Where can I find a List of Standard HTTP Header Values?

Question

I'm looking for all the current standard header values a web server would generally receive. An example would be things like "what will the header look like when coming from a Mac running OS X Leopard and Camino installed?" or "what will the header look like when coming from Fedora 9 running Firefox 3.0.1 versus SuSe running Konqueror?"

PConroy gave an example from JQuery tending towards what I'm looking for. What I want though are the actual example headers.

Answer 1

There is no set-in-stone list of user agent values. You can find lengthy lists (such as this one used by the JQuery browser plugin).

Regarding other HTTP Headers, this wikipedia article is a good place to start.

Answer 2

Did you try the RFC? It has all that information.

Actually, when searching for information on any protocol or standard, try to search for the RFC first.

Cheers.

Answer 3

With regards to user-agent, that is entirely up to the creator of the application. See this semi tongue-in-cheek history of user-agent. In summary, there really isn't a canonical set of values. Microsoft based user-agents may change based on software installed on the local machine (version of .NET framework, etc).

Answer 4

For the user agent, a quick google search pulled up this site.

Answer 5

IANA keeps track of HTTP headers

IANA is responsible for maintaining many of the codes and numbers contained in a variety of Internet protocols, enumerated below. We provide this service in coordination with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Which includes:

Message Headers

• Permanent Message Header Field Names
• Provisional Message Header Field Names

Here's the exhaustive list which was originally based on RFC 4229

Answer 6

The list of HTTP headers is easily available on the W3 website:

• http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html

PConroy also linked to the wikipedia page, which is more concise, and a little easier formatted:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_headers

However, the "User-Agent" header is a bad example, since there's no set response; the user-agent string is decided by the client so it can literally be anything. There's a very comprehensive List of User Agents available, but it's not necessarily going to cover any possible option, since even some toolbars and applications can modify the user-agent for Internet Explorer or other browsers.

Answer 7

The chipmunk book from O'Reilly is good as is Chris Shiflett's HTTP reference.

Oh, whoops, it's not a chipmunk. It's a thirteen-lined ground squirrel.