HTTP                                                      M. Kleidl, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                               Transloadit
Intended status: Standards Track                           G. Zhang, Ed.
Expires: 18 September 2025                                    Apple Inc.
                                                          L. Pardue, Ed.
                                                              Cloudflare
                                                           17 March 2025


                       Resumable Uploads for HTTP
                 draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-07

Abstract

   Data transfer using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol ([HTTP]) is often
   interrupted by canceled requests or dropped connections.  If the
   intended recipient can indicate how much of the data was received
   prior to interruption, a sender can resume data transfer at that
   point instead of attempting to transfer all of the data again.  HTTP
   range requests support this concept of resumable downloads from
   server to client.  This document describes a mechanism that supports
   resumable uploads from client to server using HTTP.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Status information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-
   upload/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the HTTP Working Group
   mailing list (mailto:ietf-http-wg@w3.org), which is archived at
   https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/.  Working Group
   information can be found at https://httpwg.org/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/httpwg/http-extensions/labels/resumable-upload.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted 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 https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.



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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 18 September 2025.

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   Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Example 1: Complete upload of representation data with
           known size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Example 2: Upload as a series of parts  . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Upload Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.1.  State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.1.1.  Offset  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.1.2.  Completeness  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.1.3.  Length  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.1.4.  Limits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.2.  Upload Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       4.2.1.  Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       4.2.2.  Server Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       4.2.3.  Draft Version Identification  . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
       4.2.4.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     4.3.  Offset Retrieval  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
       4.3.1.  Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
       4.3.2.  Server Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
       4.3.3.  Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
     4.4.  Upload Append . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
       4.4.1.  Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
       4.4.2.  Server Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
       4.4.3.  Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22



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     4.5.  Upload Cancellation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
       4.5.1.  Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
       4.5.2.  Server Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
       4.5.3.  Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     4.6.  Concurrency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
   5.  Media Type application/partial-upload . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
   6.  Problem Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     6.1.  Mismatching Offset  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     6.2.  Completed Upload  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     6.3.  Inconsistent Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
   7.  Content Codings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   8.  Transfer Codings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   9.  Integrity Digests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     9.1.  Representation Digests  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     9.2.  Content Digests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   10. Subsequent Resources  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   11. Upload Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
     11.1.  Optimistic Upload Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
       11.1.1.  Upgrading To Resumable Uploads . . . . . . . . . . .  29
     11.2.  Careful Upload Creation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
   12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   13. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
   14. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
     14.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
     14.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
   Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-06  . . . . . . . . .  35
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-05  . . . . . . . . .  35
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-04  . . . . . . . . .  35
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-03  . . . . . . . . .  35
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-02  . . . . . . . . .  36
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-01  . . . . . . . . .  36
     Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-00  . . . . . . . . .  36
     Since draft-tus-httpbis-resumable-uploads-protocol-02 . . . . .  36
     Since draft-tus-httpbis-resumable-uploads-protocol-01 . . . . .  36
     Since draft-tus-httpbis-resumable-uploads-protocol-00 . . . . .  37
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37

1.  Introduction

   Data transfer using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol ([HTTP]) is often
   interrupted by canceled requests or dropped connections.  If the
   intended recipient can indicate how much of the data was received
   prior to interruption, a sender can resume data transfer at that
   point instead of attempting to transfer all of the data again.  HTTP
   range requests (see Section 14 of [HTTP]) support this concept of
   resumable data transfers for downloads from server to client.



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   This specification defines a mechanism for resumable uploads from
   client to server in a way that is backwards-compatible with
   conventional HTTP uploads.  When an upload is interrupted, clients
   can send subsequent requests to query the server state and use this
   information to send the remaining representation data.
   Alternatively, they can cancel the upload entirely.  Unlike ranged
   downloads, this protocol does not support transferring an upload as
   multiple requests in parallel.

   Utilizing resumable uploads, applications can recover from unintended
   interruptions, but also interrupt an upload on purpose to later
   resume it, for example, when a user wants to pause an upload, the
   device's network connectivity changes, or bandwidth should be saved
   for higher priority tasks.

2.  Conventions and Definitions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

   The terms Byte Sequence, Item, String, Token, Integer, and Boolean
   are imported from [STRUCTURED-FIELDS].

   The terms "representation", "representation data", "representation
   metadata", "content", "client" and "server" are from Section 3 of
   [HTTP].

   The term "URI" is used as defined in Section 4 of [HTTP].

   The term "patch document" is taken from [PATCH].

   An _upload resource_ is a temporary resource on the server that
   facilitates the resumable upload of one representation (Section 4).

3.  Overview

   Resumable uploads are supported in HTTP through use of a temporary
   resource, an _upload resource_ (Section 4), that is separate from the
   resource being uploaded to and specific to that upload.  By
   interacting with the upload resource, a client can retrieve the
   current offset of the upload (Section 4.3), append to the upload
   (Section 4.4), and cancel the upload (Section 4.5).






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   The remainder of this section uses examples to illustrate different
   interactions with the upload resource.  HTTP message exchanges, and
   thereby resumable uploads, use representation data (see Section 8.1
   of [HTTP]).  This means that resumable uploads can be used with many
   forms of content, such as static files, in-memory buffers, data from
   streaming sources, or on-demand generated data.

