Network Working Group R. Fielding
Request for Comments: 2068 UC Irvine
Category: Standards Track J. Gettys
J. Mogul
DEC
H. Frystyk
T. Berners-Lee
MIT/LCS
January 1997
Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level
protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information
systems. It is a generic, stateless, object-oriented protocol which
can be used for many tasks, such as name servers and distributed
object management systems, through extension of its request methods.
A feature of HTTP is the typing and negotiation of data
representation, allowing systems to be built independently of the
data being transferred.
HTTP has been in use by the World-Wide Web global information
initiative since 1990. This specification defines the protocol
referred to as "HTTP/1.1".
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.............................................7
1.1 Purpose ..............................................7
1.2 Requirements .........................................7
1.3 Terminology ..........................................8
1.4 Overall Operation ...................................11
2 Notational Conventions and Generic Grammar..............13
2.1 Augmented BNF .......................................13
2.2 Basic Rules .........................................15
3 Protocol Parameters.....................................17
3.1 HTTP Version ........................................17
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3.2 Uniform Resource Identifiers ........................18
3.2.1 General Syntax ...................................18
3.2.2 http URL .........................................19
3.2.3 URI Comparison ...................................20
3.3 Date/Time Formats ...................................21
3.3.1 Full Date ........................................21
3.3.2 Delta Seconds ....................................22
3.4 Character Sets ......................................22
3.5 Content Codings .....................................23
3.6 Transfer Codings ....................................24
3.7 Media Types .........................................25
3.7.1 Canonicalization and Text Defaults ...............26
3.7.2 Multipart Types ..................................27
3.8 Product Tokens ......................................28
3.9 Quality Values ......................................28
3.10 Language Tags ......................................28
3.11 Entity Tags ........................................29
3.12 Range Units ........................................30
4 HTTP Message............................................30
4.1 Message Types .......................................30
4.2 Message Headers .....................................31
4.3 Message Body ........................................32
4.4 Message Length ......................................32
4.5 General Header Fields ...............................34
5 Request.................................................34
5.1 Request-Line ........................................34
5.1.1 Method ...........................................35
5.1.2 Request-URI ......................................35
5.2 The Resource Identified by a Request ................37
5.3 Request Header Fields ...............................37
6 Response................................................38
6.1 Status-Line .........................................38
6.1.1 Status Code and Reason Phrase ....................39
6.2 Response Header Fields ..............................41
7 Entity..................................................41
7.1 Entity Header Fields ................................41
7.2 Entity Body .........................................42
7.2.1 Type .............................................42
7.2.2 Length ...........................................43
8 Connections.............................................43
8.1 Persistent Connections ..............................43
8.1.1 Purpose ..........................................43
8.1.2 Overall Operation ................................44
8.1.3 Proxy Servers ....................................45
8.1.4 Practical Considerations .........................45
8.2 Message Transmission Requirements ...................46
9 Method Definitions......................................48
9.1 Safe and Idempotent Methods .........................48
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9.1.1 Safe Methods .....................................48
9.1.2 Idempotent Methods ...............................49
9.2 OPTIONS .............................................49
9.3 GET .................................................50
9.4 HEAD ................................................50
9.5 POST ................................................51
9.6 PUT .................................................52
9.7 DELETE ..............................................53
9.8 TRACE ...............................................53
10 Status Code Definitions................................53
10.1 Informational 1xx ..................................54
10.1.1 100 Continue ....................................54
10.1.2 101 Switching Protocols .........................54
10.2 Successful 2xx .....................................54
10.2.1 200 OK ..........................................54
10.2.2 201 Created .....................................55
10.2.3 202 Accepted ....................................55
10.2.4 203 Non-Authoritative Information ...............55
