HTTP location

HTTP
Persistence Compression HTTPS QUIC
Request methods
OPTIONS GET HEAD POST PUT DELETE TRACE CONNECT PATCH
Header fields
Cookie ETag Location HTTP referer DNT X-Forwarded-For
Response status codes
301 Moved Permanently 302 Found 303 See Other 403 Forbidden 404 Not Found 451 Unavailable for Legal Reasons
Security access control methods
Basic access authentication Digest access authentication
Security vulnerabilities
HTTP header injection HTTP request smuggling HTTP response splitting HTTP parameter pollution
v t e

The HTTP Location header field is returned in responses from an HTTP server under two circumstances:

1. To ask a web browser to load a different web page (URL redirection). In this circumstance, the Location header should be sent with an HTTP status code of 3xx. It is passed as part of the response by a web server when the requested URI has:
   • Moved temporarily;
   • Moved permanently; or
   • Processed a request, e.g. a POSTed form, and is providing the result of that request at a different URI
2. To provide information about the location of a newly created resource. In this circumstance, the Location header should be sent with an HTTP status code of 201 or 202.^[1]

An obsolete version of the HTTP 1.1 specifications (IETF RFC 2616) required a complete absolute URI for redirection.^[2] The IETF HTTP working group found that the most popular web browsers tolerate the passing of a relative URL^[3] and, consequently, the updated HTTP 1.1 specifications (IETF RFC 7231) relaxed the original constraint, allowing the use of relative URLs in Location headers.^[4]