3.1.  Example 1: Complete upload of representation data with known size

   In this example, the client first attempts to upload representation
   data with a known size in a single HTTP request to the resource at
   /project/123/files.  An interruption occurs and the client then
   attempts to resume the upload using subsequent HTTP requests to the
   upload resource at /uploads/abc.

   1) The client notifies the server that it wants to begin an upload
   (Section 4.2).  The server reserves the required resources to accept
   the upload from the client, and the client begins transferring the
   entire representation data in the request content.

   An interim response can be sent to the client, which signals the
   server's support of resumable upload as well as the upload resource's
   URI via the Location header field (Section 10.2.2 of [HTTP]).

   Client                                  Server
   |                                            |
   | POST /project/123/files                    |
   | Upload-Complete: ?1                        |
   |------------------------------------------->|
   |                                            |
   |                                            | Reserve resources
   |                                            | for upload
   |                                            |-----------------.
   |                                            |                 |
   |                                            |<----------------'
   |                                            |
   |            104 Upload Resumption Supported |
   |            Location: /uploads/abc          |
   |<-------------------------------------------|
   |                                            |
   X--------------Flow Interrupted--------------X

                         Figure 1: Upload Creation








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   2) If the connection to the server is interrupted, the client might
   want to resume the upload.  However, before this is possible the
   client needs to know the amount of representation data that the
   server received before the interruption.  It does so by retrieving
   the offset (Section 4.3) from the upload resource.

   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | HEAD /uploads/abc                               |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                204 No Content   |
   |                                Upload-Offset: X |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

                         Figure 2: Offset Retrieval

   3) The client can resume the upload by sending the remaining
   representation data to the upload resource (Section 4.4), appending
   to the already stored representation data in the upload.  The Upload-
   Offset value is included to ensure that the client and server agree
   on the offset that the upload resumes from.  Once the remaining
   representation data is transferred, the server processes the entire
   representation and responds with whatever the initial request to
   /project/123/files would have produced if it had not been
   interrupted, e.g. a 200 (OK) response.

   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | PATCH /uploads/abc                              |
   | Upload-Complete: ?1                             |
   | Upload-Offset: X                                |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                          200 OK |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

                          Figure 3: Upload Append

   4) If the client is not interested in completing the upload, it can
   instruct the upload resource to delete the upload and free all
   related resources (Section 4.5).







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   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | DELETE /uploads/abc                             |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                  204 No Content |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

                       Figure 4: Upload Cancellation

3.2.  Example 2: Upload as a series of parts

   In some cases, clients might prefer to upload a representation as a
   series of parts sent serially across multiple HTTP messages.  One use
   case is to overcome server limits on HTTP message content size.
   Another use case is where the client does not know the final size of
   the representation data, such as when the data originates from a
   streaming source.

   This example shows how the client, with prior knowledge about the
   server's resumable upload support, can upload parts of a
   representation incrementally.

   1) If the client is aware that the server supports resumable upload,
   it can start an upload with the Upload-Complete field value set to
   false and the first part of the representation.

   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | POST /project/123/files                         |
   | Upload-Complete: ?0                             |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                     201 Created |
   |                          Location: /uploads/abc |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

         Figure 5: Upload creation with partial representation data

   2) Subsequent, intermediate parts are appended (Section 4.4) with the
   Upload-Complete field value set to false, indicating that they are
   not the last part of the representation data.  The offset value in
   the Upload-Offset header field is taken from the previous response
   when creating the upload or appending to it.





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   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | PATCH /uploads/abc                              |
   | Upload-Complete: ?0                             |
   | Upload-Offset: X                                |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                  204 No Content |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

         Figure 6: Appending partial representation data to upload

   3) If the connection was interrupted, the client might want to resume
   the upload, similar to the previous example (Section 3.1).  The
   client retrieves the offset (Section 4.3) to learn the amount of
   representation data received by the server and then continues
   appending the remaining parts to the upload as in the previous step.

   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | HEAD /uploads/abc                               |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                  204 No Content |
   |                                Upload-Offset: Y |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |
   | PATCH /uploads/abc                              |
   | Upload-Complete: ?0                             |
   | Upload-Offset: Y                                |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                  204 No Content |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

                  Figure 7: Resuming an interrupted upload

   4) The request to append the last part of the representation data has
   a Upload-Complete field value set to true to indicate the complete
   transfer.  Once the remaining representation data is transferred, the
   server processes the entire representation and responds with whatever
   the initial request to /project/123/files would have produced if it
   had received the entire representation, e.g. a 200 (OK) response.






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   Client                                       Server
   |                                                 |
   | PATCH /uploads/abc                              |
   | Upload-Offset: Z                                |
   | Upload-Complete: ?1                             |
   |------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                 |
   |                                          200 OK |
   |<------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                 |

             Figure 8: Appending remaining representation data

4.  Upload Resource

   A resumable upload is enabled through interaction with an upload
   resource.  When a resumable upload begins, the server is asked to
   create an upload resource through a request to another resource
   (Section 4.2).  This upload resource is responsible for handling the
   upload of a representation.  Using the upload resource, the client
   can query the upload progress (Section 4.3), append representation
   data (Section 4.4), or cancel the upload (Section 4.5).