10.2.5 204 No Content ..................................55
10.2.6 205 Reset Content ...............................56
10.2.7 206 Partial Content .............................56
10.3 Redirection 3xx ....................................56
10.3.1 300 Multiple Choices ............................57
10.3.2 301 Moved Permanently ...........................57
10.3.3 302 Moved Temporarily ...........................58
10.3.4 303 See Other ...................................58
10.3.5 304 Not Modified ................................58
10.3.6 305 Use Proxy ...................................59
10.4 Client Error 4xx ...................................59
10.4.1 400 Bad Request .................................60
10.4.2 401 Unauthorized ................................60
10.4.3 402 Payment Required ............................60
10.4.4 403 Forbidden ...................................60
10.4.5 404 Not Found ...................................60
10.4.6 405 Method Not Allowed ..........................61
10.4.7 406 Not Acceptable ..............................61
10.4.8 407 Proxy Authentication Required ...............61
10.4.9 408 Request Timeout .............................62
10.4.10 409 Conflict ...................................62
10.4.11 410 Gone .......................................62
10.4.12 411 Length Required ............................63
10.4.13 412 Precondition Failed ........................63
10.4.14 413 Request Entity Too Large ...................63
10.4.15 414 Request-URI Too Long .......................63
10.4.16 415 Unsupported Media Type .....................63
10.5 Server Error 5xx ...................................64
10.5.1 500 Internal Server Error .......................64
10.5.2 501 Not Implemented .............................64
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10.5.3 502 Bad Gateway .................................64
10.5.4 503 Service Unavailable .........................64
10.5.5 504 Gateway Timeout .............................64
10.5.6 505 HTTP Version Not Supported ..................65
11 Access Authentication..................................65
11.1 Basic Authentication Scheme ........................66
11.2 Digest Authentication Scheme .......................67
12 Content Negotiation....................................67
12.1 Server-driven Negotiation ..........................68
12.2 Agent-driven Negotiation ...........................69
12.3 Transparent Negotiation ............................70
13 Caching in HTTP........................................70
13.1.1 Cache Correctness ...............................72
13.1.2 Warnings ........................................73
13.1.3 Cache-control Mechanisms ........................74
13.1.4 Explicit User Agent Warnings ....................74
13.1.5 Exceptions to the Rules and Warnings ............75
13.1.6 Client-controlled Behavior ......................75
13.2 Expiration Model ...................................75
13.2.1 Server-Specified Expiration .....................75
13.2.2 Heuristic Expiration ............................76
13.2.3 Age Calculations ................................77
13.2.4 Expiration Calculations .........................79
13.2.5 Disambiguating Expiration Values ................80
13.2.6 Disambiguating Multiple Responses ...............80
13.3 Validation Model ...................................81
13.3.1 Last-modified Dates .............................82
13.3.2 Entity Tag Cache Validators .....................82
13.3.3 Weak and Strong Validators ......................82
13.3.4 Rules for When to Use Entity Tags and Last-
modified Dates..........................................85
13.3.5 Non-validating Conditionals .....................86
13.4 Response Cachability ...............................86
13.5 Constructing Responses From Caches .................87
13.5.1 End-to-end and Hop-by-hop Headers ...............88
13.5.2 Non-modifiable Headers ..........................88
13.5.3 Combining Headers ...............................89
13.5.4 Combining Byte Ranges ...........................90
13.6 Caching Negotiated Responses .......................90
13.7 Shared and Non-Shared Caches .......................91
13.8 Errors or Incomplete Response Cache Behavior .......91
13.9 Side Effects of GET and HEAD .......................92
13.10 Invalidation After Updates or Deletions ...........92
13.11 Write-Through Mandatory ...........................93
13.12 Cache Replacement .................................93
13.13 History Lists .....................................93
14 Header Field Definitions...............................94
14.1 Accept .............................................95
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14.2 Accept-Charset .....................................97
14.3 Accept-Encoding ....................................97
14.4 Accept-Language ....................................98
14.5 Accept-Ranges ......................................99
14.6 Age ................................................99
14.7 Allow .............................................100
14.8 Authorization .....................................100
14.9 Cache-Control .....................................101
14.9.1 What is Cachable ...............................103
14.9.2 What May be Stored by Caches ...................103
14.9.3 Modifications of the Basic Expiration Mechanism 104
14.9.4 Cache Revalidation and Reload Controls .........105
