age is more than 24 hours and such a warning is 790 not already present. 791 </p> 792 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.1.1.p.3">Also, if the response has a Last-Modified header (<a href="p4-conditional.html#header.last-modified" title="Last-Modified">Section 6.6</a> of <a href="#Part4" id="rfc.xref.Part4.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests">[Part4]</cite></a>), the heuristic expiration value <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be no more than some fraction of the interval since that time. A typical setting of this fraction might be 10%. 793 </p> 794 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.1.1.p.4"> <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.7: REVIEW: took away HTTP/1.0 query string heuristic uncacheability.]</span> 795 </p> 796 <h3 id="rfc.section.2.3.2"><a href="#rfc.section.2.3.2">2.3.2</a> <a id="age.calculations" href="#age.calculations">Calculating Age</a></h3> 797 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.1">HTTP/1.1 uses the Age response-header to convey the estimated age of the response message when obtained from a cache. The 798 Age field value is the cache's estimate of the amount of time since the response was generated or validated by the origin 799 server. In essence, the Age value is the sum of the time that the response has been resident in each of the caches along the 800 path from the origin server, plus the amount of time it has been in transit along network paths. 801 </p> 802 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.2">The term "age_value" denotes the value of the Age header, in a form appropriate for arithmetic operations.</p> 803 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.3">HTTP/1.1 requires origin servers to send a Date header, if possible, with every response, giving the time at which the response 804 was generated (see <a href="p1-messaging.html#header.date" title="Date">Section 8.3</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.11"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>). The term "date_value" denotes the value of the Date header, in a form appropriate for arithmetic operations. 805 </p> 806 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.4">The term "now" means "the current value of the clock at the host performing the calculation." Hosts that use HTTP, but especially 807 hosts running origin servers and caches, <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use NTP <a href="#RFC1305" id="rfc.xref.RFC1305.1"><cite title="Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification, Implementation">[RFC1305]</cite></a> or some similar protocol to synchronize their clocks to a globally accurate time standard. 808 </p> 809 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.5">A response's age can be calculated in two entirely independent ways: </p> 892 810 <ol> 893 811 <li>now minus date_value, if the local clock is reasonably well synchronized to the origin server's clock. If the result is negative, … … 896 814 <li>age_value, if all of the caches along the response path implement HTTP/1.1.</li> 897 815 </ol> 898 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.8">Given that we have two independent ways to compute the age of a response when it is received, we can combine these as</p> 899 <div id="rfc.figure.u.3"></div><pre class="text"> corrected_received_age = max(now - date_value, age_value) 900 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.10">and as long as we have either nearly synchronized clocks or all-HTTP/1.1 paths, one gets a reliable (conservative) result.</p> 901 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.11">Because of network-imposed delays, some significant interval might pass between the time that a server generates a response 902 and the time it is received at the next outbound cache or client. If uncorrected, this delay could result in improperly low 903 ages. 904 </p> 905 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.12">Because the request that resulted in the returned Age value must have been initiated prior to that Age value's generation, 906 we can correct for delays imposed by the network by recording the time at which the request was initiated. Then, when an Age 907 value is received, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be interpreted relative to the time the request was initiated, not the time that the response was received. This algorithm 908 results in conservative behavior no matter how much delay is experienced. So, we compute: 909 </p> 910 <div id="rfc.figure.u.4"></div><pre class="text"> corrected_initial_age = corrected_received_age 816 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.6">These are combined as</p> 817 <div id="rfc.figure.u.4"></div> <pre class="text"> corrected_received_age = max(now - date_value, age_value) 818 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.8">When an Age value is received, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be interpreted relative to the time the request was initiated, not the time that the response was received. 819 </p> 820 <div id="rfc.figure.u.5"></div> <pre class="text"> corrected_initial_age = corrected_received_age 911 821 + (now - request_time) 912 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.14">where "request_time" is the time (according to the local clock) when the request that elicited this response was sent.</p> 913 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.15">Summary of age calculation algorithm, when a cache receives a response:</p> 914 <div id="rfc.figure.u.5"></div><pre class="text"> /* 915 * age_value 916 * is the value of Age: header received by the cache with 917 * this response. 918 * date_value 919 * is the value of the origin server's Date: header 920 * request_time 921 * is the (local) time when the cache made the request 922 * that resulted in this cached response 923 * response_time 924 * is the (local) time when the cache received the 925 * response 926 * now 927 * is the current (local) time 928 */ 822 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.10">where "request_time" is the time (according to the local clock) when the request that elicited this response was sent.</p> 823 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.11">The current_age of a stored response can then be calculated by adding the amount of time (in seconds) since the stored response 824 was last validated by the origin server to the corrected_initial_age. 825 </p> 826 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.2.p.12">In summary:</p> 827 <div id="rfc.figure.u.6"></div> <pre class="text"> age_value - Age header field-value received with the response 828 date_value - Date header field-value received with the response 829 request_time - local time when the cache made the request 830 resulting in the stored response 831 response_time - local time when the cache received the response 832 now - current local time 929 833 930 834 apparent_age = max(0, response_time - date_value); … … 934 838 resident_time = now - response_time; 935 839 current_age = corrected_initial_age + resident_time; 936 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.17">The current_age of a cache entry is calculated by adding the amount of time (in seconds) since the cache entry was last validated 937 by the origin server to the corrected_initial_age. When a response is generated from a cache entry, the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> include a single Age header field in the response with a value equal to the cache entry's current_age. 938 </p> 939 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.18">The presence of an Age header field in a response implies that a response is not first-hand. However, the converse is not 940 true, since the lack of an Age header field in a response does not imply that the response is first-hand unless all caches 941 along the request path are compliant with HTTP/1.1 (i.e., older HTTP caches did not implement the Age header field). 942 </p> 943 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.4"><a href="#rfc.section.3.4">3.4</a> <a id="expiration.calculations" href="#expiration.calculations">Expiration Calculations</a></h2> 944 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.1">In order to decide whether a response is fresh or stale, we need to compare its freshness lifetime to its age. The age is 945 calculated as described in <a href="#age.calculations" title="Age Calculations">Section 3.3</a>; this section describes how to calculate the freshness lifetime, and to determine if a response has expired. In the discussion 946 below, the values can be represented in any form appropriate for arithmetic operations. 947 </p> 948 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.2">We use the term "expires_value" to denote the value of the Expires header. We use the term "max_age_value" to denote an appropriate 949 value of the number of seconds carried by the "max-age" directive of the Cache-Control header in a response (see <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>). 950 </p> 951 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.3">The max-age directive takes priority over Expires, so if max-age is present in a response, the calculation is simply:</p> 952 <div id="rfc.figure.u.6"></div><pre class="text"> freshness_lifetime = max_age_value 953 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.5">Otherwise, if Expires is present in the response, the calculation is:</p> 954 <div id="rfc.figure.u.7"></div><pre class="text"> freshness_lifetime = expires_value - date_value 955 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.7">Note that neither of these calculations is vulnerable to clock skew, since all of the information comes from the origin server.</p> 956 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.8">If none of Expires, Cache-Control: max-age, or Cache-Control: s-maxage (see <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>) appears in the response, and the response does not include other restrictions on caching, the cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> compute a freshness lifetime using a heuristic. The cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> attach Warning 113 to any response whose age is more than 24 hours if such warning has not already been added. 957 </p> 958 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.9">Also, if the response does have a Last-Modified time, the heuristic expiration value <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be no more than some fraction of the interval since that time. A typical setting of this fraction might be 10%. 959 </p> 960 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.10">The calculation to determine if a response has expired is quite simple:</p> 961 <div id="rfc.figure.u.8"></div><pre class="text"> response_is_fresh = (freshness_lifetime > current_age) 962 </pre><h2 id="rfc.section.3.5"><a href="#rfc.section.3.5">3.5</a> <a id="disambiguating.expiration.values" href="#disambiguating.expiration.values">Disambiguating Expiration Values</a></h2> 963 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.1">Because expiration values are assigned optimistically, it is possible for two caches to contain fresh values for the same 964 resource that are different. 965 </p> 966 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.2">If a client performing a retrieval receives a non-first-hand response for a request that was already fresh in its own cache, 967 and the Date header in its existing cache entry is newer than the Date on the new response, then the client <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> ignore the response. If so, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> retry the request with a "Cache-Control: max-age=0" directive (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.5" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>), to force a check with the origin server. 968 </p> 969 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.3">If a cache has two fresh responses for the same representation with different validators, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> use the one with the more recent Date header. This situation might arise because the cache is pooling responses from other 970 caches, or because a client has asked for a reload or a revalidation of an apparently fresh cache entry. 971 </p> 972 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.6"><a href="#rfc.section.3.6">3.6</a> <a id="disambiguating.multiple.responses" href="#disambiguating.multiple.responses">Disambiguating Multiple Responses</a></h2> 973 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.1">Because a client might be receiving responses via multiple paths, so that some responses flow through one set of caches and 974 other responses flow through a different set of caches, a client might receive responses in an order different from that in 975 which the origin server sent them. We would like the client to use the most recently generated response, even if older responses 976 are still apparently fresh. 977 </p> 978 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.2">Neither the entity tag nor the expiration value can impose an ordering on responses, since it is possible that a later response 979 intentionally carries an earlier expiration time. The Date values are ordered to a granularity of one second. 980 </p> 981 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.3">When a client tries to revalidate a cache entry, and the response it receives contains a Date header that appears to be older 982 than the one for the existing entry, then the client <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> repeat the request unconditionally, and include 983 </p> 984 <div id="rfc.figure.u.9"></div><pre class="text"> Cache-Control: max-age=0 985 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.5">to force any intermediate caches to validate their copies directly with the origin server, or</p> 986 <div id="rfc.figure.u.10"></div><pre class="text"> Cache-Control: no-cache 987 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.7">to force any intermediate caches to obtain a new copy from the origin server.</p> 988 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.8">If the Date values are equal, then the client <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> use either response (or <em class="bcp14">MAY</em>, if it is being extremely prudent, request a new response). Servers <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> depend on clients being able to choose deterministically between responses generated during the same second, if their expiration 989 times overlap. 990 </p> 991 <h1 id="rfc.section.4"><a href="#rfc.section.4">4.</a> <a id="validation.model" href="#validation.model">Validation Model</a></h1> 992 <p id="rfc.section.4.p.1">When a cache has a stale entry that it would like to use as a response to a client's request, it first has to check with the 993 origin server (or possibly an intermediate cache with a fresh response) to see if its cached entry is still usable. We call 994 this "validating" the cache entry. 995 </p> 996 <p id="rfc.section.4.p.2">HTTP's conditional request mechanism, defined in <a href="#Part4" id="rfc.xref.Part4.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests">[Part4]</cite></a>, is used to avoid retransmitting the response payload when the cached entry is valid. When a cached response includes one 997 or more "cache validators," such as the field values of an ETag or Last-Modified header field, then a validating GET request <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be made conditional to those field values. The server checks the conditional request's validator against the current state 998 of the requested resource and, if they match, the server responds with a 304 (Not Modified) status code to indicate that the 999 cached response can be refreshed and reused without retransmitting the response payload. If the validator does not match the 1000 current state of the requested resource, then the server returns a full response, including payload, so that the request can 1001 be satisfied and the cache entry supplanted without the need for an additional network round-trip. 1002 </p> 1003 <h1 id="rfc.section.5"><a href="#rfc.section.5">5.</a> <a id="response.cacheability" href="#response.cacheability">Response Cacheability</a></h1> 1004 <p id="rfc.section.5.p.1">Unless specifically constrained by a cache-control (<a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.6" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>) directive, a caching system <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> always store a successful response (see <a href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" title="Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior">Section 9</a>) as a cache entry, <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> return it without validation if it is fresh, and <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> return it after successful validation. If there is neither a cache validator nor an explicit expiration time associated with 1005 a response, we do not expect it to be cached, but certain caches <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> violate this expectation (for example, when little or no network connectivity is available). A client can usually detect that 1006 such a response was taken from a cache by comparing the Date header to the current time. 1007 </p> 1008 <dl class="empty"> 1009 <dd> <b>Note:</b> some HTTP/1.0 caches are known to violate this expectation without providing any Warning. 1010 </dd> 1011 </dl> 1012 <p id="rfc.section.5.p.2">However, in some cases it might be inappropriate for a cache to retain an entity, or to return it in response to a subsequent 1013 request. This might be because absolute semantic transparency is deemed necessary by the service author, or because of security 1014 or privacy considerations. Certain cache-control directives are therefore provided so that the server can indicate that certain 1015 resource entities, or portions thereof, are not to be cached regardless of other considerations. 1016 </p> 1017 <p id="rfc.section.5.p.3">Note that <a href="p7-auth.html#header.authorization" title="Authorization">Section 3.1</a> of <a href="#Part7" id="rfc.xref.Part7.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication">[Part7]</cite></a> normally prevents a shared cache from saving and returning a response to a previous request if that request included an Authorization 1018 header. 1019 </p> 1020 <p id="rfc.section.5.p.4">A response received with a status code of 200, 203, 206, 300, 301 or 410 <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be stored by a cache and used in reply to a subsequent request, subject to the expiration mechanism, unless a cache-control 1021 directive prohibits caching. However, a cache that does not support the Range and Content-Range headers <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> cache 206 (Partial Content) responses. 1022 </p> 1023 <p id="rfc.section.5.p.5">A response received with any other status code (e.g. status codes 302 and 307) <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be returned in a reply to a subsequent request unless there are cache-control directives or another header(s) that explicitly 1024 allow it. For example, these include the following: an Expires header (<a href="#header.expires" id="rfc.xref.header.expires.1" title="Expires">Section 15.3</a>); a "max-age", "s-maxage", "must-revalidate", "proxy-revalidate", "public" or "private" cache-control directive (<a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.7" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>). 1025 </p> 1026 <h1 id="rfc.section.6"><a href="#rfc.section.6">6.</a> <a id="constructing.responses.from.caches" href="#constructing.responses.from.caches">Constructing Responses From Caches</a></h1> 1027 <p id="rfc.section.6.p.1">The purpose of an HTTP cache is to store information received in response to requests for use in responding to future requests. 1028 In many cases, a cache simply returns the appropriate parts of a response to the requester. However, if the cache holds a 1029 cache entry based on a previous response, it might have to combine parts of a new response with what is held in the cache 1030 entry. 1031 </p> 1032 <h2 id="rfc.section.6.1"><a href="#rfc.section.6.1">6.1</a> <a id="end-to-end.and.hop-by-hop.headers" href="#end-to-end.and.hop-by-hop.headers">End-to-end and Hop-by-hop Headers</a></h2> 1033 <p id="rfc.section.6.1.p.1">For the purpose of defining the behavior of caches and non-caching proxies, we divide HTTP headers into two categories: </p> 1034 <ul> 1035 <li>End-to-end headers, which are transmitted to the ultimate recipient of a request or response. End-to-end headers in responses <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be stored as part of a cache entry and <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be transmitted in any response formed from a cache entry. 1036 </li> 1037 <li>Hop-by-hop headers, which are meaningful only for a single transport-level connection, and are not stored by caches or forwarded 1038 by proxies. 1039 </li> 1040 </ul> 1041 <p id="rfc.section.6.1.p.2">The following HTTP/1.1 headers are hop-by-hop headers: </p> 1042 <ul> 1043 <li>Connection</li> 1044 <li>Keep-Alive</li> 1045 <li>Proxy-Authenticate</li> 1046 <li>Proxy-Authorization</li> 1047 <li>TE</li> 1048 <li>Trailer</li> 1049 <li>Transfer-Encoding</li> 1050 <li>Upgrade</li> 1051 </ul> 1052 <p id="rfc.section.6.1.p.3">All other headers defined by HTTP/1.1 are end-to-end headers.</p> 1053 <p id="rfc.section.6.1.p.4">Other hop-by-hop headers <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be listed in a Connection header (<a href="p1-messaging.html#header.connection" title="Connection">Section 8.1</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.12"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>). 1054 </p> 1055 <h2 id="rfc.section.6.2"><a href="#rfc.section.6.2">6.2</a> <a id="non-modifiable.headers" href="#non-modifiable.headers">Non-modifiable Headers</a></h2> 1056 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.1">Some features of HTTP/1.1, such as Digest Authentication, depend on the value of certain end-to-end headers. A transparent 1057 proxy <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> modify an end-to-end header unless the definition of that header requires or specifically allows that. 1058 </p> 1059 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.2">A transparent proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> modify any of the following fields in a request or response, and it <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> add any of these fields if not already present: 1060 </p> 1061 <ul> 1062 <li>Content-Location</li> 1063 <li>Content-MD5</li> 1064 <li>ETag</li> 1065 <li>Last-Modified</li> 1066 </ul> 1067 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.3">A transparent proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> modify any of the following fields in a response: 1068 </p> 1069 <ul> 1070 <li>Expires</li> 1071 </ul> 1072 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.4">but it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> add any of these fields if not already present. If an Expires header is added, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be given a field-value identical to that of the Date header in that response. 1073 </p> 1074 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.5">A proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> modify or add any of the following fields in a message that contains the no-transform cache-control directive, or in any request: 1075 </p> 1076 <ul> 1077 <li>Content-Encoding</li> 1078 <li>Content-Range</li> 1079 <li>Content-Type</li> 1080 </ul> 1081 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.6">A non-transparent proxy <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> modify or add these fields to a message that does not include no-transform, but if it does so, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> add a Warning 214 (Transformation applied) if one does not already appear in the message (see <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.4" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a>). 1082 </p> 1083 <dl class="empty"> 1084 <dd>Warning: unnecessary modification of end-to-end headers might cause authentication failures if stronger authentication mechanisms 1085 are introduced in later versions of HTTP. Such authentication mechanisms <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> rely on the values of header fields not listed here. 1086 </dd> 1087 </dl> 1088 <p id="rfc.section.6.2.p.7">The Content-Length field of a request or response is added or deleted according to the rules in <a href="p1-messaging.html#message.length" title="Message Length">Section 4.4</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.13"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>. A transparent proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> preserve the entity-length (<a href="p3-payload.html#entity.length" title="Entity Length">Section 3.2.2</a> of <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a>) of the entity-body, although it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> change the transfer-length (<a href="p1-messaging.html#message.length" title="Message Length">Section 4.4</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.14"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>). 1089 </p> 1090 <h2 id="rfc.section.6.3"><a href="#rfc.section.6.3">6.3</a> <a id="combining.headers" href="#combining.headers">Combining Headers</a></h2> 1091 <p id="rfc.section.6.3.p.1">When a cache makes a validating request to a server, and the server provides a 304 (Not Modified) response or a 206 (Partial 1092 Content) response, the cache then constructs a response to send to the requesting client. 1093 </p> 1094 <p id="rfc.section.6.3.p.2">If the status code is 304 (Not Modified), the cache uses the entity-body stored in the cache entry as the entity-body of this 1095 outgoing response. If the status code is 206 (Partial Content) and the ETag or Last-Modified headers match exactly, the cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> combine the contents stored in the cache entry with the new contents received in the response and use the result as the entity-body 1096 of this outgoing response, (see <a href="p5-range.html#combining.byte.ranges" title="Combining Ranges">Section 4</a> of <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>). 1097 </p> 1098 <p id="rfc.section.6.3.p.3">The end-to-end headers stored in the cache entry are used for the constructed response, except that </p> 1099 <ul> 1100 <li>any stored Warning headers with warn-code 1xx (see <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.5" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a>) <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted from the cache entry and the forwarded response. 1101 </li> 1102 <li>any stored Warning headers with warn-code 2xx <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be retained in the cache entry and the forwarded response. 1103 </li> 1104 <li>any end-to-end headers provided in the 304 or 206 response <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> replace the corresponding headers from the cache entry. 1105 </li> 1106 </ul> 1107 <p id="rfc.section.6.3.p.4">Unless the cache decides to remove the cache entry, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> also replace the end-to-end headers stored with the cache entry with corresponding headers received in the incoming response, 1108 except for Warning headers as described immediately above. If a header field-name in the incoming response matches more than 1109 one header in the cache entry, all such old headers <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be replaced. 1110 </p> 1111 <p id="rfc.section.6.3.p.5">In other words, the set of end-to-end headers received in the incoming response overrides all corresponding end-to-end headers 1112 stored with the cache entry (except for stored Warning headers with warn-code 1xx, which are deleted even if not overridden). 1113 </p> 1114 <dl class="empty"> 1115 <dd> <b>Note:</b> this rule allows an origin server to use a 304 (Not Modified) or a 206 (Partial Content) response to update any header associated 1116 with a previous response for the same entity or sub-ranges thereof, although it might not always be meaningful or correct 1117 to do so. This rule does not allow an origin server to use a 304 (Not Modified) or a 206 (Partial Content) response to entirely 1118 delete a header that it had provided with a previous response. 1119 </dd> 1120 </dl> 1121 <h1 id="rfc.section.7"><a href="#rfc.section.7">7.</a> <a id="caching.negotiated.responses" href="#caching.negotiated.responses">Caching Negotiated Responses</a></h1> 1122 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.1">Use of server-driven content negotiation (<a href="p3-payload.html#server-driven.negotiation" title="Server-driven Negotiation">Section 4.1</a> of <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a>), as indicated by the presence of a Vary header field in a response, alters the conditions and procedure by which a cache 1123 can use the response for subsequent requests. See <a href="#header.vary" id="rfc.xref.header.vary.1" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a> for use of the Vary header field by servers. 1124 </p> 1125 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.2">A server <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use the Vary header field to inform a cache of what request-header fields were used to select among multiple representations 1126 of a cacheable response subject to server-driven negotiation. The set of header fields named by the Vary field value is known 1127 as the "selecting" request-headers. 1128 </p> 1129 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.3">When the cache receives a subsequent request whose request-target specifies one or more cache entries including a Vary header 1130 field, the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> use such a cache entry to construct a response to the new request unless all of the selecting request-headers present in the 1131 new request match the corresponding stored request-headers in the original request. 1132 </p> 1133 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.4">The selecting request-headers from two requests are defined to match if and only if the selecting request-headers in the first 1134 request can be transformed to the selecting request-headers in the second request by adding or removing linear whitespace 1135 (LWS) at places where this is allowed by the corresponding BNF, and/or combining multiple message-header fields with the same 1136 field name following the rules about message headers in <a href="p1-messaging.html#message.headers" title="Message Headers">Section 4.2</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.15"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>. 1137 </p> 1138 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.5">A Vary header field-value of "*" always fails to match and subsequent requests on that resource can only be properly interpreted 1139 by the origin server. 1140 </p> 1141 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.6">If the selecting request header fields for the cached entry do not match the selecting request header fields of the new request, 1142 then the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> use a cached entry to satisfy the request unless it first relays the new request to the origin server in a conditional request 1143 and the server responds with 304 (Not Modified), including an entity tag or Content-Location that indicates the entity to 1144 be used. 1145 </p> 1146 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.7">If an entity tag was assigned to a cached representation, the forwarded request <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be conditional and include the entity tags in an If-None-Match header field from all its cache entries for the resource. This 1147 conveys to the server the set of entities currently held by the cache, so that if any one of these entities matches the requested 1148 entity, the server can use the ETag header field in its 304 (Not Modified) response to tell the cache which entry is appropriate. 1149 If the entity-tag of the new response matches that of an existing entry, the new response <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be used to update the header fields of the existing entry, and the result <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be returned to the client. 1150 </p> 1151 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.8">If any of the existing cache entries contains only partial content for the associated entity, its entity-tag <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> be included in the If-None-Match header field unless the request is for a range that would be fully satisfied by that entry. 1152 </p> 1153 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.9">If a cache receives a successful response whose Content-Location field matches that of an existing cache entry for the same 1154 request-target, whose entity-tag differs from that of the existing entry, and whose Date is more recent than that of the existing 1155 entry, the existing entry <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> be returned in response to future requests and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be deleted from the cache. 1156 </p> 1157 <h1 id="rfc.section.8"><a href="#rfc.section.8">8.</a> <a id="shared.and.non-shared.caches" href="#shared.and.non-shared.caches">Shared and Non-Shared Caches</a></h1> 1158 <p id="rfc.section.8.p.1">For reasons of security and privacy, it is necessary to make a distinction between "shared" and "non-shared" caches. A non-shared 1159 cache is one that is accessible only to a single user. Accessibility in this case <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be enforced by appropriate security mechanisms. All other caches are considered to be "shared." Other sections of this specification 1160 place certain constraints on the operation of shared caches in order to prevent loss of privacy or failure of access controls. 1161 </p> 1162 <h1 id="rfc.section.9"><a href="#rfc.section.9">9.</a> <a id="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior">Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior</a></h1> 1163 <p id="rfc.section.9.p.1">A cache that receives an incomplete response (for example, with fewer bytes of data than specified in a Content-Length header) <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> store the response. However, the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> treat this as a partial response. Partial responses <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be combined as described in <a href="p5-range.html#combining.byte.ranges" title="Combining Ranges">Section 4</a> of <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>; the result might be a full response or might still be partial. A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> return a partial response to a client without explicitly marking it as such, using the 206 (Partial Content) status code. 1164 A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> return a partial response using a status code of 200 (OK). 