   An upload resource is specific to the upload of one representation.
   For uploading multiple representations, multiple upload resources
   have to be used.

4.1.  State

   The state of an upload consists of the following properties that are
   tracked by the upload resource.

4.1.1.  Offset

   The offset is the number of bytes from the representation data that
   have been received, either during the creation of the upload resource
   (Section 4.2) and by appending to it (Section 4.4).

   The offset is represented by the Upload-Offset request and response
   header field.  Its field value is an Integer.

   The Upload-Offset header field is used to synchronize the client and
   resource regarding the amount of transferred representation data.
   The offset can be retrieved from the upload resource (Section 4.3)
   and is required when appending representation data (Section 4.4).






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   Representation data received by the upload resource cannot be removed
   again and, therefore, the offset MUST NOT decrease.  If the upload
   resource loses representation data, the server MUST consider the
   upload resource invalid and reject further interaction with it.

   The Upload-Offset header field in responses serves as an
   acknowledgement of the received representation data and as a
   guarantee that no retransmission of it will be necessary.  Clients
   can use this guarantee to free resources associated to transferred
   representation data.

4.1.2.  Completeness

   An upload is incomplete until it is explicitly marked as completed by
   the client.  After this point, no representation data can be appended
   anymore.

   The completeness state is represented by the Upload-Complete request
   and response header field.  Its field value is a Boolean, whose value
   is true if the upload is complete.

   An upload is marked as completed if a request for creating the upload
   resource (Section 4.2) or appending to it (Section 4.4) included the
   Upload-Complete header field with a true value and the request
   content was fully received.

4.1.3.  Length

   The length of an upload is the number of bytes of representation data
   that the client intends to upload.

   Even the client might not know the total length of the representation
   data when starting the transfer, for example, because the
   representation is taken from a streaming source.  However, a client
   SHOULD communicate the length to the upload resource as soon as it
   becomes known.  There are two different ways for the client to
   indicate and the upload resource to discover the length from requests
   for creating the upload resource (Section 4.2) or appending to it
   (Section 4.4):

   *  If the request includes the Upload-Complete field value set to
      true and a valid Content-Length header field, the request content
      is the remaining representation data.  The length is then the sum
      of the current offset (Section 4.1.1) and the Content-Length
      header field value.






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   *  The request can include the Upload-Length header field, whose
      value is the number of bytes of the entire representation data as
      an Integer.

   If both indicators are present in the same request, their indicated
   lengths MUST match.  If multiple requests include indicators, their
   indicated values MUST match.  A server MAY use the problem type
   [PROBLEM] of "https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-
   types#inconsistent-upload-length" (Section 6.3) in responses to
   indicates inconsistent length values.

   The upload resource might not know the length until the upload is
   complete.

   Note that the length and offset values do not determine whether an
   upload is complete.  Instead, the client uses the Upload-Complete
   (Section 4.1.2) header field to indicate that a request completes the
   upload.  The offset could match the length, but the upload can still
   be incomplete.

4.1.4.  Limits

   An upload resource MAY enforce one or multiple limits, which are
   communicated to the client via the Upload-Limit response header
   field.  Its field value is a Dictionary, where each limit is
   identified by a key and carries a value:

   *  The max-size limit specifies a maximum size for the representation
      data, counted in bytes.  The server MAY not create an upload
      resource if the length (Section 4.1.3) deduced from the upload
      creation request is larger than the maximum size.  The upload
      resource MAY stop the upload if the offset (Section 4.1.1) exceeds
      the maximum size.  The value is an Integer.

   *  The min-size limit specifies a minimum size for the representation
      data, counted in bytes.  The server MAY not create an upload
      resource if the length (Section 4.1.3) deduced from the upload
      creation request is smaller than the minimum size or no length can
      be deduced at all.  The value is an Integer.

   *  The max-append-size limit specifies a maximum size counted in
      bytes for the request content in a single upload append request
      (Section 4.4).  The server MAY reject requests exceeding this
      limit and a client SHOULD NOT send larger upload append requests.
      The value is an Integer.






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   *  The min-append-size limit specifies a minimum size counted in
      bytes for the request content in a single upload append request
      (Section 4.4).  The server MAY reject requests below this limit
      and a client SHOULD NOT send such requests.  The value is an
      Integer.  Requests completing the upload by including the Upload-
      Complete: ?1 header field are exempt from this limit.

   *  The max-age limit specifies the remaining lifetime of the upload
      resource in seconds counted from the generation of the response.
      After the resource's lifetime is reached, the server MAY make the
      upload resource inaccessible and a client SHOULD NOT attempt to
      access the upload resource.  The lifetime MAY be extended but
      SHOULD NOT be reduced.  The value is an Integer.

   Except for the max-age limit, the existence of a limit or its value
   MUST NOT change throughout the lifetime of the upload resource.

