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Prefer Header for HTTP
draft-snell-http-prefer-13

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7240.
Author James M. Snell
Last updated 2012-08-20
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
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Send notices to jasnell@gmail.com, mnot@mnot.net, draft-snell-http-prefer@tools.ietf.org
draft-snell-http-prefer-13
Network Working Group                                           J. Snell
Internet-Draft                                           August 21, 2012
Intended status: Standards Track
Expires: February 22, 2013

                         Prefer Header for HTTP
                       draft-snell-http-prefer-13

Abstract

   This specification defines an HTTP header field that can be used by a
   client to request that certain behaviors be implemented by a server
   while processing a request.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 22, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  Syntax Notation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  The Prefer Request Header Field  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     2.1.  Content Negotiation and Cache Considerations . . . . . . .  5
     2.2.  Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  The "return-asynch" Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   4.  The "return-representation" Preference . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   5.  The "return-minimal" Preference  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   6.  The "wait" Preference  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   7.  The "strict" and "lenient" Processing Preferences  . . . . . .  9
   8.  Registered Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   9.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     9.1.  The Registry of Preferences  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       9.1.1.  Initial Registry Contents  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   10. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   11. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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1.  Introduction

   This specification defines a new HTTP request header field that can
   be used by clients to request optional behaviors be applied by a
   server during the processing the request.

   In this document, the key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED",
   "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY",
   and "OPTIONAL" are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

1.1.  Syntax Notation

   This specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF)
   notation of [RFC5234] and includes, by reference, the "word", "OWS",
   "BWS" rules and the #rule extension as defined within Sections 1.2
   and 3.2.4 of [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging].

2.  The Prefer Request Header Field

   The Prefer request-header field is used to indicate that particular
   server behaviors are preferred by the client, but not required for
   successful completion of the request.  Prefer is similar in nature to
   the Expect header field defined by Section 9.3 of
   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics] with the exception that servers are
   allowed to ignore stated preferences.

     Prefer     = "Prefer" ":" 1#preference
     preference = token [ BWS "=" BWS word ]
                  *( OWS ";" [ OWS parameter ] )
     parameter  = token [ BWS "=" BWS word ]

   This header field is defined with an extensible syntax to allow for
   future values included in the Registry of Preferences (Section 9.1).
   A server that does not recognize or is unable to comply with
   particular preference tokens in the Prefer header field of a request
   MUST ignore those tokens and MUST NOT stop processing or signal an
   error.

   A preference token MAY specify a value.  Empty, or zero length values
   on both the preference token and within parameters are equivalent to
   no value being specified at all.  The following, then, are
   equivalent:

     Prefer: foo; bar
     Prefer: foo; bar=""
     Prefer: foo=""; bar

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   An optional, arbitrary collection of parameters MAY be specified for
   any preference token.  The meaning and application of such parameters
   is dependent on the definition of each preference token and the
   server's implementation thereof.

   If a particular preference token or parameter is specified multiple
   times, repeated occurrences MUST be ignored without signaling an
   error or otherwise altering the processing of the request.

   Comparison of preference token names is case-insensitive while values
   are case-sensitive regardless of whether token or quoted-string
   values are used.

   The Prefer request header field MUST be forwarded by a proxy if the
   request is forwarded.  In various situations, a proxy can determine
   that it is capable of honoring a preference independently of the
   server to which the request is directed.  For instance, an
   intervening proxy can be capable of transparently providing
   asynchronous handling of a request using a 202 Accepted responses
   independently of the origin server.  Such proxies could choose to
   honor the "return-asynch" preference.  Individual preference tokens
   MAY define their own requirements and restrictions as to whether and
   how proxies can apply the preference to a request independently of
   the origin server.

   As per Section 3.2 of [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging],
   Implementations MUST be capable of supporting either multiple
   instances of the Prefer header field in a single message as well as
   multiple preference tokens separated by commas in a single Prefer
   header, for instance, the following examples are equivalent:

   Multiple Prefer Header Fields:

     POST /foo HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Prefer: return-asynch
     Prefer: wait=100
     Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:34:56 GMT

   Single Prefer Header Field:

     POST /foo HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Prefer: return-asynch, wait=100
     Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:34:56 GMT

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2.1.  Content Negotiation and Cache Considerations

   Note that while the Prefer header field is not intended to be used as
   content negotiation mechanism, the application of a preference
   potentially could affect the caching characteristics of a response.
   Specifically, if a server supports the optional application of a
   preference that could even potentially result in a variance to a
   cache's handling of a response entity, a Vary header field MUST be
   included with the response listing the Prefer header field regardless
   of whether the client actually uses Prefer in the request.