1165 </p> 1166 <p id="rfc.section.9.p.2">If a cache receives a 5xx response while attempting to revalidate an entry, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> either forward this response to the requesting client, or act as if the server failed to respond. In the latter case, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> return a previously received response unless the cached entry includes the "must-revalidate" cache-control directive (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.8" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>). 1167 </p> 1168 <h1 id="rfc.section.10"><a href="#rfc.section.10">10.</a> <a id="side.effects.of.get.and.head" href="#side.effects.of.get.and.head">Side Effects of GET and HEAD</a></h1> 1169 <p id="rfc.section.10.p.1">Unless the origin server explicitly prohibits the caching of their responses, the application of GET and HEAD methods to any 1170 resources <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> have side effects that would lead to erroneous behavior if these responses are taken from a cache. They <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> still have side effects, but a cache is not required to consider such side effects in its caching decisions. Caches are always 1171 expected to observe an origin server's explicit restrictions on caching. 1172 </p> 1173 <p id="rfc.section.10.p.2">We note one exception to this rule: since some applications have traditionally used GET and HEAD requests with URLs containing 1174 a query part to perform operations with significant side effects, caches <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> treat responses to such URIs as fresh unless the server provides an explicit expiration time. This specifically means that 1175 responses from HTTP/1.0 servers for such URIs <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> be taken from a cache. See <a href="p2-semantics.html#safe.methods" title="Safe Methods">Section 7.1.1</a> of <a href="#Part2" id="rfc.xref.Part2.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics">[Part2]</cite></a> for related information. 1176 </p> 1177 <h1 id="rfc.section.11"><a href="#rfc.section.11">11.</a> <a id="invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions" href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions">Invalidation After Updates or Deletions</a></h1> 1178 <p id="rfc.section.11.p.1">The effect of certain methods performed on a resource at the origin server might cause one or more existing cache entries 1179 to become non-transparently invalid. That is, although they might continue to be "fresh," they do not accurately reflect what 1180 the origin server would return for a new request on that resource. 1181 </p> 1182 <p id="rfc.section.11.p.2">There is no way for HTTP to guarantee that all such cache entries are marked invalid. For example, the request that caused 1183 the change at the origin server might not have gone through the proxy where a cache entry is stored. However, several rules 1184 help reduce the likelihood of erroneous behavior. 1185 </p> 1186 <p id="rfc.section.11.p.3">In this section, the phrase "invalidate an entity" means that the cache will either remove all instances of that entity from 1187 its storage, or will mark these as "invalid" and in need of a mandatory revalidation before they can be returned in response 1188 to a subsequent request. 1189 </p> 1190 <p id="rfc.section.11.p.4">Some HTTP methods <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> cause a cache to invalidate an entity. This is either the entity referred to by the request-target, or by the Location or 1191 Content-Location headers (if present). These methods are: 840 </pre> <h3 id="rfc.section.2.3.3"><a href="#rfc.section.2.3.3">2.3.3</a> <a id="serving.stale.responses" href="#serving.stale.responses">Serving Stale Responses</a></h3> 841 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.3.p.1">A "stale" response is one that either has explicit expiry information, or is allowed to have heuristic expiry calculated, 842 but is not fresh according to the calculations in <a href="#expiration.model" title="Freshness Model">Section 2.3</a>. 843 </p> 844 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.3.p.2">Caches <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> return a stale response if it is prohibited by an explicit in-protocol directive (e.g., by a "no-store" or "no-cache" cache 845 directive, a "must-revalidate" cache-response-directive, or an applicable "s-maxage" or "proxy-revalidate" cache-response-directive; 846 see <a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>). 847 </p> 848 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.3.p.3">Caches <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> return stale responses unless they are disconnected (i.e., it cannot contact the origin server or otherwise find a forward 849 path) or otherwise explicitly allowed (e.g., the max-stale request directive; see <a href="#cache-request-directive" title="Request Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.1</a>).. 850 </p> 851 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.3.p.4">Stale responses <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> have a Warning header with the 110 warn-code (see <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.1" title="Warning">Section 3.6</a>). Likewise, the 112 warn-code <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be sent on stale responses if the cache is disconnected. 852 </p> 853 <p id="rfc.section.2.3.3.p.5">If a cache receives a first-hand response (either an entire response, or a 304 (Not Modified) response) that it would normally 854 forward to the requesting client, and the received response is no longer fresh, the cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> forward it to the requesting client without adding a new Warning (but without removing any existing Warning headers). A cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> attempt to validate a response simply because that response became stale in transit. 855 </p> 856 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.4"><a href="#rfc.section.2.4">2.4</a> <a id="validation.model" href="#validation.model">Validation Model</a></h2> 857 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.1">Checking with the origin server to see if a stale or otherwise unusable cached response can be reused is called "validating" 858 or "revalidating." Doing so potentially avoids the overhead of retransmitting the response body when the stored response is 859 valid. 860 </p> 861 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.2">HTTP's conditional request mechanism <a href="#Part4" id="rfc.xref.Part4.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests">[Part4]</cite></a> is used for this purpose. When a stored response includes one or more validators, such as the field values of an ETag or Last-Modified 862 header field, then a validating request <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be made conditional to those field values. 863 </p> 864 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.3">A 304 (Not Modified) response status code indicates that the stored response can be updated and reused; see <a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Responses">Section 2.7</a>. 865 </p> 866 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.4">If instead the cache receives a full response (i.e., one with a response body), it is used to satisfy the request and replace 867 the stored response. <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.8: Should there be a requirement here?]</span></p> 868 <p id="rfc.section.2.4.p.5">If a cache receives a 5xx response while attempting to validate a response, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> either forward this response to the requesting client, or act as if the server failed to respond. In the latter case, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> return a previously stored response (which <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> include the 111 warn-code; see <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.2" title="Warning">Section 3.6</a>) unless the stored response includes the "must-revalidate" cache directive (see <a href="#serving.stale.responses" title="Serving Stale Responses">Section 2.3.3</a>). 869 </p> 870 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.5"><a href="#rfc.section.2.5">2.5</a> <a id="invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions" href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions">Request Methods that Invalidate</a></h2> 871 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.1">Because unsafe methods (<a href="p2-semantics.html#safe.methods" title="Safe Methods">Section 7.1.1</a> of <a href="#Part2" id="rfc.xref.Part2.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics">[Part2]</cite></a>) have the potential for changing state on the origin server, intervening caches can use them to keep their contents up-to-date. 872 </p> 873 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.2">The following HTTP methods <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> cause a cache to invalidate the Request-URI as well as the Location and Content-Location headers (if present): 1192 874 </p> 1193 875 <ul> … … 1196 878 <li>POST</li> 1197 879 </ul> 1198 <p id="rfc.section. 11.p.5">An invalidation based on the URI in a Location or Content-Location header <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be performed if the host part of that URI differs from the host part in the request-target. This helps prevent denial of service880 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.3">An invalidation based on the URI in a Location or Content-Location header <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be performed if the host part of that URI differs from the host part in the Request-URI. This helps prevent denial of service 1199 881 attacks. 1200 882 </p> 1201 <p id="rfc.section.11.p.6">A cache that passes through requests for methods it does not understand <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> invalidate any entities referred to by the request-target. 1202 </p> 1203 <h1 id="rfc.section.12"><a href="#rfc.section.12">12.</a> <a id="write-through.mandatory" href="#write-through.mandatory">Write-Through Mandatory</a></h1> 1204 <p id="rfc.section.12.p.1">All methods that might be expected to cause modifications to the origin server's resources <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be written through to the origin server. This currently includes all methods except for GET and HEAD. A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> reply to such a request from a client before having transmitted the request to the inbound server, and having received a corresponding 1205 response from the inbound server. This does not prevent a proxy cache from sending a 100 (Continue) response before the inbound 1206 server has sent its final reply. 1207 </p> 1208 <p id="rfc.section.12.p.2">The alternative (known as "write-back" or "copy-back" caching) is not allowed in HTTP/1.1, due to the difficulty of providing 1209 consistent updates and the problems arising from server, cache, or network failure prior to write-back. 1210 </p> 1211 <h1 id="rfc.section.13"><a href="#rfc.section.13">13.</a> <a id="cache.replacement" href="#cache.replacement">Cache Replacement</a></h1> 1212 <p id="rfc.section.13.p.1">If a new cacheable (see Sections <a href="#what.may.be.stored.by.caches" title="What May be Stored by Caches">15.2.2</a>, <a href="#disambiguating.expiration.values" title="Disambiguating Expiration Values">3.5</a>, <a href="#disambiguating.multiple.responses" title="Disambiguating Multiple Responses">3.6</a> and <a href="#errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" title="Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior">9</a>) response is received from a resource while any existing responses for the same resource are cached, the cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use the new response to reply to the current request. It <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> insert it into cache storage and <em class="bcp14">MAY</em>, if it meets all other requirements, use it to respond to any future requests that would previously have caused the old response 1213 to be returned. If it inserts the new response into cache storage the rules in <a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Headers">Section 6.3</a> apply. 1214 </p> 1215 <dl class="empty"> 1216 <dd> <b>Note:</b> a new response that has an older Date header value than existing cached responses is not cacheable. 1217 </dd> 1218 </dl> 1219 <h1 id="rfc.section.14"><a href="#rfc.section.14">14.</a> <a id="history.lists" href="#history.lists">History Lists</a></h1> 1220 <p id="rfc.section.14.p.1">User agents often have history mechanisms, such as "Back" buttons and history lists, which can be used to redisplay an entity 1221 retrieved earlier in a session. 1222 </p> 1223 <p id="rfc.section.14.p.2">History mechanisms and caches are different. In particular history mechanisms <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> try to show a semantically transparent view of the current state of a resource. Rather, a history mechanism is meant to show 1224 exactly what the user saw at the time when the resource was retrieved. 1225 </p> 1226 <p id="rfc.section.14.p.3">By default, an expiration time does not apply to history mechanisms. If the entity is still in storage, a history mechanism <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> display it even if the entity has expired, unless the user has specifically configured the agent to refresh expired history 1227 documents. 1228 </p> 1229 <p id="rfc.section.14.p.4">This is not to be construed to prohibit the history mechanism from telling the user that a view might be stale. </p> 1230 <dl class="empty"> 1231 <dd> <b>Note:</b> if history list mechanisms unnecessarily prevent users from viewing stale resources, this will tend to force service authors 1232 to avoid using HTTP expiration controls and cache controls when they would otherwise like to. Service authors may consider 1233 it important that users not be presented with error messages or warning messages when they use navigation controls (such as 1234 BACK) to view previously fetched resources. Even though sometimes such resources ought not be cached, or ought to expire quickly, 1235 user interface considerations may force service authors to resort to other means of preventing caching (e.g. "once-only" URLs) 1236 in order not to suffer the effects of improperly functioning history mechanisms. 1237 </dd> 1238 </dl> 1239 <h1 id="rfc.section.15"><a href="#rfc.section.15">15.</a> <a id="header.fields" href="#header.fields">Header Field Definitions</a></h1> 1240 <p id="rfc.section.15.p.1">This section defines the syntax and semantics of HTTP/1.1 header fields related to caching.</p> 1241 <p id="rfc.section.15.p.2">For entity-header fields, both sender and recipient refer to either the client or the server, depending on who sends and who 883 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.4"> <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.9: TODO: "host part" needs to be specified better.]</span> 884 </p> 885 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.5">A cache that passes through requests for methods it does not understand <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> invalidate the Request-URI. 886 </p> 887 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.6">Here, "invalidate" means that the cache will either remove all stored responses related to the Request-URI, or will mark these 888 as "invalid" and in need of a mandatory validation before they can be returned in response to a subsequent request. 889 </p> 890 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.7">Note that this does not guarantee that all appropriate responses are invalidated. For example, the request that caused the 891 change at the origin server might not have gone through the cache where a response is stored. 892 </p> 893 <p id="rfc.section.2.5.p.8"> <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.10: TODO: specify that only successful (2xx, 3xx?) responses invalidate.]</span> 894 </p> 895 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.6"><a href="#rfc.section.2.6">2.6</a> <a id="caching.negotiated.responses" href="#caching.negotiated.responses">Caching Negotiated Responses</a></h2> 896 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.1">Use of server-driven content negotiation (<a href="p3-payload.html#server-driven.negotiation" title="Server-driven Negotiation">Section 4.1</a> of <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.1"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a>) alters the conditions under which a cache can use the response for subsequent requests. 897 </p> 898 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.2">When a cache receives a request that can be satisfied by a stored response that includes a Vary header field (<a href="#header.vary" id="rfc.xref.header.vary.1" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a>), it <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> use that response unless all of the selecting request-headers in the presented request match the corresponding stored request-headers 899 from the original request. 900 </p> 901 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.3">The selecting request-headers from two requests are defined to match if and only if the selecting request-headers in the first 902 request can be transformed to the selecting request-headers in the second request by adding or removing linear white space <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.11: [ref]]</span> at places where this is allowed by the corresponding ABNF, and/or combining multiple message-header fields with the same field 903 name following the rules about message headers in <a href="p1-messaging.html#message.headers" title="Message Headers">Section 4.2</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.12"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>. <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.12: DISCUSS: header-specific canonicalisation]</span></p> 904 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.4">A Vary header field-value of "*" always fails to match, and subsequent requests to that resource can only be properly interpreted 905 by the origin server. 906 </p> 907 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.5">If no stored response matches, the cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> forward the presented request to the origin server in a conditional request, and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> include all ETags stored with potentially suitable responses in an If-None-Match request header. If the server responds with 908 304 (Not Modified) and includes an entity tag or Content-Location that indicates the entity to be used, that cached response <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be used to satisfy the presented request, and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be used to update the corresponding stored response; see <a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Responses">Section 2.7</a>. 909 </p> 910 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.6">If any of the stored responses contains only partial content, its entity-tag <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> be included in the If-None-Match header field unless the request is for a range that would be fully satisfied by that stored 911 response. 912 </p> 913 <p id="rfc.section.2.6.p.7">If a cache receives a successful response whose Content-Location field matches that of an existing stored response for the 914 same Request-URI, whose entity-tag differs from that of the existing stored response, and whose Date is more recent than that 915 of the existing response, the existing response <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> be returned in response to future requests and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be deleted from the cache.<span class="comment">[rfc.comment.13: DISCUSS: Not sure if this is necessary.]</span></p> 916 <h2 id="rfc.section.2.7"><a href="#rfc.section.2.7">2.7</a> <a id="combining.headers" href="#combining.headers">Combining Responses</a></h2> 917 <p id="rfc.section.2.7.p.1">When a cache receives a 304 (Not Modified) response or a 206 (Partial Content) response, it needs to update the stored response 918 with the new one, so that the updated response can be sent to the client. 919 </p> 920 <p id="rfc.section.2.7.p.2">If the status code is 304 (Not Modified), the cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use the stored entity-body as the updated entity-body. If the status code is 206 (Partial Content) and the ETag or Last-Modified 921 headers match exactly, the cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> combine the stored entity-body in the stored response with the updated entity-body received in the response and use the result 922 as the updated entity-body (see <a href="p5-range.html#combining.byte.ranges" title="Combining Ranges">Section 4</a> of <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>). 923 </p> 924 <p id="rfc.section.2.7.p.3">The stored response headers are used for the updated response, except that </p> 925 <ul> 926 <li>any stored Warning headers with warn-code 1xx (see <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.3" title="Warning">Section 3.6</a>) <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted from the stored response and the forwarded response. 927 </li> 928 <li>any stored Warning headers with warn-code 2xx <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be retained in the stored response and the forwarded response. 929 </li> 930 <li>any headers provided in the 304 or 206 response <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> replace the corresponding headers from the stored response. 931 </li> 932 </ul> 933 <p id="rfc.section.2.7.p.4">A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> also replace any stored headers with corresponding headers received in the incoming response, except for Warning headers as 934 described immediately above. If a header field-name in the incoming response matches more than one header in the stored response, 935 all such old headers <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be replaced. It <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> store the combined entity-body. 936 </p> 937 <p id="rfc.section.2.7.p.5"><span class="comment">[rfc.comment.14: ISSUE: discuss how to handle HEAD updates]</span></p> 938 <h1 id="rfc.section.3"><a href="#rfc.section.3">3.</a> <a id="header.fields" href="#header.fields">Header Field Definitions</a></h1> 939 <p id="rfc.section.3.p.1">This section defines the syntax and semantics of HTTP/1.1 header fields related to caching.</p> 940 <p id="rfc.section.3.p.2">For entity-header fields, both sender and recipient refer to either the client or the server, depending on who sends and who 1242 941 receives the entity. 1243 942 </p> 1244 943 <div id="rfc.iref.a.2"></div> 1245 944 <div id="rfc.iref.h.2"></div> 1246 <h2 id="rfc.section.15.1"><a href="#rfc.section.15.1">15.1</a> <a id="header.age" href="#header.age">Age</a></h2> 1247 <p id="rfc.section.15.1.p.1">The response-header field "Age" conveys the sender's estimate of the amount of time since the response (or its revalidation) 1248 was generated at the origin server. A cached response is "fresh" if its age does not exceed its freshness lifetime. Age values 1249 are calculated as specified in <a href="#age.calculations" title="Age Calculations">Section 3.3</a>. 1250 </p> 1251 <div id="rfc.figure.u.11"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.1"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.2"></span> <a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age</a> = "Age" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age-v</a> 945 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.1"><a href="#rfc.section.3.1">3.1</a> <a id="header.age" href="#header.age">Age</a></h2> 946 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.1">The response-header field "Age" conveys the sender's estimate of the amount of time since the response (or its validation) 947 was generated at the origin server. Age values are calculated as specified in <a href="#age.calculations" title="Calculating Age">Section 2.3.2</a>. 948 </p> 949 <div id="rfc.figure.u.7"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.1"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.2"></span> <a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age</a> = "Age" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age-v</a> 1252 950 <a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age-v</a> = <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> 1253 951 </pre><div id="rule.delta-seconds"> 1254 <p id="rfc.section. 15.1.p.3"> Agevalues are non-negative decimal integers, representing time in seconds.</p>952 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.3"> Age field-values are non-negative decimal integers, representing time in seconds.</p> 1255 953 </div> 1256 <div id="rfc.figure.u.12"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.3"></span> <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> = 1*<a href="#notation" class="smpl">DIGIT</a> 1257 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.1.p.5">If a cache receives a value larger than the largest positive integer it can represent, or if any of its age calculations overflows, 1258 it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> transmit an Age header with a value of 2147483648 (2<sup>31</sup>). An HTTP/1.1 server that includes a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> include an Age header field in every response generated from its own cache. Caches <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use an arithmetic type of at least 31 bits of range. 954 <div id="rfc.figure.u.8"></div> <pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.3"></span> <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> = 1*<a href="#notation" class="smpl">DIGIT</a> 955 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.5">If a cache receives a value larger than the largest positive integer it can represent, or if any of its age calculations overflows, 956 it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> transmit an Age header with a field-value of 2147483648 (2<sup>31</sup>). Caches <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> use an arithmetic type of at least 31 bits of range. 957 </p> 958 <p id="rfc.section.3.1.p.6">The presence of an Age header field in a response implies that a response is not first-hand. However, the converse is not 959 true, since HTTP/1.0 caches may not implement the Age header field. 1259 960 </p> 1260 961 <div id="rfc.iref.c.3"></div> 1261 962 <div id="rfc.iref.h.3"></div> 1262 <h2 id="rfc.section.15.2"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2">15.2</a> <a id="header.cache-control" href="#header.cache-control">Cache-Control</a></h2> 1263 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.p.1">The general-header field "Cache-Control" is used to specify directives that <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be obeyed by all caching mechanisms along the request/response chain. The directives specify behavior intended to prevent 1264 caches from adversely interfering with the request or response. These directives typically override the default caching algorithms. 1265 Cache directives are unidirectional in that the presence of a directive in a request does not imply that the same directive 1266 is to be given in the response. 1267 </p> 1268 <dl class="empty"> 1269 <dd>Note that HTTP/1.0 caches might not implement Cache-Control and might only implement Pragma: no-cache (see <a href="#header.pragma" id="rfc.xref.header.pragma.1" title="Pragma">Section 15.4</a>). 1270 </dd> 1271 </dl> 1272 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.p.2">Cache directives <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be passed through by a proxy or gateway application, regardless of their significance to that application, since the directives 1273 might be applicable to all recipients along the request/response chain. It is not possible to specify a cache-directive for 1274 a specific cache. 1275 </p> 1276 <div id="rfc.figure.u.13"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.4"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.5"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.6"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.7"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.8"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.9"></span> <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> = "Cache-Control" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">Cache-Control-v</a> 963 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.2"><a href="#rfc.section.3.2">3.2</a> <a id="header.cache-control" href="#header.cache-control">Cache-Control</a></h2> 964 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.p.1">The general-header field "Cache-Control" is used to specify directives that <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be obeyed by all caches along the request/response chain. The directives specify behavior intended to prevent caches from 965 adversely interfering with the request or response. Cache directives are unidirectional in that the presence of a directive 966 in a request does not imply that the same directive is to be given in the response. 967 </p> 968 <dl class="empty"> 969 <dd>Note that HTTP/1.0 caches might not implement Cache-Control and might only implement Pragma: no-cache (see <a href="#header.pragma" id="rfc.xref.header.pragma.2" title="Pragma">Section 3.4</a>). 970 </dd> 971 </dl> 972 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.p.2">Cache directives <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be passed through by a proxy or gateway application, regardless of their significance to that application, since the directives 973 might be applicable to all recipients along the request/response chain. It is not possible to target a directive to a specific 974 cache. 975 </p> 976 <div id="rfc.figure.u.9"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.4"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.5"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.6"></span> <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">Cache-Control</a> = "Cache-Control" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">Cache-Control-v</a> 1277 977 <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">Cache-Control-v</a> = 1#<a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-directive</a> 1278 978 … … 1280 980 / <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-response-directive</a> 1281 981 1282 <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-request-directive</a> =1283 "no-cache" ; <a href="#what.is.cacheable" title="What is Cacheable">Section 15.2.1</a>1284 / "no-store" ; <a href="#what.may.be.stored.by.caches" title="What May be Stored by Caches">Section 15.2.2</a>1285 / "max-age" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> ; <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>, <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" title="Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls">15.2.4</a>1286 / "max-stale" [ "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> ] ; <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>1287 / "min-fresh" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> ; <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>1288 / "no-transform" ; <a href="#no-transform.directive" title="No-Transform Directive">Section 15.2.5</a>1289 / "only-if-cached" ; <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" title="Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls">Section 15.2.4</a>1290 / <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-extension</a> ; <a href="#cache.control.extensions" title="Cache Control Extensions">Section 15.2.6</a>1291 1292 <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-response-directive</a> =1293 "public" ; <a href="#what.is.cacheable" title="What is Cacheable">Section 15.2.1</a>1294 / "private" [ "=" <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> 1#<a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">field-name</a> <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> ] ; <a href="#what.is.cacheable" title="What is Cacheable">Section 15.2.1</a>1295 / "no-cache" [ "=" <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> 1#<a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">field-name</a> <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> ] ; <a href="#what.is.cacheable" title="What is Cacheable">Section 15.2.1</a>1296 / "no-store" ; <a href="#what.may.be.stored.by.caches" title="What May be Stored by Caches">Section 15.2.2</a>1297 / "no-transform" ; <a href="#no-transform.directive" title="No-Transform Directive">Section 15.2.5</a>1298 / "must-revalidate" ; <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" title="Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls">Section 15.2.4</a>1299 / "proxy-revalidate" ; <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" title="Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls">Section 15.2.4</a>1300 / "max-age" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> ; <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>1301 / "s-maxage" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> ; <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>1302 / <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-extension</a> ; <a href="#cache.control.extensions" title="Cache Control Extensions">Section 15.2.6</a>1303 1304 982 <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-extension</a> = <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">token</a> [ "=" ( <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">token</a> / <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">quoted-string</a> ) ] 1305 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.2.p.4">When a directive appears without any 1#field-name parameter, the directive applies to the entire request or response. When 1306 such a directive appears with a 1#field-name parameter, it applies only to the named field or fields, and not to the rest 1307 of the request or response. This mechanism supports extensibility; implementations of future versions of HTTP might apply 1308 these directives to header fields not defined in HTTP/1.1. 1309 </p> 1310 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.p.5">The cache-control directives can be broken down into these general categories: </p> 1311 <ul> 1312 <li>Restrictions on what are cacheable; these may only be imposed by the origin server.