   When parsing the Upload-Limit header field, unrecognized keys MUST be
   ignored and MUST NOT fail the parsing to facilitate the addition of
   new limits in the future.

   A server that supports the creation of a resumable upload resource
   (Section 4.2) under a target URI MUST include the Upload-Limit header
   field with the corresponding limits in a response to an OPTIONS
   request sent to this target URI.  If a server supports the creation
   of upload resources for any target URI, it MUST include the Upload-
   Limit header field with the corresponding limits in a response to an
   OPTIONS request with the * target.  The limits announced in an
   OPTIONS response SHOULD NOT be less restrictive than the limits
   applied to an upload once the upload resource has been created.  If
   the server does not apply any limits, it MUST use min-size=0 instead
   of an empty header value.  A client can use an OPTIONS request to
   discover support for resumable uploads and potential limits before
   creating an upload resource.

4.2.  Upload Creation

4.2.1.  Client Behavior

   A client can start a resumable upload from any request that can carry
   content by including the Upload-Complete header field
   (Section 4.1.2).  As a consequence, all request methods that allow
   content are possible, such as POST, PUT, and PATCH.








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   The Upload-Complete header field is set to true if the request
   content includes the entire representation data that the client
   intends to upload.  This is also a requirement for transparently
   upgrading to resumable uploads from traditional uploads
   (Section 11.1.1).

   If the client knows the representation data's length, it SHOULD
   include the Upload-Length header field (Section 4.1.3) in the request
   to help the server allocate necessary resources for the upload and
   provide early feedback if the representation violates a limit
   (Section 4.1.4).

   The client SHOULD respect any limits (Section 4.1.4) announced in the
   Upload-Limit header field in interim or final responses.  In
   particular, if the allowed maximum size is less than the amount of
   representation data the client intends to upload, the client SHOULD
   stop the current request immediately and cancel the upload
   (Section 4.5).

   The request content MAY be empty.  If the Upload-Complete header
   field is then set to true, the client intends to upload an empty
   representation.  An Upload-Complete header field is set to false is
   also valid.  This can be used to retrieve the upload resource's URI
   before transferring any representation data.  Since interim responses
   are optional, this technique provides another mechanism to learn the
   URI, at the cost of an additional round-trip before data upload can
   commence.

   Representation metadata included in the initial request (see
   Section 8.3 of [HTTP]) can affect how servers act on the uploaded
   representation data.  The Content-Type header field (Section 8.3 of
   [HTTP]) indicates the media type of the representation.  The Content-
   Disposition header field ([CONTENT-DISPOSITION]) can be used to
   transmit a filename.  The Content-Encoding header field (Section 8.4
   of [HTTP]) names the content codings applied to the representation.

   If the client received a final response with a

   *  2xx (Successful) status code and the entire representation data
      was transferred in the request content, the upload is complete and
      the response belongs to the targeted resource processing the
      representation.

   *  2xx (Successful) status code and not the entire representation
      data was transferred in the request content, the Location response
      header field points the client to the created upload resource.
      The client can continue appending representation data to it
      (Section 4.4).



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   *  4xx (Client Error) status code, the client SHOULD NOT attempt to
      retry or resume the upload.

   *  5xx (Server Error) status code or no final response at all due to
      connectivity issues, the client MAY automatically attempt upload
      resumption by retrieving the current offset (Section 4.3) if it
      received the URI of the upload resource in a 104 (Upload
      Resumption Supported) interim response.

4.2.2.  Server Behavior

   Upon receiving a request with the Upload-Complete header field, the
   server can choose to offer resumption support by creating an upload
   resource.  If so, it SHOULD announce the upload resource by sending
   an interim response with the 104 (Upload Resumption Supported) status
   code and the Location header field pointing to the upload resource.
   The interim response MAY include the Upload-Limit header field with
   the corresponding limits (Section 4.1.4).  The interim response
   allows the client to resume the upload even if the message exchange
   gets later interrupted.

   The resource targeted by this initial request is responsible for
   processing the representation data transferred in the resumable
   upload according to the method and header fields in the initial
   request, while the upload resource enables resuming the transfer.

   If the Upload-Complete request header field is set to true, the
   client intends to transfer the entire representation data in one
   request.  If the request content was fully received, no resumable
   upload is needed and the resource proceeds to process the request and
   generate a response.

   If the Upload-Complete header field is set to false, the client
   intends to transfer the representation over multiple requests.  If
   the request content was fully received, the server MUST announce the
   upload resource by referencing it in the Location response header
   field.  Servers are RECOMMENDED to use the 201 (Created) status code.
   The response SHOULD include the Upload-Limit header field with the
   corresponding limits if existing.

   The server MUST record the length according to Section 4.1.3 if the
   necessary header fields are included in the request.

   While the request content is being received, the server MAY send
   additional interim responses with a 104 (Upload Resumption Supported)
   status code and the Upload-Offset header field set to the current
   offset to inform the client about the upload progress.  These interim
   responses MUST NOT include the Location header field.



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   If the server does not receive the entire request content, for
   example because of canceled requests or dropped connections, it
   SHOULD append as much of the request content as possible to the
   upload resource.  The upload resource MUST NOT be considered complete
   then.