   Because of the inherent complexities involved with properly
   implementing server-driven content negotiation, effective caching,
   and the application of optional preferences, implementors must
   exercise caution when utilizing preferences in such a way as to
   impact the caching of a response and SHOULD avoid using the Prefer
   header mechanism for content negotiation.

2.2.  Examples

   The following examples illustrate the use of various Preferences
   defined by this specification, as well as undefined extensions for
   strictly illustrative purposes:

   Return a 202 Accepted response for asynchronous processing if the
   response cannot be processed within 10 seconds.  An undefined
   "priority" preference is also specified:

     Prefer: return-asynch, wait=10;
     Prefer: priority=5;

   Use lenient processing:

     Prefer: Lenient

   Use of an optional, undefined parameter on the return-minimal
   preference requesting a response status code of 204 for a successful
   response:

     Prefer: return-minimal; status=204

3.  The "return-asynch" Preference

   The "return-asynch" preference indicates that the client prefers the
   server to respond asynchronously to a response.  For instance, in the
   case when the length of time it takes to generate a response will
   exceed some arbitrary threshold established by the server, the server

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   can honor the return-asynch preference by returning either a 202
   Accepted or 303 See Other response.

     return-asynch = "return-asynch"

   The key motivation for the "return-asynch" preference is to
   facilitate the operation of asynchronous request handling by allowing
   the client to indicate to a server it's capability and preference for
   handling asynchronous responses.

   An example request specifying the "return-asynch" preference:

     POST /collection HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Content-Type: text/plain
     Prefer: return-asynch

     {Data}

   An example asynchronous response using 202 Accepted:

     HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
     Location: http://example.org/collection/123

   An alternative asynchronous response using 303 See Other:

     HTTP/1.1 303 See Other
     Location: http://example.org/collection/123
     Retry-After: 10

4.  The "return-representation" Preference

   The "return-representation" preference indicates that the client
   prefers that the server include an entity representing the current
   state of the resource in the response to a successful request.

     return-representation = "return-representation"

   When honoring the "return-representation" preference, the server MUST
   include a Content-Location header field specifying the URI of the
   resource representation being returned.  Per section 6.1 of
   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics], the presence of the Content-Location
   header field in the response asserts that the payload is a
   representation of the resource identified by the Content-Location
   URI.

   The "return-representation" preference is intended primarily to

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   provide a means of optimizing communication between the client and
   server by eliminating the need for a subsequent GET request to
   retrieve the current representation of the resource following a
   modification.

   Currently, after successfully processing a modification request such
   as a POST or PUT, a server can choose to return either an entity
   describing the status of the operation or a representation of the
   modified resource itself.  While the selection of which type of
   entity to return, if any at all, is solely at the discretion of the
   server, the "return-representation" preference -- along with the
   "return-minimal" preference defined below -- allow the server to take
   the client's preferences into consideration while constructing the
   response.

   An example request specifying the "return-representation" preference:

     PUT /collection/123 HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Content-Type: text/plain
     Prefer: return-representation

     {Data}

   An example response containing the resource representation:

     HTTP/1.1 200 OK
     Content-Location: http://example.org/collection/123
     Content-Type: text/plain
     ETag: "d3b07384d113edec49eaa6238ad5ff00"

     {Data}

5.  The "return-minimal" Preference

   The "return-minimal" preference indicates that the client wishes the
   server to return a minimal response to a successful request.
   Typically, such responses would utilize the 204 No Content status,
   but other codes MAY be used as appropriate, such as a 200 status with
   a zero-length response entity.  The determination of what constitutes
   an appropriate minimal response is solely at the discretion of the
   server.

     return-minimal = "return-minimal"

   The "return-minimal" preference is intended to provide a means of
   optimizing communication between the client and server by reducing

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   the amount of data the server is required to return to the client
   following a request.  This can be particularly useful, for instance,
   when communicating with limited-bandwidth mobile devices or when the
   client simply does not require any further information about the
   result of a request beyond knowing if it was successfully processed.

