6. Response

After receiving and interpreting a request message, a server responds in the form of an HTTP response message.

Response	=	Simple-Response | Full-Response
Simple-Response	=	[ Entity-Body ]
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

A Simple-Response should only be sent in response to an HTTP/0.9 Simple-Request or if the server only supports the more limited HTTP/0.9 protocol. If a client sends an HTTP/1.0 Full-Request and receives a response that does not begin with a Status-Line, it should assume that the response is a Simple-Response and parse it accordingly. Note that the Simple-Response consists only of the entity body and is terminated by the server closing the connection.

6.1 - Status-Line
6.2 - Status Codes and Reason Phrases
6.3 - Response Header Fields

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

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