4.2.3.  Draft Version Identification

      *RFC Editor's Note:* Please remove this section and Upload-Draft-
      Interop-Version from all examples prior to publication of a final
      version of this document.

   The current interop version is 7.

   Client implementations of draft versions of the protocol MUST send a
   header field Upload-Draft-Interop-Version with the interop version as
   its value to its requests.  The Upload-Draft-Interop-Version field
   value is an Integer.

   Server implementations of draft versions of the protocol MUST NOT
   send a 104 (Upload Resumption Supported) informational response when
   the interop version indicated by the Upload-Draft-Interop-Version
   header field in the request is missing or mismatching.

   Server implementations of draft versions of the protocol MUST also
   send a header field Upload-Draft-Interop-Version with the interop
   version as its value to the 104 (Upload Resumption Supported)
   informational response.

   Client implementations of draft versions of the protocol MUST ignore
   a 104 (Upload Resumption Supported) informational response with
   missing or mismatching interop version indicated by the Upload-Draft-
   Interop-Version header field.

   The reason both the client and the server are sending and checking
   the draft version is to ensure that implementations of the final RFC
   will not accidentally interop with draft implementations, as they
   will not check the existence of the Upload-Draft-Interop-Version
   header field.

4.2.4.  Examples

   A) The following example shows an upload creation, where the entire
   100 bytes are transferred in the initial request.  The server sends
   multiple interim responses and one final response from processing the
   uploaded representation.





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   POST /project/123/files HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Upload-Complete: ?1
   Content-Length: 100
   Upload-Length: 100

   [content (100 bytes)]

   HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff
   Upload-Limit: max-size=1000000000

   HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Upload-Offset: 50

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff
   Upload-Limit: max-size=1000000000
   Content-Type: application/json

   {"attachmentId": "b530ce8ff"}

   B) The following example shows an upload creation, where only the
   first 25 bytes of a 100 bytes upload are transferred.  The server
   acknowledges the received representation data and that the upload is
   not complete yet.  The client can continue appending data.

   POST /upload HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Upload-Complete: ?0
   Content-Length: 25
   Upload-Length: 100

   [partial content (25 bytes)]

   HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff

   HTTP/1.1 201 Created
   Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff
   Upload-Limit: max-size=1000000000





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   C) The following example shows an upload creation, where the server
   responds with a 5xx status code.  Thanks to the interim response
   containing the upload resource URI, the client can resume the upload.

   POST /upload HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Upload-Complete: ?1
   Content-Length: 100
   Upload-Length: 100

   [content (100 bytes)]

   HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff

   HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error

   D) The following example shows an upload creation being rejected by
   the server.  The client cannot continue the upload.

   POST /upload HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Upload-Complete: ?1
   Content-Length: 100
   Upload-Length: 100

   [content (100 bytes)]

   HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

4.3.  Offset Retrieval

4.3.1.  Client Behavior

   If the client wants to resume the upload after an interruption, it
   has to know the amount of representation data received by the upload
   resource so far.  It can fetch the offset by sending a HEAD request
   to the upload resource.  Upon a successful response, the client can
   continue the upload by appending representation data (Section 4.4)
   starting at the offset indicated by the Upload-Offset response header
   field.

   The offset can be less than or equal to the number of bytes of
   representation data that the client has already sent.  The client MAY
   reject an offset which is greater than the number of bytes it has



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   already sent during this upload.  The client is expected to handle
   backtracking of a reasonable length.  If the offset is invalid for
   this upload, or if the client cannot backtrack to the offset and
   reproduce the same representation data it has already sent, the
   upload MUST be considered a failure.  The client MAY cancel the
   upload (Section 4.5) after rejecting the offset.

   The client MUST NOT perform offset retrieval while creation
   (Section 4.2) or appending (Section 4.4) is in progress.  In
   addition, the client SHOULD NOT automatically retry if a 4xx (Client
   Error) status code is received.

   If the client received a response with a

   *  2xx (Successful) status code, the client can continue appending
      representation data to it (Section 4.4) if the upload is not
      complete yet.

   *  307 (Temporary Redirect) or 308 (Permanent Redirect) status code,
      the client MAY retry retrieving the offset from the new URI.

   *  4xx (Client Error) status code, the client SHOULD NOT attempt to
      retry or resume the upload.

   *  5xx (Server Error) status code or no final response at all due to
      connectivity issues, the client MAY retry retrieving the offset.

4.3.2.  Server Behavior

   A successful response to a HEAD request against an upload resource

   *  MUST include the offset in the Upload-Offset header field
      (Section 4.1.1),

   *  MUST include the completeless state in the Upload-Complete header
      field (Section 4.1.2),

   *  MUST include the length in the Upload-Length header field if known
      (Section 4.1.3),

   *  MAY indicate the limits in the Upload-Limit header field
      (Section 4.1.4), and

   *  SHOULD include the Cache-Control header field with the value no-
      store to prevent HTTP caching ([CACHING]).

