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4. HTTP Message

4.1 Message Types

HTTP messages consist of requests from client to server and responses from server to client.

HTTP-message	=	Simple-Request		; HTTP/0.9 messages
	|	Simple-Response
	|	Full-Request	; HTTP/1.0 messages
	|	Full-Response
Full-Request and Full-Response use the generic message format of RFC 822 [8] for transferring entities. Both messages may include optional header fields (a.k.a. "headers") and an entity body. The entity body is separated from the headers by a null line (i.e., a line with nothing preceding the CRLF).

Full-Request	=	Request-Line		; Section 5.1
		*(	General-Header	; Section 4.3
		|	Request-Header	; Section 5.4
		|	Entity-Header )	; Section 7.1
		CRLF
		[ Entity-Body ]		; Section 7.2
Full-Response	=	Status-Line		; Section 6.1
		*(	General-Header	; Section 4.3
		|	Response-Header	; Section 6.3
		|	Entity-Header )	; Section 7.1
		CRLF
		[ Entity-Body ]		; Section 7.2
Simple-Request and Simple-Response do not allow the use of any header information and are limited to a single request method (GET).

Simple-Request	=	"GET" SP Request-URI CRLF
Simple-Response	=	[ Entity-Body ]
Use of the Simple-Request format is discouraged because it prevents the client from using content negotiation and the server from identifying the media type of the returned entity.

T. Berners-Lee, R. T. Fielding, H. Frystyk Nielsen - 12 MAR 95

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