</li> 1313 <li>Restrictions on what may be stored by a cache; these may be imposed by either the origin server or the user agent.</li> 1314 <li>Modifications of the basic expiration mechanism; these may be imposed by either the origin server or the user agent.</li> 1315 <li>Controls over cache revalidation and reload; these may only be imposed by a user agent.</li> 1316 <li>Control over transformation of entities.</li> 1317 <li>Extensions to the caching system.</li> 1318 </ul> 1319 <h3 id="rfc.section.15.2.1"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2.1">15.2.1</a> <a id="what.is.cacheable" href="#what.is.cacheable">What is Cacheable</a></h3> 1320 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.1.p.1">By default, a response is cacheable if the requirements of the request method, request header fields, and the response status 1321 indicate that it is cacheable. <a href="#response.cacheability" title="Response Cacheability">Section 5</a> summarizes these defaults for cacheability. The following Cache-Control response directives allow an origin server to override 1322 the default cacheability of a response: 1323 </p> 1324 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.1.p.2"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.4"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.p.1"></span> public 1325 </p> 1326 <dl class="empty"> 1327 <dd>Indicates that the response <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be cached by any cache, even if it would normally be non-cacheable or cacheable only within a non-shared cache. (See also 1328 Authorization, <a href="p7-auth.html#header.authorization" title="Authorization">Section 3.1</a> of <a href="#Part7" id="rfc.xref.Part7.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication">[Part7]</cite></a>, for additional details.) 1329 </dd> 1330 </dl> 1331 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.1.p.3"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.5"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.p.2"></span> private 1332 </p> 1333 <dl class="empty"> 1334 <dd>Indicates that all or part of the response message is intended for a single user and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be cached by a shared cache. This allows an origin server to state that the specified parts of the response are intended for 1335 only one user and are not a valid response for requests by other users. A private (non-shared) cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> cache the response. 1336 </dd> 1337 <dd> <b>Note:</b> This usage of the word private only controls where the response may be cached, and cannot ensure the privacy of the message 983 </pre><h3 id="rfc.section.3.2.1"><a href="#rfc.section.3.2.1">3.2.1</a> <a id="cache-request-directive" href="#cache-request-directive">Request Cache-Control Directives</a></h3> 984 <div id="rfc.figure.u.10"></div> <pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.7"></span> <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-request-directive</a> = 985 "no-cache" 986 / "no-store" 987 / "max-age" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> 988 / "max-stale" [ "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> ] 989 / "min-fresh" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> 990 / "no-transform" 991 / "only-if-cached" 992 / <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-extension</a> 993 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.2"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.4"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.1"></span> no-cache 994 </p> 995 <dl class="empty"> 996 <dd>The no-cache request directive indicates that a stored response <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be used to satisfy the request without successful validation on the origin server. 997 </dd> 998 </dl> 999 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.3"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.5"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.2"></span> no-store 1000 </p> 1001 <dl class="empty"> 1002 <dd>The no-store request directive indicates that a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store any part of either this request or any response to it. This directive applies to both non-shared and shared caches. 1003 "<em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store" in this context means that the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> intentionally store the information in non-volatile storage, and <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> make a best-effort attempt to remove the information from volatile storage as promptly as possible after forwarding it. 1004 </dd> 1005 <dd>This directive is NOT a reliable or sufficient mechanism for ensuring privacy. In particular, malicious or compromised caches 1006 might not recognize or obey this directive, and communications networks may be vulnerable to eavesdropping. 1007 </dd> 1008 </dl> 1009 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.4"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.6"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.1"></span> max-age 1010 </p> 1011 <dl class="empty"> 1012 <dd>The max-age request directive indicates that the client is willing to accept a response whose age is no greater than the specified 1013 time in seconds. Unless max-stale directive is also included, the client is not willing to accept a stale response. 1014 </dd> 1015 </dl> 1016 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.5"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.7"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.2"></span> max-stale 1017 </p> 1018 <dl class="empty"> 1019 <dd>The max-stale request directive indicates that the client is willing to accept a response that has exceeded its expiration 1020 time. If max-stale is assigned a value, then the client is willing to accept a response that has exceeded its expiration time 1021 by no more than the specified number of seconds. If no value is assigned to max-stale, then the client is willing to accept 1022 a stale response of any age. <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.15: of any staleness? --mnot]</span></dd> 1023 </dl> 1024 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.6"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.8"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.3"></span> min-fresh 1025 </p> 1026 <dl class="empty"> 1027 <dd>The min-fresh request directive indicates that the client is willing to accept a response whose freshness lifetime is no less 1028 than its current age plus the specified time in seconds. That is, the client wants a response that will still be fresh for 1029 at least the specified number of seconds. 1030 </dd> 1031 </dl> 1032 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.7"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.9"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.3"></span> no-transform 1033 </p> 1034 <dl class="empty"> 1035 <dd>The no-transform request directive indicates that an intermediate cache or proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> change the Content-Encoding, Content-Range or Content-Type request headers, nor the request entity-body. 1036 </dd> 1037 </dl> 1038 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.1.p.8"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.10"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.o.1"></span> only-if-cached 1039 </p> 1040 <dl class="empty"> 1041 <dd>The only-if-cached request directive indicates that the client only wishes to return a stored response. If it receives this 1042 directive, a cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> either respond using a stored response that is consistent with the other constraints of the request, or respond with a 504 1043 (Gateway Timeout) status. If a group of caches is being operated as a unified system with good internal connectivity, such 1044 a request <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be forwarded within that group of caches. 1045 </dd> 1046 </dl> 1047 <h3 id="rfc.section.3.2.2"><a href="#rfc.section.3.2.2">3.2.2</a> <a id="cache-response-directive" href="#cache-response-directive">Response Cache-Control Directives</a></h3> 1048 <div id="rfc.figure.u.11"></div> <pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.8"></span> <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-response-directive</a> = 1049 "public" 1050 / "private" [ "=" <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> 1#<a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">field-name</a> <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> ] 1051 / "no-cache" [ "=" <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> 1#<a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">field-name</a> <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> ] 1052 / "no-store" 1053 / "no-transform" 1054 / "must-revalidate" 1055 / "proxy-revalidate" 1056 / "max-age" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> 1057 / "s-maxage" "=" <a href="#rule.delta-seconds" class="smpl">delta-seconds</a> 1058 / <a href="#header.cache-control" class="smpl">cache-extension</a> 1059 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.2"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.11"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.p.1"></span> public 1060 </p> 1061 <dl class="empty"> 1062 <dd>The public response directive indicates that the response <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be cached, even if it would normally be non-cacheable or cacheable only within a non-shared cache. (See also Authorization, <a href="p7-auth.html#header.authorization" title="Authorization">Section 3.1</a> of <a href="#Part7" id="rfc.xref.Part7.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication">[Part7]</cite></a>, for additional details.) 1063 </dd> 1064 </dl> 1065 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.3"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.12"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.p.2"></span> private 1066 </p> 1067 <dl class="empty"> 1068 <dd>The private response directive indicates that the response message is intended for a single user and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be stored by a shared cache. A private (non-shared) cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> store the response. 1069 </dd> 1070 <dd>If the private response directive specifies one or more field-names, this requirement is limited to the field-values associated 1071 with the listed response headers. That is, the specified field-names(s) <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be stored by a shared cache, whereas the remainder of the response message <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be. 1072 </dd> 1073 <dd> <b>Note:</b> This usage of the word private only controls where the response may be stored, and cannot ensure the privacy of the message 1338 1074 content. 1339 1075 </dd> 1340 1076 </dl> 1341 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.1.p.4"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.6"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.1"></span> no-cache 1342 </p> 1343 <dl class="empty"> 1344 <dd>If the no-cache directive does not specify a field-name, then a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> use the response to satisfy a subsequent request without successful revalidation with the origin server. This allows an origin 1345 server to prevent caching even by caches that have been configured to return stale responses to client requests. 1346 </dd> 1347 <dd>If the no-cache directive does specify one or more field-names, then a cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> use the response to satisfy a subsequent request, subject to any other restrictions on caching. However, the specified field-name(s) <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be sent in the response to a subsequent request without successful revalidation with the origin server. This allows an origin 1348 server to prevent the re-use of certain header fields in a response, while still allowing caching of the rest of the response. 1349 <dl class="empty"> 1350 <dd> <b>Note:</b> Most HTTP/1.0 caches will not recognize or obey this directive. 1351 </dd> 1352 </dl> 1353 </dd> 1354 </dl> 1355 <h3 id="rfc.section.15.2.2"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2.2">15.2.2</a> <a id="what.may.be.stored.by.caches" href="#what.may.be.stored.by.caches">What May be Stored by Caches</a></h3> 1356 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.2.p.1"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.7"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.2"></span> no-store 1357 </p> 1358 <dl class="empty"> 1359 <dd>The purpose of the no-store directive is to prevent the inadvertent release or retention of sensitive information (for example, 1360 on backup tapes). The no-store directive applies to the entire message, and <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be sent either in a response or in a request. If sent in a request, a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store any part of either this request or any response to it. If sent in a response, a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store any part of either this response or the request that elicited it. This directive applies to both non-shared and shared 1361 caches. "<em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store" in this context means that the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> intentionally store the information in non-volatile storage, and <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> make a best-effort attempt to remove the information from volatile storage as promptly as possible after forwarding it. 1362 </dd> 1363 <dd>Even when this directive is associated with a response, users might explicitly store such a response outside of the caching 1364 system (e.g., with a "Save As" dialog). History buffers <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> store such responses as part of their normal operation. 1365 </dd> 1366 <dd>The purpose of this directive is to meet the stated requirements of certain users and service authors who are concerned about 1367 accidental releases of information via unanticipated accesses to cache data structures. While the use of this directive might 1368 improve privacy in some cases, we caution that it is NOT in any way a reliable or sufficient mechanism for ensuring privacy. 1369 In particular, malicious or compromised caches might not recognize or obey this directive, and communications networks might 1370 be vulnerable to eavesdropping. 1371 </dd> 1372 </dl> 1373 <h3 id="rfc.section.15.2.3"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2.3">15.2.3</a> <a id="modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism">Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism</a></h3> 1374 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.1">The expiration time of an entity <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be specified by the origin server using the Expires header (see <a href="#header.expires" id="rfc.xref.header.expires.2" title="Expires">Section 15.3</a>). Alternatively, it <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be specified using the max-age directive in a response. When the max-age cache-control directive is present in a cached response, 1375 the response is stale if its current age is greater than the age value given (in seconds) at the time of a new request for 1376 that resource. The max-age directive on a response implies that the response is cacheable (i.e., "public") unless some other, 1377 more restrictive cache directive is also present. 1378 </p> 1379 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.2">If a response includes both an Expires header and a max-age directive, the max-age directive overrides the Expires header, 1380 even if the Expires header is more restrictive. This rule allows an origin server to provide, for a given response, a longer 1381 expiration time to an HTTP/1.1 (or later) cache than to an HTTP/1.0 cache. This might be useful if certain HTTP/1.0 caches 1382 improperly calculate ages or expiration times, perhaps due to desynchronized clocks. 1383 </p> 1384 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.3">Many HTTP/1.0 cache implementations will treat an Expires value that is less than or equal to the response Date value as being 1385 equivalent to the Cache-Control response directive "no-cache". If an HTTP/1.1 cache receives such a response, and the response 1386 does not include a Cache-Control header field, it <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> consider the response to be non-cacheable in order to retain compatibility with HTTP/1.0 servers. 1387 </p> 1388 <dl class="empty"> 1389 <dd> <b>Note:</b> An origin server might wish to use a relatively new HTTP cache control feature, such as the "private" directive, on a network 1390 including older caches that do not understand that feature. The origin server will need to combine the new feature with an 1391 Expires field whose value is less than or equal to the Date value. This will prevent older caches from improperly caching 1392 the response. 1393 </dd> 1394 </dl> 1395 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.4"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.8"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.s.3"></span> s-maxage 1396 </p> 1397 <dl class="empty"> 1398 <dd>If a response includes an s-maxage directive, then for a shared cache (but not for a private cache), the maximum age specified 1399 by this directive overrides the maximum age specified by either the max-age directive or the Expires header. The s-maxage 1400 directive also implies the semantics of the proxy-revalidate directive (see <a href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" title="Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls">Section 15.2.4</a>), i.e., that the shared cache must not use the entry after it becomes stale to respond to a subsequent request without first 1401 revalidating it with the origin server. The s-maxage directive is always ignored by a private cache. 1402 </dd> 1403 </dl> 1404 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.5">Note that most older caches, not compliant with this specification, do not implement any cache-control directives. An origin 1405 server wishing to use a cache-control directive that restricts, but does not prevent, caching by an HTTP/1.1-compliant cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> exploit the requirement that the max-age directive overrides the Expires header, and the fact that pre-HTTP/1.1-compliant 1406 caches do not observe the max-age directive. 1407 </p> 1408 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.6">Other directives allow a user agent to modify the basic expiration mechanism. These directives <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be specified on a request: 1409 </p> 1410 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.7"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.9"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.1"></span> max-age 1411 </p> 1412 <dl class="empty"> 1413 <dd>Indicates that the client is willing to accept a response whose age is no greater than the specified time in seconds. Unless 1414 max-stale directive is also included, the client is not willing to accept a stale response. 1415 </dd> 1416 </dl> 1417 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.8"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.10"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.2"></span> min-fresh 1418 </p> 1419 <dl class="empty"> 1420 <dd>Indicates that the client is willing to accept a response whose freshness lifetime is no less than its current age plus the 1421 specified time in seconds. That is, the client wants a response that will still be fresh for at least the specified number 1422 of seconds. 1423 </dd> 1424 </dl> 1425 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.9"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.11"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.3"></span> max-stale 1426 </p> 1427 <dl class="empty"> 1428 <dd>Indicates that the client is willing to accept a response that has exceeded its expiration time. If max-stale is assigned 1429 a value, then the client is willing to accept a response that has exceeded its expiration time by no more than the specified 1430 number of seconds. If no value is assigned to max-stale, then the client is willing to accept a stale response of any age. 1431 </dd> 1432 </dl> 1433 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.10">If a cache returns a stale response, either because of a max-stale directive on a request, or because the cache is configured 1434 to override the expiration time of a response, the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> attach a Warning header to the stale response, using Warning 110 (Response is stale). 1435 </p> 1436 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.11">A cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be configured to return stale responses without validation, but only if this does not conflict with any "MUST"-level requirements 1437 concerning cache validation (e.g., a "must-revalidate" cache-control directive). 1438 </p> 1439 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.3.p.12">If both the new request and the cached entry include "max-age" directives, then the lesser of the two values is used for determining 1440 the freshness of the cached entry for that request. 1441 </p> 1442 <h3 id="rfc.section.15.2.4"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2.4">15.2.4</a> <a id="cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls" href="#cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls">Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls</a></h3> 1443 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.1">Sometimes a user agent might want or need to insist that a cache revalidate its cache entry with the origin server (and not 1444 just with the next cache along the path to the origin server), or to reload its cache entry from the origin server. End-to-end 1445 revalidation might be necessary if either the cache or the origin server has overestimated the expiration time of the cached 1446 response. End-to-end reload may be necessary if the cache entry has become corrupted for some reason. 1447 </p> 1448 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.2">End-to-end revalidation may be requested either when the client does not have its own local cached copy, in which case we 1449 call it "unspecified end-to-end revalidation", or when the client does have a local cached copy, in which case we call it 1450 "specific end-to-end revalidation." 1451 </p> 1452 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.3">The client can specify these three kinds of action using Cache-Control request directives:</p> 1453 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.4">End-to-end reload </p> 1454 <dl class="empty"> 1455 <dd>The request includes a "no-cache" cache-control directive or, for compatibility with HTTP/1.0 clients, "Pragma: no-cache". 1456 Field names <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be included with the no-cache directive in a request. The server <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> use a cached copy when responding to such a request. 1457 </dd> 1458 </dl> 1459 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.5">Specific end-to-end revalidation </p> 1460 <dl class="empty"> 1461 <dd>The request includes a "max-age=0" cache-control directive, which forces each cache along the path to the origin server to 1462 revalidate its own entry, if any, with the next cache or server. The initial request includes a cache-validating conditional 1463 with the client's current validator. 1464 </dd> 1465 </dl> 1466 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.6">Unspecified end-to-end revalidation </p> 1467 <dl class="empty"> 1468 <dd>The request includes "max-age=0" cache-control directive, which forces each cache along the path to the origin server to revalidate 1469 its own entry, if any, with the next cache or server. The initial request does not include a cache-validating conditional; 1470 the first cache along the path (if any) that holds a cache entry for this resource includes a cache-validating conditional 1471 with its current validator. 1472 </dd> 1473 </dl> 1474 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.7"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.12"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.4"></span> max-age 1475 </p> 1476 <dl class="empty"> 1477 <dd>When an intermediate cache is forced, by means of a max-age=0 directive, to revalidate its own cache entry, and the client 1478 has supplied its own validator in the request, the supplied validator might differ from the validator currently stored with 1479 the cache entry. In this case, the cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> use either validator in making its own request without affecting semantic transparency. 1480 </dd> 1481 <dd>However, the choice of validator might affect performance. The best approach is for the intermediate cache to use its own 1482 validator when making its request. If the server replies with 304 (Not Modified), then the cache can return its now validated 1483 copy to the client with a 200 (OK) response. If the server replies with a new entity and cache validator, however, the intermediate 1484 cache can compare the returned validator with the one provided in the client's request, using the strong comparison function. 1485 If the client's validator is equal to the origin server's, then the intermediate cache simply returns 304 (Not Modified). 1486 Otherwise, it returns the new entity with a 200 (OK) response. 1487 </dd> 1488 <dd>If a request includes the no-cache directive, it <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> include min-fresh, max-stale, or max-age. 1489 </dd> 1490 </dl> 1491 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.8"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.13"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.o.1"></span> only-if-cached 1492 </p> 1493 <dl class="empty"> 1494 <dd>In some cases, such as times of extremely poor network connectivity, a client may want a cache to return only those responses 1495 that it currently has stored, and not to reload or revalidate with the origin server. To do this, the client may include the 1496 only-if-cached directive in a request. If it receives this directive, a cache <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> either respond using a cached entry that is consistent with the other constraints of the request, or respond with a 504 (Gateway 1497 Timeout) status. However, if a group of caches is being operated as a unified system with good internal connectivity, such 1498 a request <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be forwarded within that group of caches. 1499 </dd> 1500 </dl> 1501 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.9"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.14"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.5"></span> must-revalidate 1502 </p> 1503 <dl class="empty"> 1504 <dd>Because a cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be configured to ignore a server's specified expiration time, and because a client request <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> include a max-stale directive (which has a similar effect), the protocol also includes a mechanism for the origin server to 1505 require revalidation of a cache entry on any subsequent use. When the must-revalidate directive is present in a response received 1506 by a cache, that cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> use the entry after it becomes stale to respond to a subsequent request without first revalidating it with the origin server. 1507 (I.e., the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> do an end-to-end revalidation every time, if, based solely on the origin server's Expires or max-age value, the cached response 1508 is stale.) 1077 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.4"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.13"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.4"></span> no-cache 1078 </p> 1079 <dl class="empty"> 1080 <dd>The no-cache response directive indicates that the response <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be used to satisfy a subsequent request without successful validation on the origin server. This allows an origin server to 1081 prevent caching even by caches that have been configured to return stale responses. 1082 </dd> 1083 <dd>If the no-cache response directive specifies one or more field-names, this requirement is limited to the field-values assosicated 1084 with the listed response headers. That is, the specified field-name(s) <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be sent in the response to a subsequent request without successful validation on the origin server. This allows an origin 1085 server to prevent the re-use of certain header fields in a response, while still allowing caching of the rest of the response. 1086 </dd> 1087 <dd> <b>Note:</b> Most HTTP/1.0 caches will not recognize or obey this directive. 1088 </dd> 1089 </dl> 1090 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.5"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.14"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.5"></span> no-store 1091 </p> 1092 <dl class="empty"> 1093 <dd>The no-store response directive indicates that a cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store any part of either the immediate request or response. This directive applies to both non-shared and shared caches. "<em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> store" in this context means that the cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> intentionally store the information in non-volatile storage, and <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> make a best-effort attempt to remove the information from volatile storage as promptly as possible after forwarding it. 1094 </dd> 1095 <dd>This directive is NOT a reliable or sufficient mechanism for ensuring privacy. In particular, malicious or compromised caches 1096 might not recognize or obey this directive, and communications networks may be vulnerable to eavesdropping. 1097 </dd> 1098 </dl> 1099 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.6"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.15"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.4"></span> must-revalidate 1100 </p> 1101 <dl class="empty"> 1102 <dd>The must-revalidate response directive indicates that once it has become stale, the response <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be used to satisfy subsequent requests without successful validation on the origin server. 1509 1103 </dd> 1510 1104 <dd>The must-revalidate directive is necessary to support reliable operation for certain protocol features. In all circumstances 1511 1105 an HTTP/1.1 cache <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> obey the must-revalidate directive; in particular, if the cache cannot reach the origin server for any reason, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> generate a 504 (Gateway Timeout) response. 1512 1106 </dd> 1513 <dd>Servers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> send the must-revalidate directive if and only if failure to revalidate a request on the entity could result in incorrect 1514 operation, such as a silently unexecuted financial transaction. Recipients <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> take any automated action that violates this directive, and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> automatically provide an unvalidated copy of the entity if revalidation fails. 1515 </dd> 1516 <dd>Although this is not recommended, user agents operating under severe connectivity constraints <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> violate this directive but, if so, <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> explicitly warn the user that an unvalidated response has been provided. The warning <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be provided on each unvalidated access, and <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> require explicit user confirmation. 1517 </dd> 1518 </dl> 1519 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.4.p.10"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.15"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.p.3"></span> proxy-revalidate 1520 </p> 1521 <dl class="empty"> 1522 <dd>The proxy-revalidate directive has the same meaning as the must-revalidate directive, except that it does not apply to non-shared 1523 user agent caches. It can be used on a response to an authenticated request to permit the user's cache to store and later 1524 return the response without needing to revalidate it (since it has already been authenticated once by that user), while still 1525 requiring proxies that service many users to revalidate each time (in order to make sure that each user has been authenticated). 1526 Note that such authenticated responses also need the public cache control directive in order to allow them to be cached at 1527 all. 1528 </dd> 1529 </dl> 1530 <h3 id="rfc.section.15.2.5"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2.5">15.2.5</a> <a id="no-transform.directive" href="#no-transform.directive">No-Transform Directive</a></h3> 1531 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.5.p.1"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.16"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.3"></span> no-transform 1532 </p> 1533 <dl class="empty"> 1534 <dd>Implementors of intermediate caches (proxies) have found it useful to convert the media type of certain entity bodies. A non-transparent 1535 proxy might, for example, convert between image formats in order to save cache space or to reduce the amount of traffic on 1536 a slow link. 1537 </dd> 1538 <dd>Serious operational problems occur, however, when these transformations are applied to entity bodies intended for certain 1539 kinds of applications. For example, applications for medical imaging, scientific data analysis and those using end-to-end 1540 authentication, all depend on receiving an entity body that is bit for bit identical to the original entity-body. 1541 </dd> 1542 <dd>Therefore, if a message includes the no-transform directive, an intermediate cache or proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> change those headers that are listed in <a href="#non-modifiable.headers" title="Non-modifiable Headers">Section 6.2</a> as being subject to the no-transform directive. This implies that the cache or proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> change any aspect of the entity-body that is specified by these headers, including the value of the entity-body itself. 