   The resource MUST NOT generate a response with the 301 (Moved
   Permanently) and 302 (Found) status codes.



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4.3.3.  Example

   A) The following example shows an offset retrieval request.  The
   server indicates the current offset and that the upload is not
   complete yet.  The client can continue to append representation data.

   HEAD /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7

   HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   Upload-Offset: 100
   Upload-Complete: ?0
   Upload-Length: 500
   Upload-Limit: max-age=3600
   Cache-Control: no-store

   B) The following example shows on offset retrieval request for a
   completed upload.  The client does not need to continue the upload.

   HEAD /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7

   HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   Upload-Offset: 500
   Upload-Complete: ?1
   Upload-Length: 500
   Cache-Control: no-store

4.4.  Upload Append

4.4.1.  Client Behavior

   A client can continue the upload and append representation data by
   sending a PATCH request with the application/partial-upload media
   type to the upload resource.  The request content is the
   representation data to append.

   The client MUST indicate the offset of the request content inside the
   representation data by including the Upload-Offset request header
   field.  To ensure that the upload resource will accept request, the
   offset SHOULD be taken from an immediate previous response for
   retrieving the offset (Section 4.3) or appending representation data
   (Section 4.4).






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   The request MUST include the Upload-Complete header field.  Its value
   is true if the end of the request content is the end of the
   representation data.  If the content is then fully received by the
   upload resource, the upload will be complete.

   The request content MAY be empty.  If the Upload-Complete field is
   then set to true, the client wants to complete the upload without
   appending additional representation data.

   If the client received a final response with a

   *  2xx (Successful) status code and the remaining representation data
      was transferred in the request content, the upload is complete and
      the corresponding response belongs to the resource processing the
      representation according to the initial request (see Section 4.2).

   *  2xx (Successful) status code and not the entire remaining
      representation data was transferred in the request content, the
      client can continue appending representation data.

   *  307 (Temporary Redirect) or 308 (Permanent Redirect) status code,
      the client MAY retry appending to the new URI.

   *  4xx (Client Error) status code, the client SHOULD NOT attempt to
      retry or resume the upload.

   *  5xx (Server Error) status code or no final response at all due to
      connectivity issues, the client MAY automatically attempt upload
      resumption by retrieving the current offset (Section 4.3).

4.4.2.  Server Behavior

   An upload resource applies a PATCH request with the application/
   partial-upload media type by appending the patch document in the
   request content to the upload resource.

   If the upload resource does not receive the entire patch document,
   for example because of canceled requests or dropped connections, it
   SHOULD append as much of the patch document starting at its beginning
   and without discontinuities as possible.  Appending a continuous
   section starting at the patch document's beginning constitutes a
   successful PATCH as defined in Section 2 of [PATCH].









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   If the Upload-Offset request header field value does not match the
   current offset (Section 4.1.1), the upload resource MUST reject the
   request with a 409 (Conflict) status code.  The response MUST include
   the correct offset in the Upload-Offset header field.  The response
   MAY use the problem type [PROBLEM] of "https://iana.org/assignments/
   http-problem-types#mismatching-upload-offset" (Section 6.1).

   If the upload is already complete (Section 4.1.2), the server MUST
   NOT modify the upload resource and MUST reject the request.  The
   server MAY use the problem type [PROBLEM] of
   "https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-types#completed-upload" in
   the response (Section 6.2).

   If the Upload-Complete request header field is set to true, the
   client intends to transfer the remaining representation data in one
   request.  If the request content was fully received, the upload is
   marked as complete and the upload resource SHOULD generate the
   response that matches what the resource, that was targeted by the
   initial upload creation (Section 4.2), would have generated if it had
   received the entire representation in the initial request.  However,
   the response MUST include the Upload-Complete header field with a
   true value, allowing clients to identify whether a response, in
   particular error responses, is related to the resumable upload itself
   or the processing of the upload representation.

   If the Upload-Complete request header field is set to false, the
   client intends to transfer the remaining representation over multiple
   requests.  If the request content was fully received, the upload
   resource acknowledges the appended data by sending a 2xx (Successful)
   response.

   If the request didn't complete the upload, any response, successful
   or not, MUST include the Upload-Complete header field with a false
   value, indicating that this response does not belong to the
   processing of the uploaded representation.

   The upload resource MUST record the length according to Section 4.1.3
   if the necessary header fields are included in the request.  If the
   length is known, the upload resource MUST prevent the offset from
   exceeding the upload length by stopping to append bytes once the
   offset reaches the length and reject the request.  It is not
   sufficient to rely on the Content-Length header field for enforcement
   because the header field might not be present.








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   While the request content is being received, the server MAY send
   interim responses with a 104 (Upload Resumption Supported) status
   code and the Upload-Offset header field set to the current offset to
   inform the client about the upload progress.  These interim responses
   MUST NOT include the Location header field.

