How should a HTTP client handle a response without headers?

Question

I'm writing a HTTP client, and wondering if HTTP responses are required to have any headers?

So is the following a valid HTTP response? (where \r\n == CRLF). How should a client handle it?

HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n \r\n

The related questions Http response with no http header and What HTTP response headers are required are similar, but I think they are subtly-but-crucially different. They are both from the point of view of a server generating headers, rather than a parser parsing a response.

For example, a detailed answer to the current question could include how the client should interpret the above minimal response: whether it should accept the 200 response or abort, and what it should do with the underlying connection in terms of keeping it open or closing it.

check RFC2616 for further informations on this: tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616 — Thomas Schwärzl
– Thomas Schwärzl, Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 8:27
Possible duplicate of What HTTP response headers are required — GSerg
– GSerg, Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 8:44
Possible duplicate of What HTTP response headers are required — MSalters
– MSalters, Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 12:13

Julian Reschke · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-06 11:23:54Z

The syntax of the message is defined in RFC 7231 (see https://greenbytes.de/tech/webdav/rfc7230.html#http.message), and that says that header fields are syntactically optional. So a message parser should accept that.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How should a HTTP client handle a response without headers?

1 Answer 1

Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Linked

Related