1543 </dd> 1544 </dl> 1545 <h3 id="rfc.section.15.2.6"><a href="#rfc.section.15.2.6">15.2.6</a> <a id="cache.control.extensions" href="#cache.control.extensions">Cache Control Extensions</a></h3> 1546 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.6.p.1">The Cache-Control header field can be extended through the use of one or more cache-extension tokens, each with an optional 1547 assigned value. Informational extensions (those which do not require a change in cache behavior) <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be added without changing the semantics of other directives. Behavioral extensions are designed to work by acting as modifiers 1548 to the existing base of cache directives. Both the new directive and the standard directive are supplied, such that applications 1549 which do not understand the new directive will default to the behavior specified by the standard directive, and those that 1550 understand the new directive will recognize it as modifying the requirements associated with the standard directive. In this 1551 way, extensions to the cache-control directives can be made without requiring changes to the base protocol. 1552 </p> 1553 <p id="rfc.section.15.2.6.p.2">This extension mechanism depends on an HTTP cache obeying all of the cache-control directives defined for its native HTTP-version, 1107 <dd>Servers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> send the must-revalidate directive if and only if failure to validate a request on the entity could result in incorrect operation, 1108 such as a silently unexecuted financial transaction. 1109 </dd> 1110 </dl> 1111 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.7"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.16"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.p.3"></span> proxy-revalidate 1112 </p> 1113 <dl class="empty"> 1114 <dd>The proxy-revalidate response directive has the same meaning as the must-revalidate response directive, except that it does 1115 not apply to non-shared caches. 1116 </dd> 1117 </dl> 1118 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.8"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.17"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.m.5"></span> max-age 1119 </p> 1120 <dl class="empty"> 1121 <dd>The max-age response directive indicates that response is to be considered stale after its age is greater than the specified 1122 number of seconds. 1123 </dd> 1124 </dl> 1125 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.9"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.18"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.s.2"></span> s-maxage 1126 </p> 1127 <dl class="empty"> 1128 <dd>The s-maxage response directive indicates that, in shared caches, the maximum age specified by this directive overrides the 1129 maximum age specified by either the max-age directive or the Expires header. The s-maxage directive also implies the semantics 1130 of the proxy-revalidate response directive. 1131 </dd> 1132 </dl> 1133 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.2.p.10"> <span id="rfc.iref.c.19"></span> <span id="rfc.iref.n.6"></span> no-transform 1134 </p> 1135 <dl class="empty"> 1136 <dd>The no-transform response directive indicates that an intermediate cache or proxy <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> change the Content-Encoding, Content-Range or Content-Type response headers, nor the response entity-body. 1137 </dd> 1138 </dl> 1139 <h3 id="rfc.section.3.2.3"><a href="#rfc.section.3.2.3">3.2.3</a> <a id="cache.control.extensions" href="#cache.control.extensions">Cache Control Extensions</a></h3> 1140 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.3.p.1">The Cache-Control header field can be extended through the use of one or more cache-extension tokens, each with an optional 1141 value. Informational extensions (those that do not require a change in cache behavior) can be added without changing the semantics 1142 of other directives. Behavioral extensions are designed to work by acting as modifiers to the existing base of cache directives. 1143 Both the new directive and the standard directive are supplied, such that applications that do not understand the new directive 1144 will default to the behavior specified by the standard directive, and those that understand the new directive will recognize 1145 it as modifying the requirements associated with the standard directive. In this way, extensions to the cache-control directives 1146 can be made without requiring changes to the base protocol. 1147 </p> 1148 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.3.p.2">This extension mechanism depends on an HTTP cache obeying all of the cache-control directives defined for its native HTTP-version, 1554 1149 obeying certain extensions, and ignoring all directives that it does not understand. 1555 1150 </p> 1556 <p id="rfc.section. 15.2.6.p.3">For example, consider a hypothetical new response directive called community whichacts as a modifier to the private directive.1557 We define this new directive to mean that, in addition to any non-shared cache, any cache which is shared only by members1558 of the community named within its value may cache the response. An origin server wishing to allow the UCI community to use1559 anotherwise private response in their shared cache(s) could do so by including1560 </p> 1561 <div id="rfc.figure.u.1 4"></div><pre class="text"> Cache-Control: private, community="UCI"1562 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.15.2.6.p.5">A cache seeing this header field will act correctly even if the cache does not understand the community cache-extension, since1151 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.3.p.3">For example, consider a hypothetical new response directive called "community" that acts as a modifier to the private directive. 1152 We define this new directive to mean that, in addition to any non-shared cache, any cache that is shared only by members of 1153 the community named within its value may cache the response. An origin server wishing to allow the UCI community to use an 1154 otherwise private response in their shared cache(s) could do so by including 1155 </p> 1156 <div id="rfc.figure.u.12"></div> <pre class="text"> Cache-Control: private, community="UCI" 1157 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.3.2.3.p.5">A cache seeing this header field will act correctly even if the cache does not understand the community cache-extension, since 1563 1158 it will also see and understand the private directive and thus default to the safe behavior. 1564 1159 </p> 1565 <p id="rfc.section. 15.2.6.p.6">Unrecognized cache-directives <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be ignored; it is assumed that any cache-directive likely to be unrecognized by an HTTP/1.1 cache will be combined with standard1160 <p id="rfc.section.3.2.3.p.6">Unrecognized cache directives <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be ignored; it is assumed that any cache directive likely to be unrecognized by an HTTP/1.1 cache will be combined with standard 1566 1161 directives (or the response's default cacheability) such that the cache behavior will remain minimally correct even if the 1567 1162 cache does not understand the extension(s). … … 1569 1164 <div id="rfc.iref.e.2"></div> 1570 1165 <div id="rfc.iref.h.4"></div> 1571 <h2 id="rfc.section.15.3"><a href="#rfc.section.15.3">15.3</a> <a id="header.expires" href="#header.expires">Expires</a></h2> 1572 <p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.1">The entity-header field "Expires" gives the date/time after which the response is considered stale. A stale cache entry may 1573 not normally be returned by a cache (either a proxy cache or a user agent cache) unless it is first validated with the origin 1574 server (or with an intermediate cache that has a fresh copy of the entity). See <a href="#expiration.model" title="Expiration Model">Section 3</a> for further discussion of the expiration model. 1575 </p> 1576 <p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.2">The presence of an Expires field does not imply that the original resource will change or cease to exist at, before, or after 1166 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.3"><a href="#rfc.section.3.3">3.3</a> <a id="header.expires" href="#header.expires">Expires</a></h2> 1167 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.1">The entity-header field "Expires" gives the date/time after which the response is considered stale. See <a href="#expiration.model" title="Freshness Model">Section 2.3</a> for further discussion of the freshness model. 1168 </p> 1169 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.2">The presence of an Expires field does not imply that the original resource will change or cease to exist at, before, or after 1577 1170 that time. 1578 1171 </p> 1579 <p id="rfc.section. 15.3.p.3">The format is an absolute date and time as defined by HTTP-date in <a href="p1-messaging.html#full.date" title="Full Date">Section 3.2.1</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.16"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>; it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be sent in rfc1123-date format.1580 </p> 1581 <div id="rfc.figure.u.1 5"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.10"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.11"></span> <a href="#header.expires" class="smpl">Expires</a> = "Expires" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.expires" class="smpl">Expires-v</a>1172 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.3">The field-value is an absolute date and time as defined by HTTP-date in <a href="p1-messaging.html#full.date" title="Full Date">Section 3.2.1</a> of <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.13"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>; it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be sent in rfc1123-date format. 1173 </p> 1174 <div id="rfc.figure.u.13"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.9"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.10"></span> <a href="#header.expires" class="smpl">Expires</a> = "Expires" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.expires" class="smpl">Expires-v</a> 1582 1175 <a href="#header.expires" class="smpl">Expires-v</a> = <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">HTTP-date</a> 1583 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.5">An example of its use is</p> 1584 <div id="rfc.figure.u.16"></div><pre class="text"> Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT 1585 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.7"> </p> 1586 <dl class="empty"> 1587 <dd> <b>Note:</b> if a response includes a Cache-Control field with the max-age directive (see <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>), that directive overrides the Expires field. 1588 </dd> 1589 </dl> 1590 <p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.8">HTTP/1.1 clients and caches <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> treat other invalid date formats, especially including the value "0", as in the past (i.e., "already expired"). 1591 </p> 1592 <p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.9">To mark a response as "already expired," an origin server sends an Expires date that is equal to the Date header value. (See 1593 the rules for expiration calculations in <a href="#expiration.calculations" title="Expiration Calculations">Section 3.4</a>.) 1594 </p> 1595 <p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.10">To mark a response as "never expires," an origin server sends an Expires date approximately one year from the time the response 1596 is sent. HTTP/1.1 servers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> send Expires dates more than one year in the future. 1597 </p> 1598 <p id="rfc.section.15.3.p.11">The presence of an Expires header field with a date value of some time in the future on a response that otherwise would by 1599 default be non-cacheable indicates that the response is cacheable, unless indicated otherwise by a Cache-Control header field 1600 (<a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.9" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>). 1176 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.5">For example</p> 1177 <div id="rfc.figure.u.14"></div> <pre class="text"> Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT 1178 </pre> <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.7"> </p> 1179 <dl class="empty"> 1180 <dd> <b>Note:</b> if a response includes a Cache-Control field with the max-age directive (see <a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>), that directive overrides the Expires field. Likewise, the s-maxage directive overrides Expires in shared caches. 1181 </dd> 1182 </dl> 1183 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.8">HTTP/1.1 servers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> send Expires dates more than one year in the future. 1184 </p> 1185 <p id="rfc.section.3.3.p.9">HTTP/1.1 clients and caches <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> treat other invalid date formats, especially including the value "0", as in the past (i.e., "already expired"). 1601 1186 </p> 1602 1187 <div id="rfc.iref.p.4"></div> 1603 1188 <div id="rfc.iref.h.5"></div> 1604 <h2 id="rfc.section. 15.4"><a href="#rfc.section.15.4">15.4</a> <a id="header.pragma" href="#header.pragma">Pragma</a></h2>1605 <p id="rfc.section. 15.4.p.1">The general-header field "Pragma" is used to include implementation-specific directives that might apply to any recipient1189 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.4"><a href="#rfc.section.3.4">3.4</a> <a id="header.pragma" href="#header.pragma">Pragma</a></h2> 1190 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.1">The general-header field "Pragma" is used to include implementation-specific directives that might apply to any recipient 1606 1191 along the request/response chain. All pragma directives specify optional behavior from the viewpoint of the protocol; however, 1607 1192 some systems <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> require that behavior be consistent with the directives. 1608 1193 </p> 1609 <div id="rfc.figure.u.1 7"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.12"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.13"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.14"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.15"></span> <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">Pragma</a> = "Pragma" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">Pragma-v</a>1194 <div id="rfc.figure.u.15"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.11"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.12"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.13"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.14"></span> <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">Pragma</a> = "Pragma" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">Pragma-v</a> 1610 1195 <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">Pragma-v</a> = 1#<a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">pragma-directive</a> 1611 1196 <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">pragma-directive</a> = "no-cache" / <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">extension-pragma</a> 1612 1197 <a href="#header.pragma" class="smpl">extension-pragma</a> = <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">token</a> [ "=" ( <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">token</a> / <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">quoted-string</a> ) ] 1613 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.4.p.3">When the no-cache directive is present in a request message, an application <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> forward the request toward the origin server even if it has a cached copy of what is being requested. This pragma directive 1614 has the same semantics as the no-cache cache-directive (see <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.10" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>) and is defined here for backward compatibility with HTTP/1.0. Clients <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> include both header fields when a no-cache request is sent to a server not known to be HTTP/1.1 compliant. 1615 </p> 1616 <p id="rfc.section.15.4.p.4">Pragma directives <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be passed through by a proxy or gateway application, regardless of their significance to that application, since the directives 1617 might be applicable to all recipients along the request/response chain. It is not possible to specify a pragma for a specific 1618 recipient; however, any pragma directive not relevant to a recipient <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be ignored by that recipient. 1619 </p> 1620 <p id="rfc.section.15.4.p.5">HTTP/1.1 caches <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> treat "Pragma: no-cache" as if the client had sent "Cache-Control: no-cache". No new Pragma directives will be defined in 1621 HTTP. 1622 </p> 1198 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.3">When the no-cache directive is present in a request message, an application <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> forward the request toward the origin server even if it has a cached copy of what is being requested. This pragma directive 1199 has the same semantics as the no-cache response directive (see <a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>) and is defined here for backward compatibility with HTTP/1.0. Clients <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> include both header fields when a no-cache request is sent to a server not known to be HTTP/1.1 compliant. HTTP/1.1 caches <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> treat "Pragma: no-cache" as if the client had sent "Cache-Control: no-cache". 1200 </p> 1201 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.4"> </p> 1623 1202 <dl class="empty"> 1624 1203 <dd> <b>Note:</b> because the meaning of "Pragma: no-cache" as a response-header field is not actually specified, it does not provide a reliable … … 1626 1205 </dd> 1627 1206 </dl> 1628 <div id="rfc.iref.v.2"></div> 1207 <p id="rfc.section.3.4.p.5">This mechanism is deprecated; no new Pragma directives will be defined in HTTP.</p> 1208 <div id="rfc.iref.v.3"></div> 1629 1209 <div id="rfc.iref.h.6"></div> 1630 <h2 id="rfc.section. 15.5"><a href="#rfc.section.15.5">15.5</a> <a id="header.vary" href="#header.vary">Vary</a></h2>1631 <p id="rfc.section. 15.5.p.1">The "Vary" response-header field's value indicates the set of request-header fields that fully determines, while the response1632 is fresh, whether a cache is permitted to use the response to reply to a subsequent request without revalidation. For uncacheable1633 or stale responses, the Vary field value advises the user agent about the criteria that were used to select the representation.1634 A Vary field value of "*" implies that a cache cannot determine from the request headers of a subsequent request whether this1635 response is the appropriate representation. See <a href="#caching.negotiated.responses" title="Caching Negotiated Responses">Section 7</a> for use of the Vary header field by caches.1636 </p> 1637 <div id="rfc.figure.u.1 8"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.16"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.17"></span> <a href="#header.vary" class="smpl">Vary</a> = "Vary" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.vary" class="smpl">Vary-v</a>1210 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.5"><a href="#rfc.section.3.5">3.5</a> <a id="header.vary" href="#header.vary">Vary</a></h2> 1211 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.1">The "Vary" response-header field's value indicates the set of request-header fields that determines, while the response is 1212 fresh, whether a cache is permitted to use the response to reply to a subsequent request without validation; see <a href="#caching.negotiated.responses" title="Caching Negotiated Responses">Section 2.6</a>. 1213 </p> 1214 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.2">In uncacheable or stale responses, the Vary field value advises the user agent about the criteria that were used to select 1215 the representation. 1216 </p> 1217 <div id="rfc.figure.u.16"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.15"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.16"></span> <a href="#header.vary" class="smpl">Vary</a> = "Vary" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.vary" class="smpl">Vary-v</a> 1638 1218 <a href="#header.vary" class="smpl">Vary-v</a> = "*" / 1#<a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">field-name</a> 1639 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.5.p.3">An HTTP/1.1 server <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> include a Vary header field with any cacheable response that is subject to server-driven negotiation. Doing so allows a cache 1219 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.4">The set of header fields named by the Vary field value is known as the selecting request-headers.</p> 1220 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.5">Servers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> include a Vary header field with any cacheable response that is subject to server-driven negotiation. Doing so allows a cache 1640 1221 to properly interpret future requests on that resource and informs the user agent about the presence of negotiation on that 1641 1222 resource. A server <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> include a Vary header field with a non-cacheable response that is subject to server-driven negotiation, since this might provide 1642 1223 the user agent with useful information about the dimensions over which the response varies at the time of the response. 1643 1224 </p> 1644 <p id="rfc.section.15.5.p.4">A Vary field value consisting of a list of field-names signals that the representation selected for the response is based 1645 on a selection algorithm which considers ONLY the listed request-header field values in selecting the most appropriate representation. 1646 A cache <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> assume that the same selection will be made for future requests with the same values for the listed field names, for the duration 1647 of time for which the response is fresh. 1648 </p> 1649 <p id="rfc.section.15.5.p.5">The field-names given are not limited to the set of standard request-header fields defined by this specification. Field names 1225 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.6">A Vary field value of "*" signals that unspecified parameters not limited to the request-headers (e.g., the network address 1226 of the client), play a role in the selection of the response representation; therefore, a cache cannot determine whether this 1227 response is appropriate. The "*" value <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be generated by a proxy server; it may only be generated by an origin server. 1228 </p> 1229 <p id="rfc.section.3.5.p.7">The field-names given are not limited to the set of standard request-header fields defined by this specification. Field names 1650 1230 are case-insensitive. 1651 </p>1652 <p id="rfc.section.15.5.p.6">A Vary field value of "*" signals that unspecified parameters not limited to the request-headers (e.g., the network address1653 of the client), play a role in the selection of the response representation. The "*" value <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be generated by a proxy server; it may only be generated by an origin server.1654 1231 </p> 1655 1232 <div id="rfc.iref.w.1"></div> 1656 1233 <div id="rfc.iref.h.7"></div> 1657 <h2 id="rfc.section.15.6"><a href="#rfc.section.15.6">15.6</a> <a id="header.warning" href="#header.warning">Warning</a></h2> 1658 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.1">The general-header field "Warning" is used to carry additional information about the status or transformation of a message 1659 which might not be reflected in the message. This information is typically used to warn about a possible lack of semantic 1660 transparency from caching operations or transformations applied to the entity body of the message. 1661 </p> 1662 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.2">Warning headers are sent with responses using:</p> 1663 <div id="rfc.figure.u.19"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.18"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.19"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.20"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.21"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.22"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.23"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.24"></span> <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">Warning</a> = "Warning" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">Warning-v</a> 1234 <h2 id="rfc.section.3.6"><a href="#rfc.section.3.6">3.6</a> <a id="header.warning" href="#header.warning">Warning</a></h2> 1235 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.1">The general-header field "Warning" is used to carry additional information about the status or transformation of a message 1236 that might not be reflected in the message. This information is typically used to warn about possible incorrectness introduced 1237 by caching operations or transformations applied to the entity body of the message. 1238 </p> 1239 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.2">Warnings can be used for other purposes, both cache-related and otherwise. The use of a warning, rather than an error status 1240 code, distinguish these responses from true failures. 1241 </p> 1242 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.3">Warning headers can in general be applied to any message, however some warn-codes are specific to caches and can only be applied 1243 to response messages. 1244 </p> 1245 <div id="rfc.figure.u.17"></div><pre class="inline"><span id="rfc.iref.g.17"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.18"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.19"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.20"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.21"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.22"></span><span id="rfc.iref.g.23"></span> <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">Warning</a> = "Warning" ":" <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">OWS</a> <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">Warning-v</a> 1664 1246 <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">Warning-v</a> = 1#<a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">warning-value</a> 1665 1247 … … 1673 1255 <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">warn-text</a> = <a href="#core.rules" class="smpl">quoted-string</a> 1674 1256 <a href="#header.warning" class="smpl">warn-date</a> = <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> <a href="#abnf.dependencies" class="smpl">HTTP-date</a> <a href="#notation" class="smpl">DQUOTE</a> 1675 </pre><p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.4">A response <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> carry more than one Warning header. 1676 </p> 1677 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.5">The warn-text <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be in a natural language and character set that is most likely to be intelligible to the human user receiving the response. 1678 This decision <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> be based on any available knowledge, such as the location of the cache or user, the Accept-Language field in a request, the 1679 Content-Language field in a response, etc. The default language is English and the default character set is ISO-8859-1 (<a href="#ISO-8859-1" id="rfc.xref.ISO-8859-1.1"><cite title="Information technology -- 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets -- Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1">[ISO-8859-1]</cite></a>). 1680 </p> 1681 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.6">If a character set other than ISO-8859-1 is used, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be encoded in the warn-text using the method described in <a href="#RFC2047" id="rfc.xref.RFC2047.1"><cite title="MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text">[RFC2047]</cite></a>. 1682 </p> 1683 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.7">Warning headers can in general be applied to any message, however some specific warn-codes are specific to caches and can 1684 only be applied to response messages. New Warning headers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be added after any existing Warning headers. A cache <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> delete any Warning header that it received with a message. However, if a cache successfully validates a cache entry, it <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> remove any Warning headers previously attached to that entry except as specified for specific Warning codes. It <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> then add any Warning headers received in the validating response. In other words, Warning headers are those that would be 1685 attached to the most recent relevant response. 1686 </p> 1687 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.8">When multiple Warning headers are attached to a response, the user agent ought to inform the user of as many of them as possible, 1688 in the order that they appear in the response. If it is not possible to inform the user of all of the warnings, the user agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> follow these heuristics: 1257 </pre><p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.5">Multiple warnings can be attached to a response (either by the origin server or by a cache), including multiple warnings with 1258 the same code number. For example, a server might provide the same warning with texts in both English and Basque. 1259 </p> 1260 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.6">When this occurs, the user agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> inform the user of as many of them as possible, in the order that they appear in the response. If it is not possible to inform 1261 the user of all of the warnings, the user agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> follow these heuristics: 1689 1262 </p> 1690 1263 <ul> … … 1694 1267 </li> 1695 1268 </ul> 1696 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.9">Systems that generate multiple Warning headers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> order them with this user agent behavior in mind. 1697 </p> 1698 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.10">Requirements for the behavior of caches with respect to Warnings are stated in <a href="#warnings" title="Warnings">Section 2.2</a>. 1699 </p> 1700 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.11">This is a list of the currently-defined warn-codes, each with a recommended warn-text in English, and a description of its 1701 meaning. 1702 </p> 1703 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.12">110 Response is stale </p> 1704 <dl class="empty"> 1705 <dd> <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be included whenever the returned response is stale. 1706 </dd> 1707 </dl> 1708 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.13">111 Revalidation failed </p> 1709 <dl class="empty"> 1710 <dd> <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be included if a cache returns a stale response because an attempt to revalidate the response failed, due to an inability 1711 to reach the server. 1712 </dd> 1713 </dl> 1714 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.14">112 Disconnected operation </p> 1715 <dl class="empty"> 1716 <dd> <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be included if the cache is intentionally disconnected from the rest of the network for a period of time. 1717 </dd> 1718 </dl> 1719 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.15">113 Heuristic expiration </p> 1720 <dl class="empty"> 1721 <dd> <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be included if the cache heuristically chose a freshness lifetime greater than 24 hours and the response's age is greater 1269 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.7">Systems that generate multiple Warning headers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> order them with this user agent behavior in mind. New Warning headers <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be added after any existing Warning headers. 1270 </p> 1271 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.8">Warnings are assigned three digit warn-codes. The first digit indicates whether the Warning is required to be deleted from 1272 a stored response after validation: 1273 </p> 1274 <ul> 1275 <li>1xx Warnings that describe the freshness or validation status of the response, and so <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted by caches after validation. They <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be generated by a cache except when validating a cached entry, and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be generated by clients. 1276 </li> 1277 <li>2xx Warnings that describe some aspect of the entity body or entity headers that is not rectified by a validation (for example, 1278 a lossy compression of the entity bodies) and <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> be deleted by caches after validation, unless a full response is returned, in which case they <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be. 1279 </li> 1280 </ul> 1281 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.9">The warn-text <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be in a natural language and character set that is most likely to be intelligible to the human user receiving the response. 1282 This decision can be based on any available knowledge, such as the location of the cache or user, the Accept-Language field 1283 in a request, the Content-Language field in a response, etc. The default language is English and the default character set 1284 is ISO-8859-1 (<a href="#ISO-8859-1" id="rfc.xref.ISO-8859-1.1"><cite title="Information technology -- 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets -- Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1">[ISO-8859-1]</cite></a>). 1285 </p> 1286 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.10">If a character set other than ISO-8859-1 is used, it <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be encoded in the warn-text using the method described in <a href="#RFC2047" id="rfc.xref.RFC2047.1"><cite title="MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text">[RFC2047]</cite></a>. 1287 </p> 1288 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.11">If an implementation sends a message with one or more Warning headers to a receiver whose version is HTTP/1.0 or lower, then 1289 the sender <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> include in each warning-value a warn-date that matches the Date header in the message. 