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PROPOSED STANDARD
Errata Exist
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) R. Fielding, Ed.
Request for Comments: 7231 Adobe
Obsoletes: 2616 J. Reschke, Ed.
Updates: 2817 greenbytes
Category: Standards Track June 2014
ISSN: 2070-1721
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content
Abstract
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a stateless application-
level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypertext information
systems. This document defines the semantics of HTTP/1.1 messages,
as expressed by request methods, request header fields, response
status codes, and response header fields, along with the payload of
messages (metadata and body content) and mechanisms for content
negotiation.
RFC 7231 HTTP/1.1 Semantics and Content June 2014
6.5.4. 404 Not Found
The 404 (Not Found) status code indicates that the origin server did
not find a current representation for the target resource or is not
willing to disclose that one exists. A 404 status code does not
indicate whether this lack of representation is temporary or
permanent; the 410 (Gone) status code is preferred over 404 if the
origin server knows, presumably through some configurable means, that
the condition is likely to be permanent.
A 404 response is cacheable by default; i.e., unless otherwise
indicated by the method definition or explicit cache controls (see
Section 4.2.2 of [RFC7234]).
Fielding & Reschke Standards Track [Page 59]