14.9.5 No-Transform Directive .........................107
14.9.6 Cache Control Extensions .......................108
14.10 Connection .......................................109
14.11 Content-Base .....................................109
14.12 Content-Encoding .................................110
14.13 Content-Language .................................110
14.14 Content-Length ...................................111
14.15 Content-Location .................................112
14.16 Content-MD5 ......................................113
14.17 Content-Range ....................................114
14.18 Content-Type .....................................116
14.19 Date .............................................116
14.20 ETag .............................................117
14.21 Expires ..........................................117
14.22 From .............................................118
14.23 Host .............................................119
14.24 If-Modified-Since ................................119
14.25 If-Match .........................................121
14.26 If-None-Match ....................................122
14.27 If-Range .........................................123
14.28 If-Unmodified-Since ..............................124
14.29 Last-Modified ....................................124
14.30 Location .........................................125
14.31 Max-Forwards .....................................125
14.32 Pragma ...........................................126
14.33 Proxy-Authenticate ...............................127
14.34 Proxy-Authorization ..............................127
14.35 Public ...........................................127
14.36 Range ............................................128
14.36.1 Byte Ranges ...................................128
14.36.2 Range Retrieval Requests ......................130
14.37 Referer ..........................................131
14.38 Retry-After ......................................131
14.39 Server ...........................................132
14.40 Transfer-Encoding ................................132
14.41 Upgrade ..........................................132
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14.42 User-Agent .......................................134
14.43 Vary .............................................134
14.44 Via ..............................................135
14.45 Warning ..........................................137
14.46 WWW-Authenticate .................................139
15 Security Considerations...............................139
15.1 Authentication of Clients .........................139
15.2 Offering a Choice of Authentication Schemes .......140
15.3 Abuse of Server Log Information ...................141
15.4 Transfer of Sensitive Information .................141
15.5 Attacks Based On File and Path Names ..............142
15.6 Personal Information ..............................143
15.7 Privacy Issues Connected to Accept Headers ........143
15.8 DNS Spoofing ......................................144
15.9 Location Headers and Spoofing .....................144
16 Acknowledgments.......................................144
17 References............................................146
18 Authors' Addresses....................................149
19 Appendices............................................150
19.1 Internet Media Type message/http ..................150
19.2 Internet Media Type multipart/byteranges ..........150
19.3 Tolerant Applications .............................151
19.4 Differences Between HTTP Entities and
MIME Entities...........................................152
19.4.1 Conversion to Canonical Form ...................152
19.4.2 Conversion of Date Formats .....................153
19.4.3 Introduction of Content-Encoding ...............153
19.4.4 No Content-Transfer-Encoding ...................153
19.4.5 HTTP Header Fields in Multipart Body-Parts .....153
19.4.6 Introduction of Transfer-Encoding ..............154
19.4.7 MIME-Version ...................................154
19.5 Changes from HTTP/1.0 .............................154
19.5.1 Changes to Simplify Multi-homed Web Servers and
Conserve IP Addresses .................................155
19.6 Additional Features ...............................156
19.6.1 Additional Request Methods .....................156
19.6.2 Additional Header Field Definitions ............156
19.7 Compatibility with Previous Versions ..............160
19.7.1 Compatibility with HTTP/1.0 Persistent
Connections............................................161
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1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
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. The first version of HTTP,
referred to as HTTP/0.9, was a simple protocol for raw data transfer
across the Internet. HTTP/1.0, as defined by RFC 1945 [6], improved
the protocol by allowing messages to be in the format of MIME-like
messages, containing metainformation about the data transferred and
modifiers on the request/response semantics. However, HTTP/1.0 does
not sufficiently take into consideration the effects of hierarchical
proxies, caching, the need for persistent connections, and virtual
hosts. In addition, the proliferation of incompletely-implemented
applications calling themselves "HTTP/1.0" has necessitated a
protocol version change in order for two communicating applications
to determine each other's true capabilities.