1290 </p> 1291 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.12">If an implementation receives a message with a warning-value that includes a warn-date, and that warn-date is different from 1292 the Date value in the response, then that warning-value <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted from the message before storing, forwarding, or using it. (preventing the consequences of naive caching of Warning 1293 header fields.) If all of the warning-values are deleted for this reason, the Warning header <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted as well. 1294 </p> 1295 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.13">The following warn-codes are defined by this specification, each with a recommended warn-text in English, and a description 1296 of its meaning. 1297 </p> 1298 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.14">110 Response is stale </p> 1299 <dl class="empty"> 1300 <dd><em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be included whenever the returned response is stale. 1301 </dd> 1302 </dl> 1303 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.15">111 Revalidation failed </p> 1304 <dl class="empty"> 1305 <dd><em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be included if a cache returns a stale response because an attempt to validate the response failed, due to an inability to 1306 reach the server. 1307 </dd> 1308 </dl> 1309 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.16">112 Disconnected operation </p> 1310 <dl class="empty"> 1311 <dd><em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be included if the cache is intentionally disconnected from the rest of the network for a period of time. 1312 </dd> 1313 </dl> 1314 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.17">113 Heuristic expiration </p> 1315 <dl class="empty"> 1316 <dd><em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be included if the cache heuristically chose a freshness lifetime greater than 24 hours and the response's age is greater 1722 1317 than 24 hours. 1723 1318 </dd> 1724 1319 </dl> 1725 <p id="rfc.section. 15.6.p.16">199 Miscellaneous warning </p>1726 <dl class="empty"> 1727 <dd>The warning text <em class="bcp14">MAY</em>include arbitrary information to be presented to a human user, or logged. A system receiving this warning <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> take any automated action, besides presenting the warning to the user.1728 </dd> 1729 </dl> 1730 <p id="rfc.section. 15.6.p.17">214 Transformation applied </p>1731 <dl class="empty"> 1732 <dd> 1320 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.18">199 Miscellaneous warning </p> 1321 <dl class="empty"> 1322 <dd>The warning text can include arbitrary information to be presented to a human user, or logged. A system receiving this warning <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> take any automated action, besides presenting the warning to the user. 1323 </dd> 1324 </dl> 1325 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.19">214 Transformation applied </p> 1326 <dl class="empty"> 1327 <dd><em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be added by an intermediate cache or proxy if it applies any transformation changing the content-coding (as specified in the 1733 1328 Content-Encoding header) or media-type (as specified in the Content-Type header) of the response, or the entity-body of the 1734 1329 response, unless this Warning code already appears in the response. 1735 1330 </dd> 1736 1331 </dl> 1737 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.18">299 Miscellaneous persistent warning </p> 1738 <dl class="empty"> 1739 <dd>The warning text <em class="bcp14">MAY</em> include arbitrary information to be presented to a human user, or logged. A system receiving this warning <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> take any automated action. 1740 </dd> 1741 </dl> 1742 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.19">If an implementation sends a message with one or more Warning headers whose version is HTTP/1.0 or lower, then the sender <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> include in each warning-value a warn-date that matches the date in the response. 1743 </p> 1744 <p id="rfc.section.15.6.p.20">If an implementation receives a message with a warning-value that includes a warn-date, and that warn-date is different from 1745 the Date value in the response, then that warning-value <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted from the message before storing, forwarding, or using it. (This prevents bad consequences of naive caching of Warning 1746 header fields.) If all of the warning-values are deleted for this reason, the Warning header <em class="bcp14">MUST</em> be deleted as well. 1747 </p> 1748 <h1 id="rfc.section.16"><a href="#rfc.section.16">16.</a> <a id="IANA.considerations" href="#IANA.considerations">IANA Considerations</a></h1> 1749 <h2 id="rfc.section.16.1"><a href="#rfc.section.16.1">16.1</a> <a id="message.header.registration" href="#message.header.registration">Message Header Registration</a></h2> 1750 <p id="rfc.section.16.1.p.1">The Message Header Registry located at <<a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/message-header-index.html">http://www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/message-header-index.html</a>> should be updated with the permanent registrations below (see <a href="#RFC3864" id="rfc.xref.RFC3864.1"><cite title="Registration Procedures for Message Header Fields">[RFC3864]</cite></a>): 1332 <p id="rfc.section.3.6.p.20">299 Miscellaneous persistent warning </p> 1333 <dl class="empty"> 1334 <dd>The warning text can include arbitrary information to be presented to a human user, or logged. A system receiving this warning <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> take any automated action. 1335 </dd> 1336 </dl> 1337 <h1 id="rfc.section.4"><a href="#rfc.section.4">4.</a> <a id="history.lists" href="#history.lists">History Lists</a></h1> 1338 <p id="rfc.section.4.p.1">User agents often have history mechanisms, such as "Back" buttons and history lists, that can be used to redisplay an entity 1339 retrieved earlier in a session. 1340 </p> 1341 <p id="rfc.section.4.p.2">History mechanisms and caches are different. In particular history mechanisms <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> try to show a correct view of the current state of a resource. Rather, a history mechanism is meant to show exactly what the 1342 user saw at the time when the resource was retrieved. 1343 </p> 1344 <p id="rfc.section.4.p.3">By default, an expiration time does not apply to history mechanisms. If the entity is still in storage, a history mechanism <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> display it even if the entity has expired, unless the user has specifically configured the agent to refresh expired history 1345 documents. 1346 </p> 1347 <p id="rfc.section.4.p.4">This is not to be construed to prohibit the history mechanism from telling the user that a view might be stale. </p> 1348 <dl class="empty"> 1349 <dd> <b>Note:</b> if history list mechanisms unnecessarily prevent users from viewing stale resources, this will tend to force service authors 1350 to avoid using HTTP expiration controls and cache controls when they would otherwise like to. Service authors may consider 1351 it important that users not be presented with error messages or warning messages when they use navigation controls (such as 1352 BACK) to view previously fetched resources. Even though sometimes such resources ought not be cached, or ought to expire quickly, 1353 user interface considerations may force service authors to resort to other means of preventing caching (e.g. "once-only" URLs) 1354 in order not to suffer the effects of improperly functioning history mechanisms. 1355 </dd> 1356 </dl> 1357 <h1 id="rfc.section.5"><a href="#rfc.section.5">5.</a> <a id="IANA.considerations" href="#IANA.considerations">IANA Considerations</a></h1> 1358 <h2 id="rfc.section.5.1"><a href="#rfc.section.5.1">5.1</a> <a id="message.header.registration" href="#message.header.registration">Message Header Registration</a></h2> 1359 <p id="rfc.section.5.1.p.1">The Message Header Registry located at <<a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/message-header-index.html">http://www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/message-header-index.html</a>> should be updated with the permanent registrations below (see <a href="#RFC3864" id="rfc.xref.RFC3864.1"><cite title="Registration Procedures for Message Header Fields">[RFC3864]</cite></a>): 1751 1360 </p> 1752 1361 <div id="rfc.table.1"> … … 1766 1375 <td>http</td> 1767 1376 <td>standard</td> 1768 <td> <a href="#header.age" id="rfc.xref.header.age. 1" title="Age">Section 15.1</a>1377 <td> <a href="#header.age" id="rfc.xref.header.age.2" title="Age">Section 3.1</a> 1769 1378 </td> 1770 1379 </tr> … … 1773 1382 <td>http</td> 1774 1383 <td>standard</td> 1775 <td> <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control. 11" title="Cache-Control">Section 15.2</a>1384 <td> <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.5" title="Cache-Control">Section 3.2</a> 1776 1385 </td> 1777 1386 </tr> … … 1780 1389 <td>http</td> 1781 1390 <td>standard</td> 1782 <td> <a href="#header.expires" id="rfc.xref.header.expires.3" title="Expires">Section 15.3</a>1391 <td> <a href="#header.expires" id="rfc.xref.header.expires.3" title="Expires">Section 3.3</a> 1783 1392 </td> 1784 1393 </tr> … … 1787 1396 <td>http</td> 1788 1397 <td>standard</td> 1789 <td> <a href="#header.pragma" id="rfc.xref.header.pragma. 2" title="Pragma">Section 15.4</a>1398 <td> <a href="#header.pragma" id="rfc.xref.header.pragma.3" title="Pragma">Section 3.4</a> 1790 1399 </td> 1791 1400 </tr> … … 1794 1403 <td>http</td> 1795 1404 <td>standard</td> 1796 <td> <a href="#header.vary" id="rfc.xref.header.vary.2" title="Vary">Section 15.5</a>1405 <td> <a href="#header.vary" id="rfc.xref.header.vary.2" title="Vary">Section 3.5</a> 1797 1406 </td> 1798 1407 </tr> … … 1801 1410 <td>http</td> 1802 1411 <td>standard</td> 1803 <td> <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning. 6" title="Warning">Section 15.6</a>1412 <td> <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.4" title="Warning">Section 3.6</a> 1804 1413 </td> 1805 1414 </tr> … … 1807 1416 </table> 1808 1417 </div> 1809 <p id="rfc.section. 16.1.p.2">The change controller is: "IETF (iesg@ietf.org) - Internet Engineering Task Force".</p>1810 <h1 id="rfc.section. 17"><a href="#rfc.section.17">17.</a> <a id="security.considerations" href="#security.considerations">Security Considerations</a></h1>1811 <p id="rfc.section. 17.p.1">Caching proxies provide additional potential vulnerabilities, since the contents of the cache represent an attractive target1812 for malicious exploitation. Because cache contents persist after an HTTP request is complete, an attack on the cache can reveal1813 information long after a user believes that the information has been removed from the network. Therefore, cache contents should1814 be protectedas sensitive information.1815 </p> 1816 <h1 id="rfc.section. 18"><a href="#rfc.section.18">18.</a> <a id="ack" href="#ack">Acknowledgments</a></h1>1817 <p id="rfc.section. 18.p.1">Much of the content and presentation of the caching design is due to suggestions and comments from individuals including:1418 <p id="rfc.section.5.1.p.2">The change controller is: "IETF (iesg@ietf.org) - Internet Engineering Task Force".</p> 1419 <h1 id="rfc.section.6"><a href="#rfc.section.6">6.</a> <a id="security.considerations" href="#security.considerations">Security Considerations</a></h1> 1420 <p id="rfc.section.6.p.1">Caches expose additional potential vulnerabilities, since the contents of the cache represent an attractive target for malicious 1421 exploitation. Because cache contents persist after an HTTP request is complete, an attack on the cache can reveal information 1422 long after a user believes that the information has been removed from the network. Therefore, cache contents should be protected 1423 as sensitive information. 1424 </p> 1425 <h1 id="rfc.section.7"><a href="#rfc.section.7">7.</a> <a id="ack" href="#ack">Acknowledgments</a></h1> 1426 <p id="rfc.section.7.p.1">Much of the content and presentation of the caching design is due to suggestions and comments from individuals including: 1818 1427 Shel Kaphan, Paul Leach, Koen Holtman, David Morris, and Larry Masinter. 1819 1428 </p> 1820 <h1 id="rfc.references"><a id="rfc.section. 19" href="#rfc.section.19">19.</a> References1429 <h1 id="rfc.references"><a id="rfc.section.8" href="#rfc.section.8">8.</a> References 1821 1430 </h1> 1822 <h2 id="rfc.references.1"><a href="#rfc.section. 19.1" id="rfc.section.19.1">19.1</a> Normative References1431 <h2 id="rfc.references.1"><a href="#rfc.section.8.1" id="rfc.section.8.1">8.1</a> Normative References 1823 1432 </h2> 1824 1433 <table summary="Normative References"> … … 1873 1482 </tr> 1874 1483 </table> 1875 <h2 id="rfc.references.2"><a href="#rfc.section. 19.2" id="rfc.section.19.2">19.2</a> Informative References1484 <h2 id="rfc.references.2"><a href="#rfc.section.8.2" id="rfc.section.8.2">8.2</a> Informative References 1876 1485 </h2> 1877 1486 <table summary="Informative References"> … … 1910 1519 <h1 id="rfc.section.A"><a href="#rfc.section.A">A.</a> <a id="compatibility" href="#compatibility">Compatibility with Previous Versions</a></h1> 1911 1520 <h2 id="rfc.section.A.1"><a href="#rfc.section.A.1">A.1</a> <a id="changes.from.rfc.2068" href="#changes.from.rfc.2068">Changes from RFC 2068</a></h2> 1912 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.1">A case was missed in the Cache-Control model of HTTP/1.1; s-maxage was introduced to add this missing case. (Sections <a href="#response.cacheability" title="Response Cacheability"> 5</a>, <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.12" title="Cache-Control">15.2</a>, <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">15.2.3</a>)1521 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.1">A case was missed in the Cache-Control model of HTTP/1.1; s-maxage was introduced to add this missing case. (Sections <a href="#response.cacheability" title="Response Cacheability">2.1</a>, <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.6" title="Cache-Control">3.2</a>). 1913 1522 </p> 1914 1523 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.2">Transfer-coding and message lengths all interact in ways that required fixing exactly when chunked encoding is used (to allow 1915 1524 for transfer encoding that may not be self delimiting); it was important to straighten out exactly how message lengths are 1916 computed. ( <a href="#non-modifiable.headers" title="Non-modifiable Headers">Section 6.2</a>, see also <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.17"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>, <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a> and <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.3"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>)1917 </p> 1918 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.3">Proxies should be able to add Content-Length when appropriate. (<a href="#non-modifiable.headers" title="Non-modifiable Headers">Section 6.2</a>)1525 computed. (see also <a href="#Part1" id="rfc.xref.Part1.14"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing">[Part1]</cite></a>, <a href="#Part3" id="rfc.xref.Part3.2"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation">[Part3]</cite></a> and <a href="#Part5" id="rfc.xref.Part5.4"><cite title="HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses">[Part5]</cite></a>) <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.16: This used to refer to the text about non-modifiable headers, and will have to be updated later on. --jre]</span> 1526 </p> 1527 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.3">Proxies should be able to add Content-Length when appropriate. <span class="comment">[rfc.comment.17: This used to refer to the text about non-modifiable headers, and will have to be updated later on. --jre]</span> 1919 1528 </p> 1920 1529 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.4">Range request responses would become very verbose if all meta-data were always returned; by allowing the server to only send 1921 needed headers in a 206 response, this problem can be avoided. (<a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Headers">Section 6.3</a>)1922 </p> 1923 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.5">The Cache-Control: max-age directive was not properly defined for responses. (<a href="# modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">Section 15.2.3</a>)1924 </p> 1925 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.6">Warnings could be cached incorrectly, or not updated appropriately. (Section <a href="# warnings" title="Warnings">2.2</a>, <a href="#expiration.calculations" title="Expiration Calculations">3.4</a>, <a href="#non-modifiable.headers" title="Non-modifiable Headers">6.2</a>, <a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Headers">6.3</a>, <a href="#modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism" title="Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism">15.2.3</a>, and <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.7" title="Warning">15.6</a>) Warning also needed to be a general header, as PUT or other methods may have need for it in requests.1530 needed headers in a 206 response, this problem can be avoided. (<a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Responses">Section 2.7</a>) 1531 </p> 1532 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.5">The Cache-Control: max-age directive was not properly defined for responses. (<a href="#cache-response-directive" title="Response Cache-Control Directives">Section 3.2.2</a>) 1533 </p> 1534 <p id="rfc.section.A.1.p.6">Warnings could be cached incorrectly, or not updated appropriately. (Section <a href="#expiration.model" title="Freshness Model">2.3</a>, <a href="#combining.headers" title="Combining Responses">2.7</a>, <a href="#header.cache-control" id="rfc.xref.header.cache-control.7" title="Cache-Control">3.2</a>, and <a href="#header.warning" id="rfc.xref.header.warning.5" title="Warning">3.6</a>) Warning also needed to be a general header, as PUT or other methods may have need for it in requests. 1926 1535 </p> 1927 1536 <h2 id="rfc.section.A.2"><a href="#rfc.section.A.2">A.2</a> <a id="changes.from.rfc.2616" href="#changes.from.rfc.2616">Changes from RFC 2616</a></h2> 1928 <p id="rfc.section.A.2.p.1">Clarify denial of service attack avoidance requirement. (<a href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions" title=" Invalidation After Updates or Deletions">Section 11</a>)1537 <p id="rfc.section.A.2.p.1">Clarify denial of service attack avoidance requirement. (<a href="#invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions" title="Request Methods that Invalidate">Section 2.5</a>) 1929 1538 </p> 1930 1539 <h1 id="rfc.section.B"><a href="#rfc.section.B">B.</a> <a id="collected.abnf" href="#collected.abnf">Collected ABNF</a></h1> 1931 <div id="rfc.figure.u. 20"></div> <pre class="inline"><a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age</a> = "Age:" OWS Age-v1540 <div id="rfc.figure.u.18"></div> <pre class="inline"><a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age</a> = "Age:" OWS Age-v 1932 1541 <a href="#header.age" class="smpl">Age-v</a> = delta-seconds 1933 1542 … … 1992 1601 1993 1602 1994 </pre> <div id="rfc.figure.u. 21"></div>1603 </pre> <div id="rfc.figure.u.19"></div> 1995 1604 <p>ABNF diagnostics:</p><pre class="inline">; Age defined but not used 1996 1605 ; Cache-Control defined but not used … … 2066 1675 </ul> 2067 1676 <h2 id="rfc.section.C.7"><a href="#rfc.section.C.7">C.7</a> <a id="changes.since.05" href="#changes.since.05">Since draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache-05</a></h2> 2068 <p id="rfc.section.C.7.p.1">Ongoing work on ABNF conversion (<<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/36">http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/36</a>>): 1677 <p id="rfc.section.C.7.p.1">This is a total rewrite of this part of the specification.</p> 1678 <p id="rfc.section.C.7.p.2">In addition: Ongoing work on ABNF conversion (<<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/36">http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/36</a>>): 2069 1679 </p> 2070 1680 <ul> … … 2078 1688 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.A" href="#rfc.index.A"><b>A</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2079 1689 <li class="indline1">age <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.a.1">1.2</a></li> 2080 <li class="indline1">Age header <a class="iref" href="#rfc. iref.a.2"><b>15.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.age.1">16.1</a></li>1690 <li class="indline1">Age header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.age.1">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.a.2"><b>3.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.age.2">5.1</a></li> 2081 1691 </ul> 2082 1692 </li> … … 2085 1695 <li class="indline1">Cache Directives 2086 1696 <ul class="ind"> 2087 <li class="indline1">max-age <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 9"><b>15.2.3</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.12"><b>15.2.4</b></a></li>2088 <li class="indline1">max-stale <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 11"><b>15.2.3</b></a></li>2089 <li class="indline1">min-fresh <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 10"><b>15.2.3</b></a></li>2090 <li class="indline1">must-revalidate <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.1 4"><b>15.2.4</b></a></li>2091 <li class="indline1">no-cache <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 6"><b>15.2.1</b></a></li>2092 <li class="indline1">no-store <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 7"><b>15.2.2</b></a></li>2093 <li class="indline1">no-transform <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 16"><b>15.2.5</b></a></li>2094 <li class="indline1">only-if-cached <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.1 3"><b>15.2.4</b></a></li>2095 <li class="indline1">private <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 5"><b>15.2.1</b></a></li>2096 <li class="indline1">proxy-revalidate <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.1 5"><b>15.2.4</b></a></li>2097 <li class="indline1">public <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 4"><b>15.2.1</b></a></li>2098 <li class="indline1">s-maxage <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c. 8"><b>15.2.3</b></a></li>2099 </ul> 2100 </li> 2101 <li class="indline1">Cache-Control header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.1">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.2">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.3">2. 3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.4">3.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.5">3.5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.6">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.7">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.8">9</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.3"><b>15.2</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.9">15.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.10">15.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.11">16.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.12">A.1</a></li>1697 <li class="indline1">max-age <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.6"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.17"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1698 <li class="indline1">max-stale <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.7"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 1699 <li class="indline1">min-fresh <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.8"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 1700 <li class="indline1">must-revalidate <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.15"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1701 <li class="indline1">no-cache <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.4"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.13"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1702 <li class="indline1">no-store <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.5"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.14"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1703 <li class="indline1">no-transform <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.9"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.19"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1704 <li class="indline1">only-if-cached <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.10"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 1705 <li class="indline1">private <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.12"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1706 <li class="indline1">proxy-revalidate <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.16"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1707 <li class="indline1">public <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.11"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1708 <li class="indline1">s-maxage <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.18"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1709 </ul> 1710 </li> 1711 <li class="indline1">Cache-Control header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.1">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.2">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.3">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.4">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.3"><b>3.2</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.5">5.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.6">A.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.7">A.1</a></li> 2102 1712 <li class="indline1">cacheable <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.c.2">1.2</a></li> 2103 1713 </ul> 2104 1714 </li> 2105 1715 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.E" href="#rfc.index.E"><b>E</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2106 <li class="indline1">Expires header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.1"> 5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.2">15.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.e.2"><b>15.3</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.3">16.1</a></li>1716 <li class="indline1">Expires header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.1">2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.2">2.3.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.e.2"><b>3.3</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.3">5.1</a></li> 2107 1717 <li class="indline1">explicit expiration time <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.e.1">1.2</a></li> 2108 1718 </ul> … … 2117 1727 <li class="indline1"><tt>Grammar</tt> 2118 1728 <ul class="ind"> 2119 <li class="indline1"><tt>Age</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.1"><b>15.1</b></a></li> 2120 <li class="indline1"><tt>Age-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.2"><b>15.1</b></a></li> 2121 <li class="indline1"><tt>Cache-Control</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.4"><b>15.2</b></a></li> 2122 <li class="indline1"><tt>Cache-Control-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.5"><b>15.2</b></a></li> 2123 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.6"><b>15.2</b></a></li> 2124 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-extension</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.9"><b>15.2</b></a></li> 2125 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-request-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.7"><b>15.2</b></a></li> 2126 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-response-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.8"><b>15.2</b></a></li> 2127 <li class="indline1"><tt>delta-seconds</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.3"><b>15.1</b></a></li> 2128 <li class="indline1"><tt>Expires</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.10"><b>15.3</b></a></li> 2129 <li class="indline1"><tt>Expires-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.11"><b>15.3</b></a></li> 2130 <li class="indline1"><tt>extension-pragma</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.15"><b>15.4</b></a></li> 2131 <li class="indline1"><tt>Pragma</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.12"><b>15.4</b></a></li> 2132 <li class="indline1"><tt>pragma-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.14"><b>15.4</b></a></li> 2133 <li class="indline1"><tt>Pragma-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.13"><b>15.4</b></a></li> 2134 <li class="indline1"><tt>Vary</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.16"><b>15.5</b></a></li> 2135 <li class="indline1"><tt>Vary-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.17"><b>15.5</b></a></li> 2136 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-agent</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.22"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 2137 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-code</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.21"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 2138 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-date</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.24"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 2139 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-text</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.23"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 2140 <li class="indline1"><tt>Warning</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.18"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 2141 <li class="indline1"><tt>Warning-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.19"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 2142 <li class="indline1"><tt>warning-value</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.20"><b>15.6</b></a></li> 1729 <li class="indline1"><tt>Age</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.1"><b>3.1</b></a></li> 1730 <li class="indline1"><tt>Age-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.2"><b>3.1</b></a></li> 1731 <li class="indline1"><tt>Cache-Control</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.4"><b>3.2</b></a></li> 1732 <li class="indline1"><tt>Cache-Control-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.5"><b>3.2</b></a></li> 1733 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-extension</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.6"><b>3.2</b></a></li> 1734 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-request-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.7"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 1735 <li class="indline1"><tt>cache-response-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.8"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1736 <li class="indline1"><tt>delta-seconds</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.3"><b>3.1</b></a></li> 1737 <li class="indline1"><tt>Expires</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.9"><b>3.3</b></a></li> 1738 <li class="indline1"><tt>Expires-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.10"><b>3.3</b></a></li> 1739 <li class="indline1"><tt>extension-pragma</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.14"><b>3.4</b></a></li> 1740 <li class="indline1"><tt>Pragma</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.11"><b>3.4</b></a></li> 1741 <li class="indline1"><tt>pragma-directive</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.13"><b>3.4</b></a></li> 1742 <li class="indline1"><tt>Pragma-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.12"><b>3.4</b></a></li> 1743 <li class="indline1"><tt>Vary</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.15"><b>3.5</b></a></li> 1744 <li class="indline1"><tt>Vary-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.16"><b>3.5</b></a></li> 1745 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-agent</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.21"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 1746 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-code</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.20"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 1747 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-date</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.23"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 1748 <li class="indline1"><tt>warn-text</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.22"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 1749 <li class="indline1"><tt>Warning</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.17"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 1750 <li class="indline1"><tt>Warning-v</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.18"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 1751 <li class="indline1"><tt>warning-value</tt> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.g.19"><b>3.6</b></a></li> 2143 1752 </ul> 2144 1753 </li> … … 2148 1757 <li class="indline1">Headers 2149 1758 <ul class="ind"> 2150 <li class="indline1">Age <a class="iref" href="#rfc. iref.h.2"><b>15.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.age.1">16.1</a></li>2151 <li class="indline1">Cache-Control <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.1">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.2">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.3">2. 3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.4">3.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.5">3.5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.6">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.7">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.8">9</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.3"><b>15.2</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.9">15.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.10">15.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.11">16.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.12">A.1</a></li>2152 <li class="indline1">Expires <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.1"> 5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.2">15.2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.4"><b>15.3</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.3">16.1</a></li>2153 <li class="indline1">Pragma <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.1"> 15.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.5"><b>15.4</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.2">16.1</a></li>2154 <li class="indline1">Vary <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.1"> 7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.6"><b>15.5</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.2">16.1</a></li>2155 <li class="indline1">Warning <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.1">2. 