4.4.3.  Example

   A) The following example shows an upload append request.  The client
   transfers the next 100 bytes at an offset of 100 and does not
   indicate that the upload is then completed.  The server generates one
   interim response and finally acknowledges the new offset:

   PATCH /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Complete: ?0
   Upload-Offset: 100
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Content-Length: 100
   Content-Type: application/partial-upload

   [content (100 bytes)]

   HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Upload-Offset: 150

   HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
   Upload-Complete: ?0

   B) The next example shows an upload append, where the client
   transfers the remaining 200 bytes and completes the upload.  The
   server processes the uploaded representation and generates the
   responding response, in this example containing extracted meta data:

   PATCH /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Complete: ?1
   Upload-Offset: 200
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7
   Content-Length: 100
   Content-Type: application/partial-upload

   [content (100 bytes)]







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   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Upload-Complete: ?1
   Content-Type: application/json

   {
     "metadata": {
       [...]
     }
   }

4.5.  Upload Cancellation

4.5.1.  Client Behavior

   If the client wants to terminate the transfer without the ability to
   resume, it can send a DELETE request to the upload resource.  Doing
   so is an indication that the client is no longer interested in
   continuing the upload, and that the server can release any resources
   associated with it.

   The client MUST NOT initiate cancellation without the knowledge of
   server support.

4.5.2.  Server Behavior

   Upon receiving a DELETE request, the server SHOULD deactivate the
   upload resource and MUST respond with a 204 (No Content) status code.

   The server MAY terminate any in-flight requests to the upload
   resource before sending the response by abruptly terminating their
   HTTP connection(s) or stream(s).

   The resource MUST NOT generate a response with the 301 (Moved
   Permanently) and 302 (Found) status codes.

4.5.3.  Example

   The following example shows an upload cancellation:

   DELETE /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.com
   Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 7

   HTTP/1.1 204 No Content







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4.6.  Concurrency

   Resumable uploads, as defined in this document, do not permit
   uploading representation data in parallel to the same upload
   resource.  The client MUST NOT perform multiple representation data
   transfers for the same upload resource in parallel.

   If an upload resource receives a new request to retrieve the offset
   (Section 4.3), appending representation data (Section 4.4), or
   cancellation (Section 4.5) while a previous request for creating the
   upload (Section 4.2) or appending representation data (Section 4.4)
   is still ongoing, the resource SHOULD prevent race conditions, data
   loss, and corruption by terminating the previous request before
   processing the new request.  Due to network delay and reordering, the
   resource might still be receiving representation data from an ongoing
   transfer for the same upload resource, which in the client's
   perspective has failed.  Since the client is not allowed to perform
   multiple transfers in parallel, the upload resource can assume that
   the previous attempt has already failed.  Therefore, the server MAY
   abruptly terminate the previous HTTP connection or stream.

5.  Media Type application/partial-upload

   The application/partial-upload media type describes a contiguous
   block from the representation data that should be uploaded to a
   resource.  There is no minimum block size and the block might be
   empty.  The start and end of the block might align with the start and
   end of the representation data, but they are not required to be
   aligned.

6.  Problem Types

6.1.  Mismatching Offset

   This section defines the "https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-
   types#mismatching-upload-offset" problem type [PROBLEM].  A server
   MAY use this problem type when responding to an upload append request
   (Section 4.4) to indicate that the Upload-Offset header field in the
   request does not match the upload resource's offset.

   Two problem type extension members are defined: the expected-offset
   and provided-offset members.  A response using this problem type
   SHOULD populate both members, with the value of expected-offset taken
   from the upload resource and the value of provided-offset taken from
   the upload append request.

   The following example shows an example response, where the resource's
   offset was 100, but the client attempted to append at offset 200:



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   HTTP/1.1 409 Conflict
   Content-Type: application/problem+json

   {
     "type":"https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-types#mismatching-upload-offset",
     "title": "offset from request does not match offset of resource",
     "expected-offset": 100,
     "provided-offset": 200
   }

6.2.  Completed Upload

   This section defines the "https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-
   types#completed-upload" problem type [PROBLEM].  A server MAY use
   this problem type when responding to an upload append request
   (Section 4.4) to indicate that the upload has already been completed
   and cannot be modified.

   The following example shows an example response:

   HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
   Content-Type: application/problem+json

   {
     "type":"https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-types#completed-upload",
     "title": "upload is already completed"
   }

6.3.  Inconsistent Length

   This section defines the "https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-
   types#inconsistent-upload-length" problem type [PROBLEM].  A server
   MAY use this problem type when responding to an upload creation
   (Section 4.2) or upload append request (Section 4.4) to indicate that
   that the request includes inconsistent upload length values, as
   described in Section 4.1.3.

   The following example shows an example response:

   HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
   Content-Type: application/problem+json

   {
     "type":"https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-types#inconsistent-upload-length",
     "title": "inconsistent length values for upload"
   }





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7.  Content Codings

   Since the codings listed in Content-Encoding are a characteristic of
   the representation (see Section 8.4 of [HTTP]), both the client and
   the server always compute the values for Upload-Offset and optionally
   Upload-Length on the content coded data (that is, the representation
   data).  Moreover, the content codings are retained throughout the
   entire upload, meaning that the server is not required to decode the
   representation data to support resumable uploads.  See Appendix A of
   [DIGEST-FIELDS] for more information.