   An example request specifying the "return-minimal" preference:

     POST /collection HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Content-Type: text/plain
     Prefer: return-minimal

     {Data}

   An example minimal response:

     HTTP/1.1 201 Created
     Location: http://example.org/collection/123
     Content-Length: 0

   The "return-minimal" and "return-representation" preferences are
   mutually exclusive directives that SHOULD NOT be used in combination
   within a single request.

6.  The "wait" Preference

   The "wait" preference can be used to establish an upper bound on the
   length of time, in seconds, the client is willing to wait for a
   response, after which the client can choose to abandon the request.
   In the case generating a response will take longer than the time
   specified, the server, or proxy, MAY choose to utilize an
   asynchronous processing model by returning, for example, 202 Accepted
   or 303 See Other responses.

     wait = "wait" BWS "=" BWS delta-seconds

   Clients specifying the "wait" Preference SHOULD also use the Date
   header field, as specified in Section 9.2 of
   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics], within the request to establish the
   time at which the client began waiting for the completion of the
   request.  Failing to include a Date header field in the request would
   require the server to use the instant it received or began processing
   the request as the baseline for determining how long the client has
   been waiting which could yield unintended results.

   The lack of a Date header in the request, or poor clock

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   synchronization between the client and server makes it impossible to
   determine the exact length of time the client has already been
   waiting when the request is received by the server.  The only
   reliable information conveyed by the wait preference is that the
   client is not expecting the server to spend more than the specified
   time on request processing and can terminate the transaction at any
   time.

   An example request specifying the "wait" and "return-asynch"
   preferences to indicate that the client wishes the server to respond
   asynchronously if processing of the request will take longer than 10
   seconds:

     POST /collection HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Content-Type: text/plain
     Prefer: return-asynch, wait=10
     Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:34:56 GMT

     {Data}

7.  The "strict" and "lenient" Processing Preferences

   The "strict" and "lenient" preferences are mutually-exclusive
   directives indicating, at the servers discretion, how the client
   wishes the server to handle potential error conditions that can arise
   in the processing of a request.  For instance, if the payload of a
   request contains various minor syntactical or semantic errors, but
   the server is still capable of comprehending and successfully
   processing the request, a decision must be made to either reject the
   request with an appropriate 4xx error response or to go ahead with
   processing.  The "strict" preference can be used by the client to
   indicate that, in such conditions, it would prefer that the server
   reject the request, while the "lenient" preference indicates that the
   client would prefer the server to attempt to process the request.
   The specific meaning and application of the "strict" and "lenient"
   directives is specific to each type of resource, the request method
   and the operation of the server.

     handling = "strict" / "lenient"

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   An example request specifying the "strict" preference:

     POST /collection HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Content-Type: text/plain
     Prefer: strict

   An example request specifying the "lenient" preference:

     POST /collection HTTP/1.1
     Host: example.org
     Content-Type: text/plain
     Prefer: lenient

8.  Registered Preferences

   Well-defined preferences can be registered for convenience and/or to
   promote reuse by other applications.  This specification establishes
   an IANA registry of such relation types (see Section 9.1).

   Registered preference names MUST conform to the token rule, and MUST
   be compared character-by-character in a case-insensitive fashion.
   They SHOULD be appropriate to the specificity of the preference;
   i.e., if the semantics are highly specific to a particular
   application, the name should reflect that, so that more general names
   are available for less specific use.

   Registered preferences MUST NOT constrain servers, clients or any
   intermediaries involved in the exchange and processing of a request
   to any behavior required for successful processing.  The use and
   application of a preference within a given request MUST be optional
   on the part of all participants.

9.  IANA Considerations

   The 'Prefer' header field should be added to the permanent registry
   (see [RFC3864]).

      Header field name: Prefer
      Applicable Protocol: HTTP
      Status:
      Author: James M Snell <jasnell@gmail.com>
      Change controller: IETF
      Specification document: this specification

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9.1.  The Registry of Preferences

   Preferences are registered on the advice of a Designated Expert
   (appointed by the IESG or their delegate), with a Specification
   Required (using terminology from [RFC5226]).

   The requirements for registered preferences are described in
   Section 8.

   Registration requests consist of the completed registration template
   below, typically published in an RFC or Open Standard (in the sense
   described by Section 7 of [RFC2026]).  However, to allow for the
   allocation of values prior to publication, the Designated Expert can
   approve registration once they are satisfied that a specification
   will be published.