1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.2">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.3">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.4">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.5">6.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.7"><b>15.6</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.6">16.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.7">A.1</a></li>1759 <li class="indline1">Age <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.age.1">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.2"><b>3.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.age.2">5.1</a></li> 1760 <li class="indline1">Cache-Control <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.1">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.2">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.3">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.4">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.3"><b>3.2</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.5">5.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.6">A.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.cache-control.7">A.1</a></li> 1761 <li class="indline1">Expires <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.1">2.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.2">2.3.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.4"><b>3.3</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.expires.3">5.1</a></li> 1762 <li class="indline1">Pragma <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.1">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.2">3.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.5"><b>3.4</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.3">5.1</a></li> 1763 <li class="indline1">Vary <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.1">2.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.6"><b>3.5</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.2">5.1</a></li> 1764 <li class="indline1">Warning <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.1">2.3.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.2">2.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.3">2.7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.h.7"><b>3.6</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.4">5.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.5">A.1</a></li> 2156 1765 </ul> 2157 1766 </li> … … 2160 1769 </li> 2161 1770 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.I" href="#rfc.index.I"><b>I</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2162 <li class="indline1"><em>ISO-8859-1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.ISO-8859-1.1"> 15.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#ISO-8859-1"><b>19.1</b></a></li>1771 <li class="indline1"><em>ISO-8859-1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.ISO-8859-1.1">3.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#ISO-8859-1"><b>8.1</b></a></li> 2163 1772 </ul> 2164 1773 </li> … … 2166 1775 <li class="indline1">max-age 2167 1776 <ul class="ind"> 2168 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.1"><b> 15.2.3</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.4"><b>15.2.4</b></a></li>1777 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.1"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.5"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2169 1778 </ul> 2170 1779 </li> 2171 1780 <li class="indline1">max-stale 2172 1781 <ul class="ind"> 2173 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m. 3"><b>15.2.3</b></a></li>1782 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.2"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 2174 1783 </ul> 2175 1784 </li> 2176 1785 <li class="indline1">min-fresh 2177 1786 <ul class="ind"> 2178 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m. 2"><b>15.2.3</b></a></li>1787 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.3"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 2179 1788 </ul> 2180 1789 </li> 2181 1790 <li class="indline1">must-revalidate 2182 1791 <ul class="ind"> 2183 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m. 5"><b>15.2.4</b></a></li>1792 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.m.4"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2184 1793 </ul> 2185 1794 </li> … … 2189 1798 <li class="indline1">no-cache 2190 1799 <ul class="ind"> 2191 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.1"><b> 15.2.1</b></a></li>1800 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.1"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.4"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2192 1801 </ul> 2193 1802 </li> 2194 1803 <li class="indline1">no-store 2195 1804 <ul class="ind"> 2196 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.2"><b> 15.2.2</b></a></li>1805 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.2"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.5"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2197 1806 </ul> 2198 1807 </li> 2199 1808 <li class="indline1">no-transform 2200 1809 <ul class="ind"> 2201 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.3"><b> 15.2.5</b></a></li>1810 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.3"><b>3.2.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.n.6"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2202 1811 </ul> 2203 1812 </li> … … 2207 1816 <li class="indline1">only-if-cached 2208 1817 <ul class="ind"> 2209 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.o.1"><b> 15.2.4</b></a></li>1818 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.o.1"><b>3.2.1</b></a></li> 2210 1819 </ul> 2211 1820 </li> … … 2213 1822 </li> 2214 1823 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.P" href="#rfc.index.P"><b>P</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2215 <li class="indline1"><em>Part1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.1">1.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.2">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.3">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.4">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.5">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.6">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.7">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.8">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.9">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.10">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.11"> 3.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.12">6.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.13">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.14">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.15">7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.16">15.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part1"><b>19.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.17">A.1</a><ul class="ind">1824 <li class="indline1"><em>Part1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.1">1.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.2">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.3">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.4">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.5">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.6">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.7">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.8">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.9">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.10">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.11">2.3.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.12">2.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.13">3.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part1"><b>8.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.14">A.1</a><ul class="ind"> 2216 1825 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 1.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.1">1.4</a></li> 2217 1826 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 1.2.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.2">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.3">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.4">1.4.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.5">1.4.1</a></li> 2218 1827 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 2.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.8">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.10">1.4.2</a></li> 2219 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.2.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.7">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.16">15.3</a></li> 2220 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.6">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.15">7</a></li> 2221 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4.4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.13">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.14">6.2</a></li> 2222 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 8.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.12">6.1</a></li> 2223 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 8.3</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.11">3.3</a></li> 1828 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.2.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.7">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.13">3.3</a></li> 1829 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.6">1.4.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.12">2.6</a></li> 1830 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 8.3</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.11">2.3.2</a></li> 2224 1831 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 8.9</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part1.9">1.4.2</a></li> 2225 1832 </ul> 2226 1833 </li> 2227 <li class="indline1"><em>Part2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part2.1">10</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part2"><b>19.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2228 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 7.1.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part2.1">10</a></li> 2229 </ul> 2230 </li> 2231 <li class="indline1"><em>Part3</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.1">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.2">7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part3"><b>19.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.3">A.1</a><ul class="ind"> 2232 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.2.2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.1">6.2</a></li> 2233 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.2">7</a></li> 2234 </ul> 2235 </li> 2236 <li class="indline1"><em>Part4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part4.1">4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part4"><b>19.1</b></a></li> 2237 <li class="indline1"><em>Part5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.1">6.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.2">9</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part5"><b>19.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.3">A.1</a><ul class="ind"> 2238 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.1">6.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.2">9</a></li> 2239 </ul> 2240 </li> 2241 <li class="indline1"><em>Part7</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.1">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.2">15.2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part7"><b>19.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2242 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.1">5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.2">15.2.1</a></li> 2243 </ul> 2244 </li> 2245 <li class="indline1">Pragma header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.1">15.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.4"><b>15.4</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.2">16.1</a></li> 1834 <li class="indline1"><em>Part2</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part2.1">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part2.2">2.5</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part2"><b>8.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 1835 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 7.1.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part2.1">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part2.2">2.5</a></li> 1836 </ul> 1837 </li> 1838 <li class="indline1"><em>Part3</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.1">2.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part3"><b>8.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.2">A.1</a><ul class="ind"> 1839 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part3.1">2.6</a></li> 1840 </ul> 1841 </li> 1842 <li class="indline1"><em>Part4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part4.1">2.3.1.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part4.2">2.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part4"><b>8.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 1843 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 6.6</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part4.1">2.3.1.1</a></li> 1844 </ul> 1845 </li> 1846 <li class="indline1"><em>Part5</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.1">2.1.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.2">2.1.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.3">2.7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part5"><b>8.1</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.4">A.1</a><ul class="ind"> 1847 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 4</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.2">2.1.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part5.3">2.7</a></li> 1848 </ul> 1849 </li> 1850 <li class="indline1"><em>Part7</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.1">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.2">3.2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#Part7"><b>8.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 1851 <li class="indline1"><em>Section 3.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.1">2.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.Part7.2">3.2.2</a></li> 1852 </ul> 1853 </li> 1854 <li class="indline1">Pragma header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.1">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.2">3.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.4"><b>3.4</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.pragma.3">5.1</a></li> 2246 1855 <li class="indline1">private 2247 1856 <ul class="ind"> 2248 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.2"><b> 15.2.1</b></a></li>1857 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.2"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2249 1858 </ul> 2250 1859 </li> 2251 1860 <li class="indline1">proxy-revalidate 2252 1861 <ul class="ind"> 2253 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.3"><b> 15.2.4</b></a></li>1862 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.3"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2254 1863 </ul> 2255 1864 </li> 2256 1865 <li class="indline1">public 2257 1866 <ul class="ind"> 2258 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.1"><b> 15.2.1</b></a></li>1867 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.p.1"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 2259 1868 </ul> 2260 1869 </li> … … 2262 1871 </li> 2263 1872 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.R" href="#rfc.index.R"><b>R</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2264 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC1305</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC1305.1"> 3.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC1305"><b>19.2</b></a></li>2265 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC2047</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC2047.1"> 15.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC2047"><b>19.1</b></a></li>2266 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC2119</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC2119.1">1.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC2119"><b> 19.1</b></a></li>2267 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC2616</em> <a class="iref" href="#RFC2616"><b> 19.2</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC2616.1">C.1</a></li>2268 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC3864</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC3864.1"> 16.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC3864"><b>19.2</b></a></li>2269 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC5234</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC5234.1">1.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC5234"><b> 19.1</b></a><ul class="ind">1873 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC1305</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC1305.1">2.3.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC1305"><b>8.2</b></a></li> 1874 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC2047</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC2047.1">3.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC2047"><b>8.1</b></a></li> 1875 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC2119</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC2119.1">1.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC2119"><b>8.1</b></a></li> 1876 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC2616</em> <a class="iref" href="#RFC2616"><b>8.2</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC2616.1">C.1</a></li> 1877 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC3864</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC3864.1">5.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC3864"><b>8.2</b></a></li> 1878 <li class="indline1"><em>RFC5234</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC5234.1">1.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#RFC5234"><b>8.1</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2270 1879 <li class="indline1"><em>Appendix B.1</em> <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.RFC5234.1">1.4</a></li> 2271 1880 </ul> … … 2276 1885 <li class="indline1">s-maxage 2277 1886 <ul class="ind"> 2278 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.s.3"><b>15.2.3</b></a></li> 2279 </ul> 2280 </li> 2281 <li class="indline1">semantically transparent <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.s.1">1.1</a></li> 2282 <li class="indline1">stale <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.s.2">1.2</a></li> 1887 <li class="indline1">Cache Directive <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.s.2"><b>3.2.2</b></a></li> 1888 </ul> 1889 </li> 1890 <li class="indline1">stale <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.s.1">1.2</a></li> 2283 1891 </ul> 2284 1892 </li> 2285 1893 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.V" href="#rfc.index.V"><b>V</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2286 <li class="indline1">validator <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.v.1">1.2</a> </li>2287 <li class="indline1">Vary header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.1"> 7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.v.2"><b>15.5</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.2">16.1</a></li>1894 <li class="indline1">validator <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.v.1">1.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.v.2">1.2</a></li> 1895 <li class="indline1">Vary header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.1">2.6</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.v.3"><b>3.5</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.vary.2">5.1</a></li> 2288 1896 </ul> 2289 1897 </li> 2290 1898 <li class="indline0"><a id="rfc.index.W" href="#rfc.index.W"><b>W</b></a><ul class="ind"> 2291 <li class="indline1">Warning header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.1">2. 1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.2">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.3">2.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.4">6.2</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.5">6.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.w.1"><b>15.6</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.6">16.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.7">A.1</a></li>1899 <li class="indline1">Warning header <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.1">2.3.3</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.2">2.4</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.3">2.7</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.iref.w.1"><b>3.6</b></a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.4">5.1</a>, <a class="iref" href="#rfc.xref.header.warning.5">A.1</a></li> 2292 1900 </ul> 2293 1901 </li> -
draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p6-cache.xml
r532 r538 16 16 <!ENTITY ID-YEAR "2009"> 17 17 <!ENTITY notation "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#notation' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 18 <!ENTITY notation-abnf "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#notation.abnf' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>">19 18 <!ENTITY basic-rules "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#basic.rules' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 19 <!ENTITY uri "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#uri' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 20 20 <!ENTITY messaging "<xref target='Part1' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 21 21 <!ENTITY conditional "<xref target='Part4' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 22 <!ENTITY partial "<xref target='Part5' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 22 23 <!ENTITY combining-byte-ranges "<xref target='Part5' x:rel='#combining.byte.ranges' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 23 24 <!ENTITY entity-length "<xref target='Part3' x:rel='#entity.length' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> … … 27 28 <!ENTITY header-date "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#header.date' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 28 29 <!ENTITY header-via "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#header.via' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 30 <!ENTITY header-last-modified "<xref target='Part4' x:rel='#header.last-modified' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 29 31 <!ENTITY message-headers "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#message.headers' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 30 32 <!ENTITY message-length "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#message.length' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 31 33 <!ENTITY safe-methods "<xref target='Part2' x:rel='#safe.methods' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 32 34 <!ENTITY server-driven-negotiation "<xref target='Part3' x:rel='#server-driven.negotiation' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>"> 33 <!ENTITY uri "<xref target='Part1' x:rel='#uri' xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'/>">34 35 ]> 35 36 <?rfc toc="yes" ?> … … 44 45 <?rfc-ext allow-markup-in-artwork="yes" ?> 45 46 <?rfc-ext include-references-in-index="yes" ?> 46 < rfc obsoletes="2616" category="std" x:maturity-level="draft"47 ipr="pre5378Trust200902" docName="draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache-&ID-VERSION;"48 xmlns:x='http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext'>49 <front>50 51 <title abbrev="HTTP/1.1, Part 6">HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching</title>52 53 <author initials="R." surname="Fielding" fullname="Roy T. Fielding" role="editor">54 <organization abbrev="Day Software">Day Software</organization>55 <address>47 <?oxygen RNGSchema="../../rfc2629xslt/rfc2629-ext.rnc" type="compact"?> 48 <rfc category="std" docName="draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache-&ID-VERSION;" ipr="pre5378Trust200902" 49 obsoletes="2616" x:maturity-level="draft" xmlns:x="http://purl.org/net/xml2rfc/ext"> 50 <front> 51 52 <title abbrev="HTTP/1.1, Part 6">HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching</title> 53 54 <author fullname="Roy T. Fielding" initials="R." role="editor" surname="Fielding"> 55 <organization abbrev="Day Software">Day Software</organization> 56 <address> 56 57 <postal> 57 58 <street>23 Corporate Plaza DR, Suite 280</street> … … 66 67 <uri>http://roy.gbiv.com/</uri> 67 68 </address> 68 </author>69 70 <author initials="J." surname="Gettys" fullname="JimGettys">71 <organization>One Laptop per Child</organization>72 <address>69 </author> 70 71 <author fullname="Jim Gettys" initials="J." surname="Gettys"> 72 <organization>One Laptop per Child</organization> 73 <address> 73 74 <postal> 74 75 <street>21 Oak Knoll Road</street> … … 81 82 <uri>http://www.laptop.org/</uri> 82 83 </address> 83 </author>84 85 <author initials="J." surname="Mogul" fullname="Jeffrey C.Mogul">86 <organization abbrev="HP">Hewlett-Packard Company</organization>87 <address>84 </author> 85 86 <author fullname="Jeffrey C. Mogul" initials="J." surname="Mogul"> 87 <organization abbrev="HP">Hewlett-Packard Company</organization> 88 <address> 88 89 <postal> 89 90 <street>HP Labs, Large Scale Systems Group</street> … … 96 97 <email>JeffMogul@acm.org</email> 97 98 </address> 98 </author>99 100 <author initials="H." surname="Frystyk" fullname="Henrik Frystyk Nielsen">101 <organization abbrev="Microsoft">Microsoft Corporation</organization>102 <address>99 </author> 100 101 <author fullname="Henrik Frystyk Nielsen" initials="H." surname="Frystyk"> 102 <organization abbrev="Microsoft">Microsoft Corporation</organization> 103 <address> 103 104 <postal> 104 105 <street>1 Microsoft Way</street> … … 110 111 <email>henrikn@microsoft.com</email> 111 112 </address> 112 </author>113 114 <author initials="L." surname="Masinter" fullname="LarryMasinter">115 <organization abbrev="Adobe Systems">Adobe Systems, Incorporated</organization>116 <address>113 </author> 114 115 <author fullname="Larry Masinter" initials="L." surname="Masinter"> 116 <organization abbrev="Adobe Systems">Adobe Systems, Incorporated</organization> 117 <address> 117 118 <postal> 118 119 <street>345 Park Ave</street> … … 125 126 <uri>http://larry.masinter.net/</uri> 126 127 </address> 127 </author>128 129 <author initials="P." surname="Leach" fullname="Paul J.Leach">130 <organization abbrev="Microsoft">Microsoft Corporation</organization>131 <address>128 </author> 129 130 <author fullname="Paul J. Leach" initials="P." surname="Leach"> 131 <organization abbrev="Microsoft">Microsoft Corporation</organization> 132 <address> 132 133 <postal> 133 134 <street>1 Microsoft Way</street> … … 138 139 <email>paulle@microsoft.com</email> 139 140 </address> 140 </author>141 142 <author initials="T." surname="Berners-Lee" fullname="TimBerners-Lee">143 <organization abbrev="W3C/MIT">World Wide Web Consortium</organization>144 <address>141 </author> 142 143 <author fullname="Tim Berners-Lee" initials="T." surname="Berners-Lee"> 144 <organization abbrev="W3C/MIT">World Wide Web Consortium</organization> 145 <address> 145 146 <postal> 146 147 <street>MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory</street> … … 155 156 <uri>http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/</uri> 156 157 </address> 157 </author>158 159 <author initials="Y." surname="Lafon" fullname="Yves Lafon" role="editor">160 <organization abbrev="W3C">World Wide Web Consortium</organization>161 <address>158 </author> 159 160 <author fullname="Yves Lafon" initials="Y." role="editor" surname="Lafon"> 161 <organization abbrev="W3C">World Wide Web Consortium</organization> 162 <address> 162 163 <postal> 163 164 <street>W3C / ERCIM</street> … … 171 172 <uri>http://www.raubacapeu.net/people/yves/</uri> 172 173 </address> 173 </author>174 175 <author initials="J. F." surname="Reschke" fullname="Julian F. Reschke" role="editor">176 <organization abbrev="greenbytes">greenbytes GmbH</organization>177 <address>174 </author> 175 176 <author fullname="Julian F. Reschke" initials="J. F." role="editor" surname="Reschke"> 177 <organization abbrev="greenbytes">greenbytes GmbH</organization> 178 <address> 178 179 <postal> 179 180 <street>Hafenweg 16</street> … … 186 187 <uri>http://greenbytes.de/tech/webdav/</uri> 187 188 </address> 188 </author> 189 190 <date month="&ID-MONTH;" year="&ID-YEAR;"/> 191 <workgroup>HTTPbis Working Group</workgroup> 192 193 <abstract> 194 <t> 195 The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level 196 protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information 197 systems. HTTP has been in use by the World Wide Web global information 198 initiative since 1990. This document is Part 6 of the seven-part specification 199 that defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1" and, taken together, 200 obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 6 defines requirements on HTTP caches 201 and the associated header fields that control cache behavior or indicate 202 cacheable response messages. 203 </t> 204 </abstract> 205 206 <note title="Editorial Note (To be removed by RFC Editor)"> 207 <t> 208 Discussion of this draft should take place on the HTTPBIS working group 209 mailing list (ietf-http-wg@w3.org). The current issues list is 210 at <eref target="http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/report/11"/> 211 and related documents (including fancy diffs) can be found at 212 <eref target="http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/"/>. 213 </t> 214 <t> 215 The changes in this draft are summarized in <xref target="changes.since.05"/>. 216 </t> 217 </note> 218 </front> 219 <middle> 220 <section title="Introduction" anchor="caching"> 221 <t> 222 HTTP is typically used for distributed information systems, where 223 performance can be improved by the use of response caches, and includes 224 a number of elements intended to make caching work as well as possible. 225 Because these elements interact with each other, it is useful to describe 226 the caching design of HTTP separately. This document defines aspects of 227 HTTP/1.1 related to caching and reusing response messages. 228 </t> 229 230 <section title="Purpose" anchor="intro.purpose"> 231 <iref item="cache"/> 232 <t> 233 An HTTP <x:dfn>cache</x:dfn> is a local store of response messages 234 and the subsystem that controls its message storage, retrieval, and 235 deletion. A cache stores cacheable responses in order to reduce the 236 response time and network bandwidth consumption on future, equivalent 237 requests. Any client or server may include a cache, though a cache 238 cannot be used by a server that is acting as a tunnel. 239 </t> 240 <t> 241 Caching would be useless if it did not significantly improve 242 performance. The goal of caching in HTTP/1.1 is to reuse a prior response 243 message to satisfy a current request. In some cases, the existing response 244 can be reused without the need for a network request, reducing latency and 245 network round-trips; we use an "expiration" mechanism for this purpose 246 (see <xref target="expiration.model"/>). Even when a new request is required, 247 it is often possible to reuse all or parts of the payload of a prior response 248 to satisfy the request, thereby reducing network bandwidth usage; we use a 249 "validation" mechanism for this purpose (see <xref target="validation.model"/>). 250 </t> 251 <iref item="semantically transparent"/> 252 <t> 253 A cache behaves in a "<x:dfn>semantically transparent</x:dfn>" manner, with 254 respect to a particular response, when its use affects neither the 255 requesting client nor the origin server, except to improve 256 performance. When a cache is semantically transparent, the client 257 receives exactly the same response status and payload 258 that it would have received had its request been handled directly 259 by the origin server. 260 </t> 261 <t> 262 In an ideal world, all interactions with an HTTP cache would be 263 semantically transparent. However, for some resources, semantic 264 transparency is not always necessary and can be effectively traded 265 for the sake of bandwidth scaling, disconnected operation, and 266 high availability. HTTP/1.1 allows origin servers, caches, 267 and clients to explicitly reduce transparency when necessary. 268 However, because non-transparent operation may confuse non-expert 269 users and might be incompatible with certain server applications 270 (such as those for ordering merchandise), the protocol requires that 271 transparency be relaxed 272 <list style="symbols"> 273 <t>only by an explicit protocol-level request when relaxed by 274 client or origin server</t> 275 276 <t>only with an explicit warning to the end user when relaxed by 277 cache or client</t> 278 </list> 279 </t> 280 <t> 281 Therefore, HTTP/1.1 provides these important elements: 282 <list style="numbers"> 283 <t>Protocol features that provide full semantic transparency when 284 this is required by all parties.</t> 285 286 <t>Protocol features that allow an origin server or user agent to 287 explicitly request and control non-transparent operation.</t> 288 289 <t>Protocol features that allow a cache to attach warnings to 290 responses that do not preserve the requested approximation of 291 semantic transparency.</t> 292 </list> 293 </t> 294 <t> 295 A basic principle is that it must be possible for the clients to 296 detect any potential relaxation of semantic transparency. 297 <list><t> 298 <x:h>Note:</x:h> The server, cache, or client implementor might be faced with 299 design decisions not explicitly discussed in this specification. 300 If a decision might affect semantic transparency, the implementor 301 ought to err on the side of maintaining transparency unless a 302 careful and complete analysis shows significant benefits in 303 breaking transparency. 304 </t></list> 305 </t> 306 </section> 307 308 <section title="Terminology" anchor="intro.terminology"> 309 <t> 310 This specification uses a number of terms to refer to the roles 311 played by participants in, and objects of, HTTP caching. 312 </t> 313 <t> 314 <iref item="cacheable"/> 315 <x:dfn>cacheable</x:dfn> 316 <list> 317 <t> 318 A response is cacheable if a cache is allowed to store a copy of 319 the response message for use in answering subsequent requests. 320 Even when a response is cacheable, there may 321 be additional constraints on whether a cache can use the cached 322 copy for a particular request. 323 </t> 324 </list> 325 </t> 326 <t> 327 <iref item="first-hand"/> 328 <x:dfn>first-hand</x:dfn> 329 <list> 330 <t> 331 A response is first-hand if it comes directly and without 332 unnecessary delay from the origin server, perhaps via one or more 333 proxies. A response is also first-hand if its validity has just 334 been checked directly with the origin server. 