HTTP Pocket Reference

GET: Retrieve a Document

The GET method requests a document from a specific location on the server. This is the main method used for document retrieval. The response to a GET request can be generated by the server in many ways. For example, the response could come from:

• A file accessible by the web server

• The output of a CGI script or server extension language like NSAPI, ISAPI, Apache modules, Java Server Pages, Active Server Pages, etc.

• The result of a server computation, for instance real-time decompression of online files

• Information obtained from a hardware device, such as a video camera

After the client uses the GET method in its request, the server responds with a status line, headers, and data requested by the client. If the server cannot process the request, due to an error or lack of authorization, the server usually sends an explanation in the entity-body of the response.

For example:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, 
   image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*
Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE
   5.01; Windows NT)
Host: hypothetical.ora.com
Connection: Keep-Alive

The server responds with:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 20:54:26 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.6 (Unix)
Last-Modified: Fri, 04 Oct 1996 14:06:11 GMT
ETag: "2f5cd-964-381e1bd6"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-length: 327
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

(body of document here)