   Note that preferences can be registered by third parties, if the
   Designated Expert determines that an unregistered preference is
   widely deployed and not likely to be registered in a timely manner.

   The registration template is:

   o  Preference: (A value for the Prefer request header field that
      conforms to the syntax rule given in Section 2)
   o  Description:
   o  Reference:
   o  Notes: [optional]

   Registration requests should be sent to the preferences@ietf.org
   mailing list, marked clearly in the subject line (e.g., "NEW
   PREFERENCE - example" to register an "example" preference).

   Within at most 14 days of the request, the Designated Expert(s) will
   either approve or deny the registration request, communicating this
   decision to the review list and IANA.  Denials should include an
   explanation and, if applicable, suggestions as to how to make the
   request successful.

   Decisions (or lack thereof) made by the Designated Expert can be
   first appealed to Application Area Directors (contactable using
   app-ads@tools.ietf.org email address or directly by looking up their
   email addresses on http://www.iesg.org/ website) and, if the
   appellant is not satisfied with the response, to the full IESG (using
   the iesg@iesg.org mailing list).

   IANA should only accept registry updates from the Designated
   Expert(s), and should direct all requests for registration to the
   review mailing list.

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9.1.1.  Initial Registry Contents

   The Preferences Registry's initial contents are:

   o  Preference: return-asynch
   o  Description: Indicates that the client prefers the server to
      respond asynchronously to a request as described by Section 3
   o  Reference: [this specification]

   o  Preference: return-minimal
   o  Description: Indicates that the client prefers the server return a
      minimal response to a request as described by Section 5
   o  Reference: [this specification]

   o  Preference: return-representation
   o  Description: Indicates that the client prefers the server to
      include a representation of the current state of the resource in
      response to a request as described by Section 4
   o  Reference: [this specification]

   o  Preference: wait
   o  Description: Indicates an upper bound to the lenght of time the
      client is willing to wait for a response, after which the request
      can be aborted.
   o  Reference: [this specification]

   o  Preference: strict
   o  Description: Indicates that the client wishes the server to apply
      strict validation and error handling to the processing of a
      request.
   o  Reference: [this specification]

   o  Preference: lenient
   o  Description: Indicates that the client wishes the server to apply
      lenient validation and error handling to the processing of a
      request.
   o  Reference: [this specification]

10.  Security Considerations

   Specific preferences requested by a client can introduce security
   considerations and concerns beyond those discussed in HTTP/1.1 Parts
   1 [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging], 2 [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics],
   3 [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p3-payload], 4 [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional],
   5 [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p5-range], 6 [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p6-cache], and 7
   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p7-auth].  Implementors must refer to the
   specifications and descriptions of each preference to determine the

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   security considerations relevant to each.

   A server could incur greater costs in attempting to comply with a
   particular preference (for instance, the cost of providing a
   representation in a response that would not ordinarily contain one;
   or the commitment of resources necessary to track state for an
   asynchronous response).  Unconditional compliance from a server could
   allow the use of preferences for denial of service.  A server can
   ignore an expressed preference to avoid expending resources that it
   does not wish to commit.

11.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y., and
              J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and
              Message Parsing", draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-18 (work
              in progress), January 2012.

   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y., and
              J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics",
              draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-18 (work in progress),
              January 2012.

   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p3-payload]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y., and
              J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content
              Negotiation", draft-ietf-httpbis-p3-payload-18 (work in
              progress), January 2012.

   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y., and
              J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests",
              draft-ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional-18 (work in progress),
              January 2012.

   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p5-range]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y., and
              J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial
              Responses", draft-ietf-httpbis-p5-range-18 (work in
              progress), January 2012.

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   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p6-cache]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y.,
              Nottingham, M., and J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 6:
              Caching", draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache-18 (work in
              progress), January 2012.

   [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p7-auth]
              Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., Berners-Lee, T., Lafon, Y., and
              J. Reschke, "HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication",
              draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth-18 (work in progress),
              January 2012.

   [RFC2026]  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
              3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3864]  Klyne, G., Nottingham, M., and J. Mogul, "Registration
              Procedures for Message Header Fields", BCP 90, RFC 3864,
              September 2004.

   [RFC5226]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
              May 2008.

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

Author's Address

   James M Snell

   Email: jasnell@gmail.com

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