335 </t> 336 </list> 337 </t> 338 <t> 339 <iref item="explicit expiration time"/> 340 <x:dfn>explicit expiration time</x:dfn> 341 <list> 342 <t> 343 The time at which the origin server intends that an entity should 344 no longer be returned by a cache without further validation. 345 </t> 346 </list> 347 </t> 348 <t> 349 <iref item="heuristic expiration time"/> 350 <x:dfn>heuristic expiration time</x:dfn> 351 <list> 352 <t> 353 An expiration time assigned by a cache when no explicit expiration 354 time is available. 355 </t> 356 </list> 357 </t> 358 <t> 359 <iref item="age"/> 360 <x:dfn>age</x:dfn> 361 <list> 362 <t> 363 The age of a response is the time since it was sent by, or 364 successfully validated with, the origin server. 365 </t> 366 </list> 367 </t> 368 <t> 369 <iref item="freshness lifetime"/> 370 <x:dfn>freshness lifetime</x:dfn> 371 <list> 372 <t> 373 The length of time between the generation of a response and its 374 expiration time. 375 </t> 376 </list> 377 </t> 378 <t> 379 <iref item="fresh"/> 380 <x:dfn>fresh</x:dfn> 381 <list> 382 <t> 383 A response is fresh if its age has not yet exceeded its freshness 384 lifetime. 385 </t> 386 </list> 387 </t> 388 <t> 389 <iref item="stale"/> 390 <x:dfn>stale</x:dfn> 391 <list> 392 <t> 393 A response is stale if its age has passed its freshness lifetime. 394 </t> 395 </list> 396 </t> 397 <t> 398 <iref item="validator"/> 399 <x:dfn>validator</x:dfn> 400 <list> 401 <t> 402 A protocol element (e.g., an entity tag or a Last-Modified time) 403 that is used to find out whether a cache entry is an equivalent 404 copy of an entity. 405 </t> 406 </list> 407 </t> 408 </section> 409 410 <section title="Requirements" anchor="intro.requirements"> 411 <t> 412 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 413 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 414 document are to be interpreted as described in <xref target="RFC2119"/>. 415 </t> 416 <t> 417 An implementation is not compliant if it fails to satisfy one or more 418 of the &MUST; or &REQUIRED; level requirements for the protocols it 419 implements. An implementation that satisfies all the &MUST; or &REQUIRED; 420 level and all the &SHOULD; level requirements for its protocols is said 421 to be "unconditionally compliant"; one that satisfies all the &MUST; 422 level requirements but not all the &SHOULD; level requirements for its 423 protocols is said to be "conditionally compliant." 424 </t> 425 </section> 189 </author> 190 191 <date month="&ID-MONTH;" year="&ID-YEAR;" /> 192 <workgroup>HTTPbis Working Group</workgroup> 193 194 <abstract> 195 <t>The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, 196 collaborative, hypermedia information systems. This document is Part 6 of the seven-part 197 specification that defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1" and, taken together, 198 obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 6 defines requirements on HTTP caches and the associated header 199 fields that control cache behavior or indicate cacheable response messages.</t> 200 </abstract> 201 202 <note title="Editorial Note (To be removed by RFC Editor)"> 203 <t>Discussion of this draft should take place on the HTTPBIS working group mailing list 204 (ietf-http-wg@w3.org). The current issues list is at <eref 205 target="http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/report/11" /> and related documents 206 (including fancy diffs) can be found at <eref target="http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/" />.</t> 207 <t>The changes in this draft are summarized in <xref target="changes.since.05" />.</t> 208 </note> 209 </front> 210 <middle> 211 <section anchor="caching" title="Introduction"> 212 <t>HTTP is typically used for distributed information systems, where performance can be 213 improved by the use of response caches. This document defines aspects of HTTP/1.1 related to 214 caching and reusing response messages.</t> 215 216 <section anchor="intro.purpose" title="Purpose"> 217 <iref item="cache" /> 218 <t>An HTTP <x:dfn>cache</x:dfn> is a local store of response messages and the subsystem that 219 controls its message storage, retrieval, and deletion. A cache stores cacheable responses 220 in order to reduce the response time and network bandwidth consumption on future, 221 equivalent requests. Any client or server may include a cache, though a cache cannot be 222 used by a server that is acting as a tunnel.</t> 223 <t>Caching would be useless if it did not significantly improve performance. The goal of 224 caching in HTTP/1.1 is to reuse a prior response message to satisfy a current request. In 225 some cases, a stored response can be reused without the need for a network request, 226 reducing latency and network round-trips; a "freshness" mechanism is used for this purpose 227 (see <xref target="expiration.model" />). Even when a new request is required, it is often 228 possible to reuse all or parts of the payload of a prior response to satisfy the request, 229 thereby reducing network bandwidth usage; a "validation" mechanism is used for this 230 purpose (see <xref target="validation.model" />).</t> 231 </section> 232 233 <section anchor="intro.terminology" title="Terminology"> 234 <t>This specification uses a number of terms to refer to the roles played by participants 235 in, and objects of, HTTP caching.</t> 236 <t> 237 <iref item="cacheable" /> 238 <x:dfn>cacheable</x:dfn> 239 <list> 240 <t>A response is cacheable if a cache is allowed to store a copy of the response message 241 for use in answering subsequent requests. Even when a response is cacheable, there may 242 be additional constraints on whether a cache can use the cached copy to satisfy a 243 particular request.</t> 244 </list> 245 </t> 246 <t> 247 <iref item="explicit expiration time" /> 248 <x:dfn>explicit expiration time</x:dfn> 249 <list> 250 <t>The time at which the origin server intends that an entity should no longer be 251 returned by a cache without further validation.</t> 252 </list> 253 </t> 254 <t> 255 <iref item="heuristic expiration time" /> 256 <x:dfn>heuristic expiration time</x:dfn> 257 <list> 258 <t>An expiration time assigned by a cache when no explicit expiration time is 259 available.</t> 260 </list> 261 </t> 262 <t> 263 <iref item="age" /> 264 <x:dfn>age</x:dfn> 265 <list> 266 <t>The age of a response is the time since it was sent by, or successfully validated 267 with, the origin server.</t> 268 </list> 269 </t> 270 <t> 271 <iref item="first-hand" /> 272 <x:dfn>first-hand</x:dfn> 273 <list> 274 <t>A response is first-hand if the freshness model is not in use; i.e., its age is 275 0.</t> 276 </list> 277 </t> 278 <t> 279 <iref item="freshness lifetime" /> 280 <x:dfn>freshness lifetime</x:dfn> 281 <list> 282 <t>The length of time between the generation of a response and its expiration time. </t> 283 </list> 284 </t> 285 <t> 286 <iref item="fresh" /> 287 <x:dfn>fresh</x:dfn> 288 <list> 289 <t>A response is fresh if its age has not yet exceeded its freshness lifetime.</t> 290 </list> 291 </t> 292 <t> 293 <iref item="stale" /> 294 <x:dfn>stale</x:dfn> 295 <list> 296 <t>A response is stale if its age has passed its freshness lifetime (either explicit or heuristic).</t> 297 </list> 298 </t> 299 <t> 300 <iref item="validator" /> 301 <x:dfn>validator</x:dfn> 302 <list> 303 <t>A protocol element (e.g., an entity tag or a Last-Modified time) that is used to find 304 out whether a stored response is an equivalent copy of an entity.</t> 305 </list> 306 </t> 307 <t anchor="shared.and.non-shared.caches"> 308 <iref item="validator" /> 309 <x:dfn>shared cache</x:dfn> 310 <list> 311 <t>A cache that is accessible to more than one user. A non-shared cache is 312 dedicated to a single user.</t> 313 </list> 314 </t> 315 </section> 316 317 318 <section anchor="intro.requirements" title="Requirements"> 319 <t>The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD 320 NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as 321 described in <xref target="RFC2119" />.</t> 322 <t>An implementation is not compliant if it fails to satisfy one or more of the &MUST; 323 or &REQUIRED; level requirements for the protocols it implements. An implementation 324 that satisfies all the &MUST; or &REQUIRED; level and all the &SHOULD; level 325 requirements for its protocols is said to be "unconditionally compliant"; one that 326 satisfies all the &MUST; level requirements but not all the &SHOULD; level 327 requirements for its protocols is said to be "conditionally compliant."</t> 328 </section> 329 426 330 427 331 <section title="Syntax Notation" anchor="notation"> … … 480 384 481 385 </section> 482 483 386 </section> 484 387 485 486 <section title="Overview" anchor="caching.overview"> 487 <section title="Cache Correctness" anchor="cache.correctness"> 488 <t> 489 A correct cache &MUST; respond to a request with the most up-to-date 490 response held by the cache that is appropriate to the request (see 491 Sections <xref target="disambiguating.expiration.values" format="counter"/>, 492 <xref target="disambiguating.multiple.responses" format="counter"/>, 493 and <xref target="cache.replacement" format="counter"/>) which meets one of the following 494 conditions: 495 <list style="numbers"> 496 <t>It has been checked for equivalence with what the origin server 497 would have returned by revalidating the response with the 498 origin server (<xref target="validation.model"/>);</t> 499 500 <t>It is "fresh enough" (see <xref target="expiration.model"/>). In the default case, 501 this means it meets the least restrictive freshness requirement 502 of the client, origin server, and cache (see <xref target="header.cache-control"/>); if 503 the origin server so specifies, it is the freshness requirement 504 of the origin server alone. 505 506 If a stored response is not "fresh enough" by the most 507 restrictive freshness requirement of both the client and the 508 origin server, in carefully considered circumstances the cache 509 &MAY; still return the response with the appropriate Warning 510 header (see Sections <xref target="exceptions.to.the.rules.and.warnings" format="counter"/> 511 and <xref target="header.warning" format="counter"/>), unless such a response 512 is prohibited (e.g., by a "no-store" cache-directive, or by a 513 "no-cache" cache-request-directive; see <xref target="header.cache-control"/>).</t> 514 515 <t>It is an appropriate 304 (Not Modified), 305 (Use Proxy), 516 or error (4xx or 5xx) response message.</t> 517 </list> 518 </t> 519 <t> 520 If the cache can not communicate with the origin server, then a 521 correct cache &SHOULD; respond as above if the response can be 522 correctly served from the cache; if not it &MUST; return an error or 523 warning indicating that there was a communication failure. 524 </t> 525 <t> 526 If a cache receives a response (either an entire response, or a 304 527 (Not Modified) response) that it would normally forward to the 528 requesting client, and the received response is no longer fresh, the 529 cache &SHOULD; forward it to the requesting client without adding a new 530 Warning (but without removing any existing Warning headers). A cache 531 &SHOULD-NOT; attempt to revalidate a response simply because that 532 response became stale in transit; this might lead to an infinite 533 loop. A user agent that receives a stale response without a Warning 534 &MAY; display a warning indication to the user. 535 </t> 536 </section> 537 538 <section title="Warnings" anchor="warnings"> 539 <t> 540 Whenever a cache returns a response that is neither first-hand nor 541 "fresh enough" (in the sense of condition 2 in <xref target="cache.correctness"/>), it 542 &MUST; attach a warning to that effect, using a Warning general-header. 543 The Warning header and the currently defined warnings are described 544 in <xref target="header.warning"/>. The warning allows clients to take appropriate 545 action. 546 </t> 547 <t> 548 Warnings &MAY; be used for other purposes, both cache-related and 549 otherwise. The use of a warning, rather than an error status code, 550 distinguish these responses from true failures. 551 </t> 552 <t> 553 Warnings are assigned three digit warn-codes. The first digit 554 indicates whether the Warning &MUST; or &MUST-NOT; be deleted from a 555 stored cache entry after a successful revalidation: 556 </t> 557 <t> 558 <list style="hanging"> 559 <t hangText="1xx">Warnings that describe the freshness or revalidation status of 560 the response, and so &MUST; be deleted after a successful 561 revalidation. 1xx warn-codes &MAY; be generated by a cache only when 562 validating a cached entry. It &MUST-NOT; be generated by clients.</t> 563 564 <t hangText="2xx">Warnings that describe some aspect of the entity body or entity 565 headers that is not rectified by a revalidation (for example, a 566 lossy compression of the entity bodies) and which &MUST-NOT; be 567 deleted after a successful revalidation.</t> 568 </list> 569 </t> 570 <t> 571 See <xref target="header.warning"/> for the definitions of the codes themselves. 572 </t> 573 <t> 574 HTTP/1.0 caches will cache all Warnings in responses, without 575 deleting the ones in the first category. Warnings in responses that 576 are passed to HTTP/1.0 caches carry an extra warning-date field, 577 which prevents a future HTTP/1.1 recipient from believing an 578 erroneously cached Warning. 579 </t> 580 <t> 581 Warnings also carry a warning text. The text &MAY; be in any 582 appropriate natural language (perhaps based on the client's Accept 583 headers), and include an &OPTIONAL; indication of what character set is 584 used. 585 </t> 586 <t> 587 Multiple warnings &MAY; be attached to a response (either by the origin 588 server or by a cache), including multiple warnings with the same code 589 number. For example, a server might provide the same warning with 590 texts in both English and Basque. 591 </t> 592 <t> 593 When multiple warnings are attached to a response, it might not be 594 practical or reasonable to display all of them to the user. This 595 version of HTTP does not specify strict priority rules for deciding 596 which warnings to display and in what order, but does suggest some 597 heuristics. 598 </t> 599 </section> 600 601 <section title="Cache-control Mechanisms" anchor="cache-control.mechanisms"> 602 <t> 603 The basic cache mechanisms in HTTP/1.1 (server-specified expiration 604 times and validators) are implicit directives to caches. In some 605 cases, a server or client might need to provide explicit directives 606 to the HTTP caches. We use the Cache-Control header for this purpose. 607 </t> 608 <t> 609 The Cache-Control header allows a client or server to transmit a 610 variety of directives in either requests or responses. These 611 directives typically override the default caching algorithms. As a 612 general rule, if there is any apparent conflict between header 613 values, the most restrictive interpretation is applied (that is, the 614 one that is most likely to preserve semantic transparency). However, 615 in some cases, cache-control directives are explicitly specified as 616 weakening the approximation of semantic transparency (for example, 617 "max-stale" or "public"). 618 </t> 619 <t> 620 The cache-control directives are described in detail in <xref target="header.cache-control"/>. 621 </t> 622 </section> 623 624 <section title="Explicit User Agent Warnings" anchor="explicit.ua.warnings"> 625 <t> 626 Many user agents make it possible for users to override the basic 627 caching mechanisms. For example, the user agent might allow the user 628 to specify that cached entities (even explicitly stale ones) are 629 never validated. Or the user agent might habitually add "Cache-Control: 630 max-stale=3600" to every request. The user agent &SHOULD-NOT; 631 default to either non-transparent behavior, or behavior that results 632 in abnormally ineffective caching, but &MAY; be explicitly configured 633 to do so by an explicit action of the user. 634 </t> 635 <t> 636 If the user has overridden the basic caching mechanisms, the user 637 agent &SHOULD; explicitly indicate to the user whenever this results in 638 the display of information that might not meet the server's 639 transparency requirements (in particular, if the displayed entity is 640 known to be stale). Since the protocol normally allows the user agent 641 to determine if responses are stale or not, this indication need only 642 be displayed when this actually happens. The indication need not be a 643 dialog box; it could be an icon (for example, a picture of a rotting 644 fish) or some other indicator. 645 </t> 646 <t> 647 If the user has overridden the caching mechanisms in a way that would 648 abnormally reduce the effectiveness of caches, the user agent &SHOULD; 649 continually indicate this state to the user (for example, by a 650 display of a picture of currency in flames) so that the user does not 651 inadvertently consume excess resources or suffer from excessive 652 latency. 653 </t> 654 </section> 655 656 <section title="Exceptions to the Rules and Warnings" anchor="exceptions.to.the.rules.and.warnings"> 657 <t> 658 In some cases, the operator of a cache &MAY; choose to configure it to 659 return stale responses even when not requested by clients. This 660 decision ought not be made lightly, but may be necessary for reasons 661 of availability or performance, especially when the cache is poorly 662 connected to the origin server. Whenever a cache returns a stale 663 response, it &MUST; mark it as such (using a Warning header) enabling 664 the client software to alert the user that there might be a potential 665 problem. 666 </t> 667 <t> 668 It also allows the user agent to take steps to obtain a first-hand or 669 fresh response. For this reason, a cache &SHOULD-NOT; return a stale 670 response if the client explicitly requests a first-hand or fresh one, 671 unless it is impossible to comply for technical or policy reasons. 672 </t> 673 </section> 674 675 <section title="Client-controlled Behavior" anchor="client-controlled.behavior"> 676 <t> 677 While the origin server (and to a lesser extent, intermediate caches, 678 by their contribution to the age of a response) are the primary 679 source of expiration information, in some cases the client might need 680 to control a cache's decision about whether to return a cached 681 response without validating it. Clients do this using several 682 directives of the Cache-Control header. 683 </t> 684 <t> 685 A client's request &MAY; specify the maximum age it is willing to 686 accept of an unvalidated response; specifying a value of zero forces 687 the cache(s) to revalidate all responses. A client &MAY; also specify 688 the minimum time remaining before a response expires. Both of these 689 options increase constraints on the behavior of caches, and so cannot 690 further relax the cache's approximation of semantic transparency. 691 </t> 692 <t> 693 A client &MAY; also specify that it will accept stale responses, up to 694 some maximum amount of staleness. This loosens the constraints on the 695 caches, and so might violate the origin server's specified 696 constraints on semantic transparency, but might be necessary to 697 support disconnected operation, or high availability in the face of 698 poor connectivity. 699 </t> 700 </section> 701 </section> 702 703 <section title="Expiration Model" anchor="expiration.model"> 704 705 <section title="Server-Specified Expiration" anchor="server-specified.expiration"> 706 <t> 707 HTTP caching works best when caches can entirely avoid making 708 requests to the origin server. The primary mechanism for avoiding 709 requests is for an origin server to provide an explicit expiration 710 time in the future, indicating that a response &MAY; be used to satisfy 711 subsequent requests. In other words, a cache can return a fresh 712 response without first contacting the server. 713 </t> 714 <t> 715 Our expectation is that servers will assign future explicit 716 expiration times to responses in the belief that the entity is not 717 likely to change, in a semantically significant way, before the 718 expiration time is reached. This normally preserves semantic 719 transparency, as long as the server's expiration times are carefully 720 chosen. 721 </t> 722 <t> 723 The expiration mechanism applies only to responses taken from a cache 724 and not to first-hand responses forwarded immediately to the 725 requesting client. 726 </t> 727 <t> 728 If an origin server wishes to force a semantically transparent cache 729 to validate every request, it &MAY; assign an explicit expiration time 730 in the past. This means that the response is always stale, and so the 731 cache &SHOULD; validate it before using it for subsequent requests. See 732 <xref target="cache.revalidation.and.reload.controls"/> for a more restrictive way to force revalidation. 733 </t> 734 <t> 735 If an origin server wishes to force any HTTP/1.1 cache, no matter how 736 it is configured, to validate every request, it &SHOULD; use the "must-revalidate" 737 cache-control directive (see <xref target="header.cache-control"/>). 738 </t> 739 <t> 740 Servers specify explicit expiration times using either the Expires 741 header, or the max-age directive of the Cache-Control header. 742 </t> 743 <t> 744 An expiration time cannot be used to force a user agent to refresh 745 its display or reload a resource; its semantics apply only to caching 746 mechanisms, and such mechanisms need only check a resource's 747 expiration status when a new request for that resource is initiated. 748 See <xref target="history.lists"/> for an explanation of the difference between caches 749 and history mechanisms. 750 </t> 751 </section> 752 753 <section title="Heuristic Expiration" anchor="heuristic.expiration"> 754 <t> 755 Since origin servers do not always provide explicit expiration times, 756 HTTP caches typically assign heuristic expiration times, employing 757 algorithms that use other header values (such as the Last-Modified 758 time) to estimate a plausible expiration time. The HTTP/1.1 759 specification does not provide specific algorithms, but does impose 760 worst-case constraints on their results. Since heuristic expiration 761 times might compromise semantic transparency, they ought to be used 762 cautiously, and we encourage origin servers to provide explicit 763 expiration times as much as possible. 764 </t> 765 </section> 766 767 <section title="Age Calculations" anchor="age.calculations"> 768 <t> 769 In order to know if a cached entry is fresh, a cache needs to know if 770 its age exceeds its freshness lifetime. We discuss how to calculate 771 the latter in <xref target="expiration.calculations"/>; this section describes how to calculate 772 the age of a response or cache entry. 773 </t> 774 <t> 775 In this discussion, we use the term "now" to mean "the current value 776 of the clock at the host performing the calculation." Hosts that use 777 HTTP, but especially hosts running origin servers and caches, &SHOULD; 778 use NTP <xref target="RFC1305"/> or some similar protocol to synchronize their clocks to 779 a globally accurate time standard. 780 </t> 781 <t> 782 HTTP/1.1 requires origin servers to send a Date header, if possible, 783 with every response, giving the time at which the response was 784 generated (see &header-date;). We use the term "date_value" to denote 785 the value of the Date header, in a form appropriate for arithmetic 786 operations. 787 </t> 788 <t> 789 HTTP/1.1 uses the Age response-header to convey the estimated age of 790 the response message when obtained from a cache. The Age field value 791 is the cache's estimate of the amount of time since the response was 792 generated or revalidated by the origin server. 793 </t> 794 <t> 795 In essence, the Age value is the sum of the time that the response 796 has been resident in each of the caches along the path from the 797 origin server, plus the amount of time it has been in transit along 798 network paths. 799 </t> 800 <t> 801 We use the term "age_value" to denote the value of the Age header, in 802 a form appropriate for arithmetic operations. 803 </t> 804 <t> 805 A response's age can be calculated in two entirely independent ways: 806 <list style="numbers"> 807 <t>now minus date_value, if the local clock is reasonably well 808 synchronized to the origin server's clock. If the result is 809 negative, the result is replaced by zero.</t> 810 811 <t>age_value, if all of the caches along the response path 812 implement HTTP/1.1.</t> 813 </list> 814 </t> 815 <t> 816 Given that we have two independent ways to compute the age of a 817 response when it is received, we can combine these as 818 </t> 819 <figure><artwork type="code"> 388 <section anchor="caching.overview" title="Cache Operation"> 389 390 <section anchor="response.cacheability" title="Response Cacheability"> 391 <t>A cache &MUST-NOT; store a response to any request, unless: <list style="symbols"> 392 <t>The request method is defined as being cacheable, and</t> 393 <t>the "no-store" cache directive (see <xref target="header.cache-control" />) does not 394 appear in request or response headers, and</t> 395 <t>the "private" cache response directive (see <xref target="header.cache-control" /> 396 does not appear in the response, if the cache is shared, and</t> 397 <t>the "Authorization" header (see &header-authorization;) does not appear in the request, if 398 the cache is shared (unless the "public" directive is present; see <xref 399 target="header.cache-control" />), and</t> 400 <t>the cache understands partial responses, if the response is partial or incomplete 401 (see <xref target="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" />).</t> 402 </list> 403 </t> 404 <t>Note that in normal operation, most caches will not store a response that has neither a 405 cache validator nor an explicit expiration time, as such responses are not usually 406 useful to store. However, caches are not prohibited from storing such responses.</t> 407 408 <section anchor="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" 409 title="Storing Partial and Incomplete Responses"> 410 <t>A cache that receives an incomplete response (for example, with fewer bytes of data 411 than specified in a Content-Length header) can store the response, but &MUST; 412 treat it as a partial response &partial;. Partial responses 413 can be combined as described in &combining-byte-ranges;; the result might be a 414 full response or might still be partial. A cache &MUST-NOT; return a partial 415 response to a client without explicitly marking it as such using the 206 (Partial 416 Content) status code.</t> 417 <t>A cache that does not support the Range and Content-Range headers &MUST-NOT; store 418 incomplete or partial responses.</t> 419 </section> 420 421 </section> 422 423 424 <section anchor="constructing.responses.from.caches" 425 title="Constructing Responses from Caches"> 426 <t>For a presented request, a cache &MUST-NOT; return a stored response, unless: 427 <list style="symbols"> 428 <t>The presented Request-URI and that of the stored response match (see 429 <cref>TBD</cref>), and</t> 430 <t>the request method associated with the stored response allows it to be 431 used for the presented request, and</t> 432 <t>selecting request-headers nominated by the stored response (if any) match those presented (see <xref 433 target="caching.negotiated.responses" />), and</t> 434 <t>the presented request and stored response are free from directives that would prevent 435 its use (see <xref target="header.cache-control" /> and <xref target="header.pragma" 436 />), and</t> 437 <t>the stored response is either: 438 <list style="symbols"> 439 <t>fresh (see <xref target="expiration.model" />), or</t> 440 <t>allowed to be served stale (see <xref target="serving.stale.responses" />), or</t> 441 <t>successfully validated (see <xref target="validation.model" />).</t> 442 </list></t> 443 </list> 444 </t> 445 <t><cref>TODO: define method cacheability for GET, HEAD and POST in p2-semantics.</cref></t> 446 <t>When a stored response is used to satisfy a request, caches &MUST; include a 447 single Age header field <xref target="header.age" /> in the response with a value equal to the stored response's 448 current_age; see <xref target="age.calculations" />. 449 <cref>DISCUSS: this currently includes successfully validated responses.</cref></t> 450 <t>Requests with methods that are unsafe (&safe-methods;) &MUST; be written through the cache to 451 the origin server; i.e., A cache must not reply to such a request before having forwarded the request and having received a 452 corresponding response.</t> 453 <t>Also, note that unsafe requests might invalidate already stored responses; see 454 <xref target="invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions" />.</t> 455 <t>Caches &MUST; use the most recent response (as determined by the Date header) when 456 more than one suitable response is stored. They can also forward a request with 457 "Cache-Control: max-age=0" or "Cache-Control: no-cache" to disambiguate which response to 458 use.</t> 459 <t> 460 <cref>TODO: end-to-end and hop-by-hop headers, non-modifiable headers removed; re-spec in 461 p1</cref> 462 </t> 463 </section> 464 465 466 467 468 <section anchor="expiration.model" title="Freshness Model"> 469 470 <t>When a response is "fresh" in the cache, it can be used to satisfy subsequent 471 requests without contacting the origin server, thereby improving efficiency.</t> 472 <t>The primary mechanism for determining freshness is for an origin server to provide an 473 explicit expiration time in the future, using either the Expires header (<xref 474 target="header.expires" />) or the max-age response cache directive (<xref 475 target="cache-response-directive" />). Generally, origin servers will assign future 476 explicit expiration times to responses in the belief that the entity is not likely to 477 change in a semantically significant way before the expiration time is reached.</t> 478 <t>If an origin server wishes to force a cache to validate every request, it can 479 assign an explicit expiration time in the past. This means that the response is always 480 stale, so that caches should validate it before using it for subsequent requests. <cref>This wording may cause confusion, because the response may still be served stale.</cref></t> 481 <t>Since origin servers do not always provide explicit expiration times, HTTP caches may 482 also assign heuristic expiration times when they are not specified, employing algorithms that 483 use other header values (such as the Last-Modified time) to estimate a plausible 484 expiration time. The HTTP/1.1 specification does not provide specific algorithms, but does 485 impose worst-case constraints on their results.</t> 486 <t>The calculation to determine if a response is fresh is:</t> 487 <figure> 488 <artwork type="code"> 489 response_is_fresh = (freshness_lifetime > current_age) 490 </artwork> 491 </figure> 492 493 <t>The freshness_lifetime is defined in <xref target="calculating.freshness.lifetime" />; 494 the current_age is defined in <xref target="age.calculations" />.</t> 495 <t>Additionally, clients may need to influence freshness calculation. They can do this using 496 several request cache directives, with the effect of either increasing or loosening 497 constraints on freshness. See <xref target="cache-request-directive" />.</t> 498 <t> 499 <cref>ISSUE: there are not requirements directly applying to cache-request-directives and 500 freshness.</cref> 501 </t> 502 <t>Note that freshness applies only to cache operation; it cannot be used to force a user agent 503 to refresh its display or reload a resource. See <xref target="history.lists" /> for an explanation of 504 the difference between caches and history mechanisms.</t> 505 506 <section anchor="calculating.freshness.lifetime" title="Calculating Freshness Lifetime"> 507 <t>A cache can calculate the freshness lifetime (denoted as freshness_lifetime) of a 508 response by using the first match of: <list style="symbols"> 509 <t>If the cache is shared and the s-maxage response cache directive (<xref 510 target="cache-response-directive" />) is present, use its value, or</t> 511 <t>If the max-age response cache directive (<xref target="cache-response-directive" 512 />) is present, use its value, or</t> 513 <t>If the Expires response header (<xref target="header.expires" />) is present, use 514 its value minus the value of the Date response header, or</t> 515 <t>Otherwise, no explicit expiration time is present in the response, but a heuristic 516 may be used; see <xref target="heuristic.freshness" />.</t> 517 </list> 518 </t> 519 <t>Note that this calculation is not vulnerable to clock skew, since all of the 520 information comes from the origin server.</t> 521 522 <section anchor="heuristic.freshness" title="Calculating Heuristic Freshness"> 523 <t>If no explicit expiration time is present in a stored response that has a status code 524 of 200, 203, 206, 300, 301 or 410, a heuristic expiration time can be 525 calculated. Heuristics &MUST-NOT; be used for other response status codes. </t> 526 <t> When a heuristic is used to calculate freshness lifetime, the cache &SHOULD; 527 attach a Warning header with a 113 warn-code to the response if its current_age is 528 more than 24 hours and such a warning is not already present.</t> 529 <t>Also, if the response has a Last-Modified header (&header-last-modified;), the 530 heuristic expiration value &SHOULD; be no more than some fraction of the interval 531 since that time. A typical setting of this fraction might be 10%.</t> 532 <t> 533 <cref>REVIEW: took away HTTP/1.0 query string heuristic uncacheability.</cref> 534 </t> 535 </section> 536 </section> 537 538 <section anchor="age.calculations" title="Calculating Age"> 539 <t>HTTP/1.1 uses the Age response-header to convey the estimated age of the response 540 message when obtained from a cache. The Age field value is the cache's estimate of the 541 amount of time since the response was generated or validated by the origin server. In 542 essence, the Age value is the sum of the time that the response has been resident in 543 each of the caches along the path from the origin server, plus the amount of time it has 544 been in transit along network paths.</t> 545 <t>The term "age_value" denotes the value of the Age header, in a form appropriate for 546 arithmetic operations.</t> 547 <t>HTTP/1.1 requires origin servers to send a Date header, if possible, with every 548 response, giving the time at which the response was generated (see &header-date;). 549 The term "date_value" denotes the value of the Date header, in a form appropriate for 550 arithmetic operations.</t> 551 <t>The term "now" means "the current value of the clock at the host performing the 552 calculation." Hosts that use HTTP, but especially hosts running origin servers and 553 caches, &SHOULD; use NTP <xref target="RFC1305" /> or some similar protocol to 554 synchronize their clocks to a globally accurate time standard.</t> 555 <t>A response's age can be calculated in two entirely independent ways: <list 556 style="numbers"> 557 <t>now minus date_value, if the local clock is reasonably well synchronized to the 558 origin server's clock. If the result is negative, the result is replaced by zero.</t> 559 560 <t>age_value, if all of the caches along the response path implement HTTP/1.1.