This specification defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1".
This protocol includes more stringent requirements than HTTP/1.0 in
order to ensure reliable implementation of its features.
Practical information systems require more functionality than simple
retrieval, including search, front-end update, and annotation. HTTP
allows an open-ended set of methods that indicate the purpose of a
request. It builds on the discipline of reference provided by the
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) [3][20], as a location (URL) [4] or
name (URN) , for indicating the resource to which a method is to be
applied. Messages are passed in a format similar to that used by
Internet mail as defined by the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME).
HTTP is also used as a generic protocol for communication between
user agents and proxies/gateways to other Internet systems, including
those supported by the SMTP [16], NNTP [13], FTP [18], Gopher [2],
and WAIS [10] protocols. In this way, HTTP allows basic hypermedia
access to resources available from diverse applications.
1.2 Requirements
This specification uses the same words as RFC 1123 [8] for defining
the significance of each particular requirement. These words are:
MUST
This word or the adjective "required" means that the item is an
absolute requirement of the specification.
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SHOULD
This word or the adjective "recommended" means that there may
exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore this
item, but the full implications should be understood and the case
carefully weighed before choosing a different course.
MAY
This word or the adjective "optional" means that this item is
truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because
a particular marketplace requires it or because it enhances the
product, for example; another vendor may omit the same item.
An implementation is not compliant if it fails to satisfy one or more
of the MUST requirements for the protocols it implements. An
implementation that satisfies all the MUST and all the SHOULD
requirements for its protocols is said to be "unconditionally
compliant"; one that satisfies all the MUST requirements but not all
the SHOULD requirements for its protocols is said to be
"conditionally compliant."
1.3 Terminology
This specification uses a number of terms to refer to the roles
played by participants in, and objects of, the HTTP communication.
connection
A transport layer virtual circuit established between two programs
for the purpose of communication.
message
The basic unit of HTTP communication, consisting of a structured
sequence of octets matching the syntax defined in section 4 and
transmitted via the connection.
request
An HTTP request message, as defined in section 5.
response
An HTTP response message, as defined in section 6.
resource
A network data object or service that can be identified by a URI,
as defined in section 3.2. Resources may be available in multiple
representations (e.g. multiple languages, data formats, size,
resolutions) or vary in other ways.
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entity
The information transferred as the payload of a request or
response. An entity consists of metainformation in the form of
entity-header fields and content in the form of an entity-body, as
described in section 7.
representation
An entity included with a response that is subject to content
negotiation, as described in section 12. There may exist multiple
representations associated with a particular response status.
content negotiation
The mechanism for selecting the appropriate representation when
servicing a request, as described in section 12. The
representation of entities in any response can be negotiated
(including error responses).
variant
A resource may have one, or more than one, representation(s)
associated with it at any given instant. Each of these
representations is termed a `variant.' Use of the term `variant'
does not necessarily imply that the resource is subject to content
negotiation.
client
A program that establishes connections for the purpose of sending
requests.
user agent
The client which initiates a request. These are often browsers,
editors, spiders (web-traversing robots), or other end user tools.
server
An application program that accepts connections in order to
service requests by sending back responses. Any given program may
be capable of being both a client and a server; our use of these
terms refers only to the role being performed by the program for a
particular connection, rather than to the program's capabilities
in general. Likewise, any server may act as an origin server,
proxy, gateway, or tunnel, switching behavior based on the nature
of each request.
origin server
The server on which a given resource resides or is to be created.
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proxy
An intermediary program which acts as both a server and a client
for the purpose of making requests on behalf of other clients.
Requests are serviced internally or by passing them on, with
possible translation, to other servers. A proxy must implement
both the client and server requirements of this specification.
gateway
A server which acts as an intermediary for some other server.