</t> 561 </list> 562 </t> 563 <t>These are combined as</t> 564 <figure> 565 <artwork type="code"> 820 566 corrected_received_age = max(now - date_value, age_value) 821 </artwork></figure> 822 <t> 823 and as long as we have either nearly synchronized clocks or all-HTTP/1.1 824 paths, one gets a reliable (conservative) result. 825 </t> 826 <t> 827 Because of network-imposed delays, some significant interval might 828 pass between the time that a server generates a response and the time 829 it is received at the next outbound cache or client. If uncorrected, 830 this delay could result in improperly low ages. 831 </t> 832 <t> 833 Because the request that resulted in the returned Age value must have 834 been initiated prior to that Age value's generation, we can correct 835 for delays imposed by the network by recording the time at which the 836 request was initiated. Then, when an Age value is received, it &MUST; 837 be interpreted relative to the time the request was initiated, not 838 the time that the response was received. This algorithm results in 839 conservative behavior no matter how much delay is experienced. So, we 840 compute: 841 </t> 842 <figure><artwork type="code"> 567 </artwork> 568 </figure> 569 <t>When an Age value is received, it &MUST; be interpreted relative to the time the 570 request was initiated, not the time that the response was received.</t> 571 <figure> 572 <artwork type="code"> 843 573 corrected_initial_age = corrected_received_age 844 574 + (now - request_time) 845 </artwork></figure> 846 <t> 847 where "request_time" is the time (according to the local clock) when 848 the request that elicited this response was sent. 849 </t> 850 <t> 851 Summary of age calculation algorithm, when a cache receives a 852 response: 853 </t> 854 <figure><artwork type="code"> 855 /* 856 * age_value 857 * is the value of Age: header received by the cache with 858 * this response. 859 * date_value 860 * is the value of the origin server's Date: header 861 * request_time 862 * is the (local) time when the cache made the request 863 * that resulted in this cached response 864 * response_time 865 * is the (local) time when the cache received the 866 * response 867 * now 868 * is the current (local) time 869 */ 575 </artwork> 576 </figure> 577 <t>where "request_time" is the time (according to the local clock) when the request that 578 elicited this response was sent.</t> 579 <t>The current_age of a stored response can then be calculated by adding the amount of 580 time (in seconds) since the stored response was last validated by the origin server to 581 the corrected_initial_age.</t> 582 <t>In summary:</t> 583 <figure> 584 <artwork type="code"> 585 age_value - Age header field-value received with the response 586 date_value - Date header field-value received with the response 587 request_time - local time when the cache made the request 588 resulting in the stored response 589 response_time - local time when the cache received the response 590 now - current local time 870 591 871 592 apparent_age = max(0, response_time - date_value); … … 875 596 resident_time = now - response_time; 876 597 current_age = corrected_initial_age + resident_time; 877 </artwork></figure> 878 <t> 879 The current_age of a cache entry is calculated by adding the amount 880 of time (in seconds) since the cache entry was last validated by the 881 origin server to the corrected_initial_age. When a response is 882 generated from a cache entry, the cache &MUST; include a single Age 883 header field in the response with a value equal to the cache entry's 884 current_age. 885 </t> 886 <t> 887 The presence of an Age header field in a response implies that a 888 response is not first-hand. However, the converse is not true, since 889 the lack of an Age header field in a response does not imply that the 890 response is first-hand unless all caches along the request path are 891 compliant with HTTP/1.1 (i.e., older HTTP caches did not implement 892 the Age header field). 893 </t> 894 </section> 895 896 <section title="Expiration Calculations" anchor="expiration.calculations"> 897 <t> 898 In order to decide whether a response is fresh or stale, we need to 899 compare its freshness lifetime to its age. The age is calculated as 900 described in <xref target="age.calculations"/>; this section describes how to calculate 901 the freshness lifetime, and to determine if a response has expired. 902 In the discussion below, the values can be represented in any form 903 appropriate for arithmetic operations. 904 </t> 905 <t> 906 We use the term "expires_value" to denote the value of the Expires 907 header. We use the term "max_age_value" to denote an appropriate 908 value of the number of seconds carried by the "max-age" directive of 909 the Cache-Control header in a response (see <xref target="modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism"/>). 910 </t> 911 <t> 912 The max-age directive takes priority over Expires, so if max-age is 913 present in a response, the calculation is simply: 914 </t> 915 <figure><artwork type="code"> 916 freshness_lifetime = max_age_value 917 </artwork></figure> 918 <t> 919 Otherwise, if Expires is present in the response, the calculation is: 920 </t> 921 <figure><artwork type="code"> 922 freshness_lifetime = expires_value - date_value 923 </artwork></figure> 924 <t> 925 Note that neither of these calculations is vulnerable to clock skew, 926 since all of the information comes from the origin server. 927 </t> 928 <t> 929 If none of Expires, Cache-Control: max-age, or Cache-Control: s-maxage 930 (see <xref target="modifications.of.the.basic.expiration.mechanism"/>) appears in the response, and the response 931 does not include other restrictions on caching, the cache &MAY; compute 932 a freshness lifetime using a heuristic. The cache &MUST; attach Warning 933 113 to any response whose age is more than 24 hours if such warning 934 has not already been added. 935 </t> 936 <t> 937 Also, if the response does have a Last-Modified time, the heuristic 938 expiration value &SHOULD; be no more than some fraction of the interval 939 since that time. A typical setting of this fraction might be 10%. 940 </t> 941 <t> 942 The calculation to determine if a response has expired is quite 943 simple: 944 </t> 945 <figure><artwork type="code"> 946 response_is_fresh = (freshness_lifetime > current_age) 947 </artwork></figure> 948 </section> 949 950 <section title="Disambiguating Expiration Values" anchor="disambiguating.expiration.values"> 951 <t> 952 Because expiration values are assigned optimistically, it is possible 953 for two caches to contain fresh values for the same resource that are 954 different. 955 </t> 956 <t> 957 If a client performing a retrieval receives a non-first-hand response 958 for a request that was already fresh in its own cache, and the Date 959 header in its existing cache entry is newer than the Date on the new 960 response, then the client &MAY; ignore the response. If so, it &MAY; 961 retry the request with a "Cache-Control: max-age=0" directive (see 962 <xref target="header.cache-control"/>), to force a check with the origin server. 963 </t> 964 <t> 965 If a cache has two fresh responses for the same representation with 966 different validators, it &MUST; use the one with the more recent Date 967 header. This situation might arise because the cache is pooling 968 responses from other caches, or because a client has asked for a 969 reload or a revalidation of an apparently fresh cache entry. 970 </t> 971 </section> 972 973 <section title="Disambiguating Multiple Responses" anchor="disambiguating.multiple.responses"> 974 <t> 975 Because a client might be receiving responses via multiple paths, so 976 that some responses flow through one set of caches and other 977 responses flow through a different set of caches, a client might 978 receive responses in an order different from that in which the origin 979 server sent them. We would like the client to use the most recently 980 generated response, even if older responses are still apparently 981 fresh. 982 </t> 983 <t> 984 Neither the entity tag nor the expiration value can impose an 985 ordering on responses, since it is possible that a later response 986 intentionally carries an earlier expiration time. The Date values are 987 ordered to a granularity of one second. 988 </t> 989 <t> 990 When a client tries to revalidate a cache entry, and the response it 991 receives contains a Date header that appears to be older than the one 992 for the existing entry, then the client &SHOULD; repeat the request 993 unconditionally, and include 994 </t> 995 <figure><artwork type="example"> 996 Cache-Control: max-age=0 997 </artwork></figure> 998 <t> 999 to force any intermediate caches to validate their copies directly 1000 with the origin server, or 1001 </t> 1002 <figure><artwork type="example"> 1003 Cache-Control: no-cache 1004 </artwork></figure> 1005 <t> 1006 to force any intermediate caches to obtain a new copy from the origin 1007 server. 1008 </t> 1009 <t> 1010 If the Date values are equal, then the client &MAY; use either response 1011 (or &MAY;, if it is being extremely prudent, request a new response). 1012 Servers &MUST-NOT; depend on clients being able to choose 1013 deterministically between responses generated during the same second, 1014 if their expiration times overlap. 1015 </t> 1016 </section> 1017 </section> 1018 1019 <section title="Validation Model" anchor="validation.model"> 1020 <t> 1021 When a cache has a stale entry that it would like to use as a 1022 response to a client's request, it first has to check with the origin 1023 server (or possibly an intermediate cache with a fresh response) to 1024 see if its cached entry is still usable. We call this "validating" 1025 the cache entry. 1026 </t> 1027 <t> 1028 HTTP's conditional request mechanism, defined in &conditional;, is 1029 used to avoid retransmitting the response payload when the cached entry 1030 is valid. When a cached response includes one or more "cache validators," 1031 such as the field values of an ETag or Last-Modified header field, then 1032 a validating GET request &SHOULD; be made conditional to those field values. 1033 The server checks the conditional request's validator against the current 1034 state of the requested resource and, if they match, the server responds 1035 with a 304 (Not Modified) status code to indicate that the cached response 1036 can be refreshed and reused without retransmitting the response payload. 1037 If the validator does not match the current state of the requested 1038 resource, then the server returns a full response, including payload, 1039 so that the request can be satisfied and the cache entry supplanted 1040 without the need for an additional network round-trip. 1041 </t> 1042 </section> 1043 1044 <section title="Response Cacheability" anchor="response.cacheability"> 1045 <t> 1046 Unless specifically constrained by a cache-control (<xref target="header.cache-control"/>) 1047 directive, a caching system &MAY; always store a successful response 1048 (see <xref target="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior"/>) as a cache entry, &MAY; return it without validation 1049 if it is fresh, and &MAY; return it after successful validation. If 1050 there is neither a cache validator nor an explicit expiration time 1051 associated with a response, we do not expect it to be cached, but 1052 certain caches &MAY; violate this expectation (for example, when little 1053 or no network connectivity is available). A client can usually detect 1054 that such a response was taken from a cache by comparing the Date 1055 header to the current time. 1056 <list><t> 1057 <x:h>Note:</x:h> some HTTP/1.0 caches are known to violate this expectation 1058 without providing any Warning. 1059 </t></list> 1060 </t> 1061 <t> 1062 However, in some cases it might be inappropriate for a cache to 1063 retain an entity, or to return it in response to a subsequent 1064 request. This might be because absolute semantic transparency is 1065 deemed necessary by the service author, or because of security or 1066 privacy considerations. Certain cache-control directives are 1067 therefore provided so that the server can indicate that certain 1068 resource entities, or portions thereof, are not to be cached 1069 regardless of other considerations. 1070 </t> 1071 <t> 1072 Note that &header-authorization; normally prevents a shared cache from saving 1073 and returning a response to a previous request if that request 1074 included an Authorization header. 1075 </t> 1076 <t> 1077 A response received with a status code of 200, 203, 206, 300, 301 or 1078 410 &MAY; be stored by a cache and used in reply to a subsequent 1079 request, subject to the expiration mechanism, unless a cache-control 1080 directive prohibits caching. However, a cache that does not support 1081 the Range and Content-Range headers &MUST-NOT; cache 206 (Partial 1082 Content) responses. 1083 </t> 1084 <t> 1085 A response received with any other status code (e.g. status codes 302 1086 and 307) &MUST-NOT; be returned in a reply to a subsequent request 1087 unless there are cache-control directives or another header(s) that 1088 explicitly allow it. For example, these include the following: an 1089 Expires header (<xref target="header.expires"/>); a "max-age", "s-maxage", "must-revalidate", 1090 "proxy-revalidate", "public" or "private" cache-control 1091 directive (<xref target="header.cache-control"/>). 1092 </t> 1093 </section> 1094 1095 <section title="Constructing Responses From Caches" anchor="constructing.responses.from.caches"> 1096 <t> 1097 The purpose of an HTTP cache is to store information received in 1098 response to requests for use in responding to future requests. In 1099 many cases, a cache simply returns the appropriate parts of a 1100 response to the requester. However, if the cache holds a cache entry 1101 based on a previous response, it might have to combine parts of a new 1102 response with what is held in the cache entry. 1103 </t> 1104 1105 <section title="End-to-end and Hop-by-hop Headers" anchor="end-to-end.and.hop-by-hop.headers"> 1106 <t> 1107 For the purpose of defining the behavior of caches and non-caching 1108 proxies, we divide HTTP headers into two categories: 1109 <list style="symbols"> 1110 <t>End-to-end headers, which are transmitted to the ultimate 1111 recipient of a request or response. End-to-end headers in 1112 responses &MUST; be stored as part of a cache entry and &MUST; be 1113 transmitted in any response formed from a cache entry.</t> 1114 1115 <t>Hop-by-hop headers, which are meaningful only for a single 1116 transport-level connection, and are not stored by caches or 1117 forwarded by proxies.</t> 1118 </list> 1119 </t> 1120 <t> 1121 The following HTTP/1.1 headers are hop-by-hop headers: 1122 <list style="symbols"> 1123 <t>Connection</t> 1124 <t>Keep-Alive</t> 1125 <t>Proxy-Authenticate</t> 1126 <t>Proxy-Authorization</t> 1127 <t>TE</t> 1128 <t>Trailer</t> 1129 <t>Transfer-Encoding</t> 1130 <t>Upgrade</t> 1131 </list> 1132 </t> 1133 <t> 1134 All other headers defined by HTTP/1.1 are end-to-end headers. 1135 </t> 1136 <t> 1137 Other hop-by-hop headers &MUST; be listed in a Connection header 1138 (&header-connection;). 1139 </t> 1140 </section> 1141 1142 <section title="Non-modifiable Headers" anchor="non-modifiable.headers"> 1143 <t> 1144 Some features of HTTP/1.1, such as Digest 1145 Authentication, depend on the value of certain end-to-end headers. A 1146 transparent proxy &SHOULD-NOT; modify an end-to-end header unless the 1147 definition of that header requires or specifically allows that. 1148 </t> 1149 <t> 1150 A transparent proxy &MUST-NOT; modify any of the following fields in a 1151 request or response, and it &MUST-NOT; add any of these fields if not 1152 already present: 1153 <list style="symbols"> 1154 <t>Content-Location</t> 1155 <t>Content-MD5</t> 1156 <t>ETag</t> 1157 <t>Last-Modified</t> 1158 </list> 1159 </t> 1160 <t> 1161 A transparent proxy &MUST-NOT; modify any of the following fields in a 1162 response: 1163 <list style="symbols"> 1164 <t>Expires</t> 1165 </list> 1166 </t> 1167 <t> 1168 but it &MAY; add any of these fields if not already present. If an 1169 Expires header is added, it &MUST; be given a field-value identical to 1170 that of the Date header in that response. 1171 </t> 1172 <t> 1173 A proxy &MUST-NOT; modify or add any of the following fields in a 1174 message that contains the no-transform cache-control directive, or in 1175 any request: 1176 <list style="symbols"> 1177 <t>Content-Encoding</t> 1178 <t>Content-Range</t> 1179 <t>Content-Type</t> 1180 </list> 1181 </t> 1182 <t> 1183 A non-transparent proxy &MAY; modify or add these fields to a message 1184 that does not include no-transform, but if it does so, it &MUST; add a 1185 Warning 214 (Transformation applied) if one does not already appear 1186 in the message (see <xref target="header.warning"/>). 1187 <list><t> 1188 Warning: unnecessary modification of end-to-end headers might 1189 cause authentication failures if stronger authentication 1190 mechanisms are introduced in later versions of HTTP. Such 1191 authentication mechanisms &MAY; rely on the values of header fields 1192 not listed here. 1193 </t></list> 1194 </t> 1195 <t> 1196 The Content-Length field of a request or response is added or deleted 1197 according to the rules in &message-length;. A transparent proxy &MUST; 1198 preserve the entity-length (&entity-length;) of the entity-body, 1199 although it &MAY; change the transfer-length (&message-length;). 1200 </t> 1201 </section> 1202 1203 <section title="Combining Headers" anchor="combining.headers"> 1204 <t> 1205 When a cache makes a validating request to a server, and the server 1206 provides a 304 (Not Modified) response or a 206 (Partial Content) 1207 response, the cache then constructs a response to send to the 1208 requesting client. 1209 </t> 1210 <t> 1211 If the status code is 304 (Not Modified), the cache uses the entity-body 1212 stored in the cache entry as the entity-body of this outgoing 1213 response. If the status code is 206 (Partial Content) and the ETag or 1214 Last-Modified headers match exactly, the cache &MAY; combine the 1215 contents stored in the cache entry with the new contents received in 1216 the response and use the result as the entity-body of this outgoing 1217 response, (see &combining-byte-ranges;). 1218 </t> 1219 <t> 1220 The end-to-end headers stored in the cache entry are used for the 1221 constructed response, except that 1222 <list style="symbols"> 1223 <t>any stored Warning headers with warn-code 1xx (see <xref target="header.warning"/>) 1224 &MUST; be deleted from the cache entry and the forwarded response.</t> 1225 <t>any stored Warning headers with warn-code 2xx &MUST; be retained 1226 in the cache entry and the forwarded response.</t> 1227 <t>any end-to-end headers provided in the 304 or 206 response &MUST; 1228 replace the corresponding headers from the cache entry.</t> 1229 </list> 1230 </t> 1231 <t> 1232 Unless the cache decides to remove the cache entry, it &MUST; also 1233 replace the end-to-end headers stored with the cache entry with 1234 corresponding headers received in the incoming response, except for 1235 Warning headers as described immediately above. If a header field-name 1236 in the incoming response matches more than one header in the 1237 cache entry, all such old headers &MUST; be replaced. 1238 </t> 1239 <t> 1240 In other words, the set of end-to-end headers received in the 1241 incoming response overrides all corresponding end-to-end headers 1242 stored with the cache entry (except for stored Warning headers with 1243 warn-code 1xx, which are deleted even if not overridden). 1244 <list><t> 1245 <x:h>Note:</x:h> this rule allows an origin server to use a 304 (Not 1246 Modified) or a 206 (Partial Content) response to update any header 1247 associated with a previous response for the same entity or sub-ranges 1248 thereof, although it might not always be meaningful or 1249 correct to do so. This rule does not allow an origin server to use 1250 a 304 (Not Modified) or a 206 (Partial Content) response to 1251 entirely delete a header that it had provided with a previous 1252 response. 1253 </t></list> 1254 </t> 1255 </section> 1256 1257 </section> 1258 1259 <section title="Caching Negotiated Responses" anchor="caching.negotiated.responses"> 1260 <t> 1261 Use of server-driven content negotiation (&server-driven-negotiation;), as indicated 1262 by the presence of a Vary header field in a response, alters the 1263 conditions and procedure by which a cache can use the response for 1264 subsequent requests. See <xref target="header.vary"/> for use of the Vary header 1265 field by servers. 1266 </t> 1267 <t> 1268 A server &SHOULD; use the Vary header field to inform a cache of what 1269 request-header fields were used to select among multiple 1270 representations of a cacheable response subject to server-driven 1271 negotiation. The set of header fields named by the Vary field value 1272 is known as the "selecting" request-headers. 1273 </t> 1274 <t> 1275 When the cache receives a subsequent request whose request-target 1276 specifies one or more cache entries including a Vary header field, 1277 the cache &MUST-NOT; use such a cache entry to construct a response to 1278 the new request unless all of the selecting request-headers present 1279 in the new request match the corresponding stored request-headers in 1280 the original request. 1281 </t> 1282 <t> 1283 The selecting request-headers from two requests are defined to match 1284 if and only if the selecting request-headers in the first request can 1285 be transformed to the selecting request-headers in the second request 1286 by adding or removing linear whitespace (LWS) at places where this 1287 is allowed by the corresponding BNF, and/or combining multiple 1288 message-header fields with the same field name following the rules 1289 about message headers in &message-headers;. 1290 </t> 1291 <t> 1292 A Vary header field-value of "*" always fails to match and subsequent 1293 requests on that resource can only be properly interpreted by the 1294 origin server. 1295 </t> 1296 <t> 1297 If the selecting request header fields for the cached entry do not 1298 match the selecting request header fields of the new request, then 1299 the cache &MUST-NOT; use a cached entry to satisfy the request unless 1300 it first relays the new request to the origin server in a conditional 1301 request and the server responds with 304 (Not Modified), including an 1302 entity tag or Content-Location that indicates the entity to be used. 1303 </t> 1304 <t> 1305 If an entity tag was assigned to a cached representation, the 1306 forwarded request &SHOULD; be conditional and include the entity tags 1307 in an If-None-Match header field from all its cache entries for the 1308 resource. This conveys to the server the set of entities currently 1309 held by the cache, so that if any one of these entities matches the 1310 requested entity, the server can use the ETag header field in its 304 1311 (Not Modified) response to tell the cache which entry is appropriate. 1312 If the entity-tag of the new response matches that of an existing 1313 entry, the new response &SHOULD; be used to update the header fields of 1314 the existing entry, and the result &MUST; be returned to the client. 1315 </t> 1316 <t> 1317 If any of the existing cache entries contains only partial content 1318 for the associated entity, its entity-tag &SHOULD-NOT; be included in 1319 the If-None-Match header field unless the request is for a range that 1320 would be fully satisfied by that entry. 1321 </t> 1322 <t> 1323 If a cache receives a successful response whose Content-Location 1324 field matches that of an existing cache entry for the same request-target, 1325 whose entity-tag differs from that of the existing entry, and 1326 whose Date is more recent than that of the existing entry, the 1327 existing entry &SHOULD-NOT; be returned in response to future requests 1328 and &SHOULD; be deleted from the cache. 1329 </t> 1330 </section> 1331 1332 <section title="Shared and Non-Shared Caches" anchor="shared.and.non-shared.caches"> 1333 <t> 1334 For reasons of security and privacy, it is necessary to make a 1335 distinction between "shared" and "non-shared" caches. A non-shared 1336 cache is one that is accessible only to a single user. Accessibility 1337 in this case &SHOULD; be enforced by appropriate security mechanisms. 1338 All other caches are considered to be "shared." Other sections of 1339 this specification place certain constraints on the operation of 1340 shared caches in order to prevent loss of privacy or failure of 1341 access controls. 1342 </t> 1343 </section> 1344 1345 <section title="Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior" anchor="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior"> 1346 <t> 1347 A cache that receives an incomplete response (for example, with fewer 1348 bytes of data than specified in a Content-Length header) &MAY; store 1349 the response. However, the cache &MUST; treat this as a partial 1350 response. Partial responses &MAY; be combined as described in &combining-byte-ranges;; 1351 the result might be a full response or might still be 1352 partial. A cache &MUST-NOT; return a partial response to a client 1353 without explicitly marking it as such, using the 206 (Partial 1354 Content) status code. A cache &MUST-NOT; return a partial response 1355 using a status code of 200 (OK). 1356 </t> 1357 <t> 1358 If a cache receives a 5xx response while attempting to revalidate an 1359 entry, it &MAY; either forward this response to the requesting client, 1360 or act as if the server failed to respond. In the latter case, it &MAY; 1361 return a previously received response unless the cached entry 1362 includes the "must-revalidate" cache-control directive (see <xref target="header.cache-control"/>). 1363 </t> 1364 </section> 1365 1366 <section title="Side Effects of GET and HEAD" anchor="side.effects.of.get.and.head"> 1367 <t> 1368 Unless the origin server explicitly prohibits the caching of their 1369 responses, the application of GET and HEAD methods to any resources 1370 &SHOULD-NOT; have side effects that would lead to erroneous behavior if 1371 these responses are taken from a cache. They &MAY; still have side 1372 effects, but a cache is not required to consider such side effects in 1373 its caching decisions. Caches are always expected to observe an 1374 origin server's explicit restrictions on caching. 1375 </t> 1376 <t> 1377 We note one exception to this rule: since some applications have 1378 traditionally used GET and HEAD requests with URLs containing a query part 1379 to perform operations with significant side 1380 effects, caches &MUST-NOT; treat responses to such URIs as fresh unless 1381 the server provides an explicit expiration time. This specifically 1382 means that responses from HTTP/1.0 servers for such URIs &SHOULD-NOT; 1383 be taken from a cache. See &safe-methods; for related information. 1384 </t> 1385 </section> 1386 1387 <section title="Invalidation After Updates or Deletions" anchor="invalidation.after.updates.or.deletions"> 1388 <t> 1389 The effect of certain methods performed on a resource at the origin 1390 server might cause one or more existing cache entries to become non-transparently 1391 invalid. That is, although they might continue to be 1392 "fresh," they do not accurately reflect what the origin server would 1393 return for a new request on that resource. 1394 </t> 1395 <t> 1396 There is no way for HTTP to guarantee that all such 1397 cache entries are marked invalid. For example, the request that 1398 caused the change at the origin server might not have gone through 1399 the proxy where a cache entry is stored. However, several rules help 1400 reduce the likelihood of erroneous behavior. 1401 </t> 1402 <t> 1403 In this section, the phrase "invalidate an entity" means that the 1404 cache will either remove all instances of that entity from its 1405 storage, or will mark these as "invalid" and in need of a mandatory 1406 revalidation before they can be returned in response to a subsequent 1407 request. 1408 </t> 1409 <t> 1410 Some HTTP methods &MUST; cause a cache to invalidate an entity. This is 1411 either the entity referred to by the request-target, or by the Location 1412 or Content-Location headers (if present). These methods are: 1413 <list style="symbols"> 1414 <t>PUT</t> 1415 <t>DELETE</t> 1416 <t>POST</t> 1417 </list> 1418 </t> 1419 <t> 1420 An invalidation based 1421 on the URI in a Location or Content-Location header &MUST-NOT; be 1422 performed if the host part of that URI differs from the host part 1423 in the request-target. This helps prevent denial of service attacks. 1424 </t> 1425 <t> 1426 A cache that passes through requests for methods it does not 1427 understand &SHOULD; invalidate any entities referred to by the 1428 request-target. 1429 </t> 1430 </section> 1431 1432 <section title="Write-Through Mandatory" anchor="write-through.mandatory"> 1433 <t> 1434 All methods that might be expected to cause modifications to the 1435 origin server's resources &MUST; be written through to the origin 1436 server. This currently includes all methods except for GET and HEAD. 1437 A cache &MUST-NOT; reply to such a request from a client before having 1438 transmitted the request to the inbound server, and having received a 1439 corresponding response from the inbound server. This does not prevent 1440 a proxy cache from sending a 100 (Continue) response before the 1441 inbound server has sent its final reply. 1442 </t> 1443 <t> 1444 The alternative (known as "write-back" or "copy-back" caching) is not 1445 allowed in HTTP/1.1, due to the difficulty of providing consistent 1446 updates and the problems arising from server, cache, or network 1447 failure prior to write-back. 1448 </t> 1449 </section> 1450 1451 <section title="Cache Replacement" anchor="cache.replacement"> 1452 <t> 1453 If a new cacheable (see Sections <xref target="what.may.be.stored.by.caches" format="counter"/>, 1454 <xref target="disambiguating.expiration.values" format="counter"/>, 1455 <xref target="disambiguating.multiple.responses" format="counter"/> 1456 and <xref target="errors.or.incomplete.response.cache.behavior" format="counter"/>) 1457 response is received from a resource while any existing responses for 1458 the same resource are cached, the cache &SHOULD; use the new response 1459 to reply to the current request. It &MAY; insert it into cache storage 1460 and &MAY;, if it meets all other requirements, use it to respond to any 1461 future requests that would previously have caused the old response to 1462 be returned. If it inserts the new response into cache storage the 1463 rules in <xref target="combining.headers"/> apply. 1464 <list><t> 1465 <x:h>Note:</x:h> a new response that has an older Date header value than 1466 existing cached responses is not cacheable. 1467 </t></list> 1468 </t> 1469 </section> 1470 1471 <section title="History Lists" anchor="history.lists"> 1472 <t> 1473 User agents often have history mechanisms, such as "Back" buttons and 1474 history lists, which can be used to redisplay an entity retrieved 1475 earlier in a session. 1476 </t> 1477 <t> 1478 History mechanisms and caches are different. In particular history 1479 mechanisms &SHOULD-NOT; try to show a semantically transparent view of 1480 the current state of a resource. Rather, a history mechanism is meant 1481 to show exactly what the user saw at the time when the resource was 1482 retrieved. 1483 </t> 1484 <t> 1485 By default, an expiration time does not apply to history mechanisms. 1486 If the entity is still in storage, a history mechanism &SHOULD; display 1487 it even if the entity has expired, unless the user has specifically 1488 configured the agent to refresh expired history documents. 1489 </t> 1490 <t> 1491 This is not to be construed to prohibit the history mechanism from 1492 telling the user that a view might be stale. 1493 <list><t> 1494 <x:h>Note:</x:h> if history list mechanisms unnecessarily prevent users from 1495 viewing stale resources, this will tend to force service authors 1496 to avoid using HTTP expiration controls and cache controls when 1497 they would otherwise like to. Service authors may consider it 1498 important that users not be presented with error messages or 1499 warning messages when they use navigation controls (such as BACK) 1500 to view previously fetched resources. Even though sometimes such 1501 resources ought not be cached, or ought to expire quickly, user 1502 interface considerations may force service authors to resort to 1503 other means of preventing caching (e.g. "once-only" URLs) in order 1504 not to suffer the effects of improperly functioning history 1505 mechanisms. 1506 </t></list> 1507 </t> 1508 </section> 1509 1510 <section title="Header Field Definitions" anchor="header.fields"> 1511 <t> 1512 This section defines the syntax and semantics of HTTP/1.1 header fields 1513 related to caching. 1514 </t> 1515 <t> 1516 For entity-header fields, both sender and recipient refer to either the 1517 client or the server, depending on who sends and who receives the entity. 1518 </t> 1519 1520 <section title="Age" anchor="header.age"> 1521 <iref primary="true" item="Age header" x:for-anchor=""/> 1522 <iref primary="true" item="Headers" subitem="Age" x:for-anchor=""/> 1523 <x:anchor-alias value="Age"/> 1524 <x:anchor-alias value="Age-v"/> 1525 <x:anchor-alias value="age-value"/> 1526 <t> 1527 The response-header field "Age" conveys the sender's estimate of the 1528 amount of time since the response (or its revalidation) was 1529 generated at the origin server. A cached response is "fresh" if 1530 its age does not exceed its freshness lifetime. Age values are 1531 calculated as specified in <xref target="age.calculations"/>. 1532 </t> 598 </artwork> 599 </figure> 600 </section> 601 602 <section anchor="serving.stale.responses" title="Serving Stale Responses"> 603 <t>A "stale" response is one that either has explicit expiry information, or is allowed to 604 have heuristic expiry calculated, but is not fresh according to the calculations in 605 <xref target="expiration.model" />.</t> 606 <t>Caches &MUST-NOT; return a stale response if it is prohibited by an explicit 607 in-protocol directive (e.g., by a "no-store" or "no-cache" cache directive, a 608 "must-revalidate" cache-response-directive, or an applicable "s-maxage" or 609 "proxy-revalidate" cache-response-directive; see <xref target="cache-response-directive" 610 />). </t> 611 <t>Caches &SHOULD-NOT; return stale responses unless they are 612 disconnected (i.e., it cannot contact the origin server or otherwise find a forward path) 613 or otherwise explicitly allowed (e.g., the max-stale request directive; see <xref target="cache-request-directive" />)..</t> 614 <t>Stale responses &SHOULD; have a Warning header with the 110 warn-code (see <xref 615 target="header.warning" />). Likewise, the 112 warn-code &SHOULD; be sent on stale responses if 616 the cache is disconnected.</t> 617 <t>If a cache receives a first-hand response (either an entire response, or a 304 (Not 618 Modified) response) that it would normally forward to the requesting client, and the 619 received response is no longer fresh, the cache &SHOULD; forward it to the 620 requesting client without adding a new Warning (but without removing any existing 621 Warning headers). A cache &SHOULD-NOT; attempt to validate a response simply because 622 that response became stale in transit.</t>