Unlike a proxy, a gateway receives requests as if it were the
origin server for the requested resource; the requesting client
may not be aware that it is communicating with a gateway.
tunnel
An intermediary program which is acting as a blind relay between
two connections. Once active, a tunnel is not considered a party
to the HTTP communication, though the tunnel may have been
initiated by an HTTP request. The tunnel ceases to exist when both
ends of the relayed connections are closed.
cache
A program's local store of response messages and the subsystem
that controls its message storage, retrieval, and deletion. A
cache stores cachable responses in order to reduce the response
time and network bandwidth consumption on future, equivalent
requests. Any client or server may include a cache, though a cache
cannot be used by a server that is acting as a tunnel.
cachable
A response is cachable if a cache is allowed to store a copy of
the response message for use in answering subsequent requests. The
rules for determining the cachability of HTTP responses are
defined in section 13. Even if a resource is cachable, there may
be additional constraints on whether a cache can use the cached
copy for a particular request.
first-hand
A response is first-hand if it comes directly and without
unnecessary delay from the origin server, perhaps via one or more
proxies. A response is also first-hand if its validity has just
been checked directly with the origin server.
explicit expiration time
The time at which the origin server intends that an entity should
no longer be returned by a cache without further validation.
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heuristic expiration time
An expiration time assigned by a cache when no explicit expiration
time is available.
age
The age of a response is the time since it was sent by, or
successfully validated with, the origin server.
freshness lifetime
The length of time between the generation of a response and its
expiration time.
fresh
A response is fresh if its age has not yet exceeded its freshness
lifetime.
stale
A response is stale if its age has passed its freshness lifetime.
semantically transparent
A cache behaves in a "semantically transparent" manner, with
respect to a particular response, when its use affects neither the
requesting client nor the origin server, except to improve
performance. When a cache is semantically transparent, the client
receives exactly the same response (except for hop-by-hop headers)
that it would have received had its request been handled directly
by the origin server.
validator
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
copy of an entity.
1.4 Overall Operation
The HTTP protocol is a request/response protocol. A client sends a
request to the server in the form of a request method, URI, and
protocol version, followed by a MIME-like message containing request
modifiers, client information, and possible body content over a
connection with a server. The server responds with a status line,
including the message's protocol version and a success or error code,
followed by a MIME-like message containing server information, entity
metainformation, and possible entity-body content. The relationship
between HTTP and MIME is described in appendix 19.4.
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Most HTTP communication is initiated by a user agent and consists of
a request to be applied to a resource on some origin server. In the
simplest case, this may be accomplished via a single connection (v)
between the user agent (UA) and the origin server (O).
request chain ------------------------>
UA -------------------v------------------- O
<----------------------- response chain
A more complicated situation occurs when one or more intermediaries
are present in the request/response chain. There are three common
forms of intermediary: proxy, gateway, and tunnel. A proxy is a
forwarding agent, receiving requests for a URI in its absolute form,
rewriting all or part of the message, and forwarding the reformatted
request toward the server identified by the URI. A gateway is a
receiving agent, acting as a layer above some other server(s) and, if
necessary, translating the requests to the underlying server's
protocol. A tunnel acts as a relay point between two connections
without changing the messages; tunnels are used when the
communication needs to pass through an intermediary (such as a
firewall) even when the intermediary cannot understand the contents
of the messages.
request chain -------------------------------------->
UA -----v----- A -----v----- B -----v----- C -----v----- O
<------------------------------------- response chain
The figure above shows three intermediaries (A, B, and C) between the
user agent and origin server. A request or response message that
travels the whole chain will pass through four separate connections.
This distinction is important because some HTTP communication options
may apply only to the connection with the nearest, non-tunnel
neighbor, only to the end-points of the chain, or to all connections
along the chain. Although the diagram is linear, each participant
may be engaged in multiple, simultaneous communications. For example,
B may be receiving requests from many clients other than A, and/or
forwarding requests to servers other than C, at the same time that it
is handling A's request.
Any party to the communication which is not acting as a tunnel may
employ an internal cache for handling requests. The effect of a cache
is that the request/response chain is shortened if one of the
participants along the chain has a cached response applicable to that
request. The following illustrates the resulting chain if B has a
cached copy of an earlier response from O (via C) for a request which
has not been cached by UA or A.
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request chain ---------->
UA -----v----- A -----v----- B - - - - - - C - - - - - - O
<--------- response chain
Not all responses are usefully cachable, and some requests may
contain modifiers which place special requirements on cache behavior.
HTTP requirements for cache behavior and cachable responses are
defined in section 13.
In fact, there are a wide variety of architectures and configurations
of caches and proxies currently being experimented with or deployed
across the World Wide Web; these systems include national hierarchies
of proxy caches to save transoceanic bandwidth, systems that
broadcast or multicast cache entries, organizations that distribute
subsets of cached data via CD-ROM, and so on. HTTP systems are used
in corporate intranets over high-bandwidth links, and for access via
PDAs with low-power radio links and intermittent connectivity. The
goal of HTTP/1.1 is to support the wide diversity of configurations
already deployed while introducing protocol constructs that meet the
needs of those who build web applications that require high
reliability and, failing that, at least reliable indications of
failure.
HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The
default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not
preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on
the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable
transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used;
the mapping of the HTTP/1.1 request and response structures onto the
transport data units of the protocol in question is outside the scope
of this specification.
In HTTP/1.0, most implementations used a new connection for each
request/response exchange. In HTTP/1.1, a connection may be used for
one or more request/response exchanges, although connections may be
closed for a variety of reasons (see section 8.1).
2 Notational Conventions and Generic Grammar
2.1 Augmented BNF
All of the mechanisms specified in this document are described in
both prose and an augmented Backus-Naur Form (BNF) similar to that
used by RFC 822 [9]. Implementers will need to be familiar with the
notation in order to understand this specification. The augmented BNF
includes the following constructs:
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name = definition
The name of a rule is simply the name itself (without any enclosing
"<" and ">") and is separated from its definition by the equal "="
character. Whitespace is only significant in that indentation of
continuation lines is used to indicate a rule definition that spans
more than one line. Certain basic rules are in uppercase, such as
SP, LWS, HT, CRLF, DIGIT, ALPHA, etc. Angle brackets are used
within definitions whenever their presence will facilitate
discerning the use of rule names.
"literal"
Quotation marks surround literal text. Unless stated otherwise, the
text is case-insensitive.
rule1 | rule2
Elements separated by a bar ("|") are alternatives, e.g., "yes |
no" will accept yes or no.
(rule1 rule2)
Elements enclosed in parentheses are treated as a single element.
Thus, "(elem (foo | bar) elem)" allows the token sequences "elem
foo elem" and "elem bar elem".
*rule
The character "*" preceding an element indicates repetition. The
full form is "<n>*<m>element" indicating at least <n> and at most
<m> occurrences of element. Default values are 0 and infinity so
that "*(element)" allows any number, including zero; "1*element"
requires at least one; and "1*2element" allows one or two.
[rule]
Square brackets enclose optional elements; "[foo bar]" is
equivalent to "*1(foo bar)".
N rule
Specific repetition: "<n>(element)" is equivalent to
"<n>*<n>(element)"; that is, exactly <n> occurrences of (element).
Thus 2DIGIT is a 2-digit number, and 3ALPHA is a string of three
alphabetic characters.
#rule
A construct "#" is defined, similar to "*", for defining lists of
elements. The full form is "<n>#<m>element " indicating at least
<n> and at most <m> elements, each separated by one or more commas
(",") and optional linear whitespace (LWS). This makes the usual
form of lists very easy; a rule such as "( *LWS element *( *LWS ","
*LWS element )) " can be shown as "1#element". Wherever this
construct is used, null elements are allowed, but do not contribute
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RFC 2068 HTTP/1.1 January 1997
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