8.  Transfer Codings

   Unlike Content-Encoding (see Section 8.4.1 of [HTTP]), Transfer-
   Encoding (see Section 6.1 of [HTTP/1.1]) is a property of the
   message, not of the representation.  Moreover, transfer codings can
   be applied in transit (e.g., by proxies).  This means that a client
   does not have to consider the transfer codings to compute the upload
   offset, while a server is responsible for transfer decoding the
   message before computing the upload offset.  The same applies to the
   value of Upload-Length.  Please note that the Content-Length header
   field cannot be used in conjunction with the Transfer-Encoding header
   field.

9.  Integrity Digests

   The integrity of an entire upload or individual upload requests can
   be verifying using digests from [DIGEST-FIELDS].

9.1.  Representation Digests

   Representation digests help verify the integrity of the entire
   representation data that has been uploaded so far, which might strech
   across multiple requests.

   If the client knows the integrity digest of the entire representation
   data before creating an upload resource, it MAY include the Repr-
   Digest header field when creating an upload (Section 4.2).  Once the
   upload is completed, the server can compute the integrity digest of
   the received representation data and compare it to the provided
   digest.  If the digests don't match, the server SHOULD consider the
   upload failed and not process the representation further.  This way,
   the integrity of the entire representation data can be protected.

   Alternatively, when creating an upload (Section 4.2), the client MAY
   ask the server to compute and return the integrity digests using a
   Want-Repr-Digest field conveying the preferred algorithms.  The
   response SHOULD include at least one of the requested digests, but



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   MAY not include it.  The server SHOULD compute the representation
   digests using the preferred algorithms once the upload is complete
   and include the corresponding Repr-Digest header field in the
   response.  Alternatively, the server MAY compute the digest
   continuously during the upload and include the Repr-Digest header
   field in responses to upload creation (Section 4.2) and upload
   appending requests (Section 4.4) even when the upload is not
   completed yet.  This allows the client to simultaneously compute the
   digest of the transmitted representation data, compare its digest to
   the server's digest, and spot data integrity issues.  If an upload is
   spread across multiple requests, data integrity issues can be found
   even before the upload is fully completed.

9.2.  Content Digests

   Content digests help verify the integrity of the content in an
   individual request.

   If the client knows the integrity digest of the content from an
   upload creation (Section 4.2) or upload appending (Section 4.4)
   request, it MAY include the Content-Digest header field in the
   request.  Once the content has been received, the server can compute
   the integrity digest of the received content and compare it to the
   provided digest.  If the digests don't match the server SHOULD
   consider the transfer failed and not append the content to the upload
   resource.  This way, the integrity of an individual request can be
   protected.

10.  Subsequent Resources

   The server might process the uploaded representation data and make
   its results available in another resource during or after the upload.
   This subsequent resource is different from the upload resource
   created by the upload creation request (Section 4.2).  The subsequent
   resource does not handle the upload process itself, but instead
   facilitates further interaction with the uploaded representation
   data.  The server MAY indicate the location of this subsequent
   resource by including the Content-Location header field in the
   interim or final responses generated while creating (Section 4.2),
   appending to (Section 4.4), or retrieving the offset (Section 4.3) of
   an upload.  For example, a subsequent resource could allow the client
   to fetch information extracted from the uploaded representation data.









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11.  Upload Strategies

   The definition of the upload creation request (Section 4.2) provides
   the client with flexibility to choose whether the representation data
   is fully or partially transferred in the first request, or if no
   representation data is included at all.  Which behavior is best
   largely depends on the client's capabilities, its intention to avoid
   data re-transmission, and its knowledge about the server's support
   for resumable uploads.

   The following subsections describe two typical upload strategies that
   are suited for common environments.  Note that these modes are never
   explicitly communicated to the server and clients are not required to
   stick to one strategy, but can mix and adapt them to their needs.

11.1.  Optimistic Upload Creation

   An "optimistic upload creation" can be used independent of the
   client's knowledge about the server's support for resumable uploads.
   However, the client must be capable of handling and processing
   interim responses.  An upload creation request then includes the full
   representation data because the client anticipates that it will be
   transferred without interruptions or resumed if an interruption
   occurs.

   The benefit of this method is that if the upload creation request
   succeeded, the representation data was transferred in a single
   request without additional round trips.

   A possible drawback is that the client might be unable to resume an
   upload.  If an upload is interrupted before the client received a 104
   (Upload Resumption Supported) interim response with the upload
   resource's URI, the client cannot resume that upload due to the
   missing URI.  The interim response might not be received if the
   interruption happens too early in the message exchange, the server
   does not support resumable uploads at all, the server does not
   support sending the 104 (Upload Resumption Supported) interim
   response, or an intermediary dropped the interim response.  Without a
   104 response, the client needs to either treat the upload as failed
   or retry the entire upload creation request if this is allowed by the
   application.










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   A client might wait for a limited duration to receive a 104 (Upload
   Resumption Supported) interim response before starting to transmit
   the request content.  This way, the client can learn about the
   resource's support for resumable uploads and/or the upload resource's
   URI.  This is conceptually similar to how a client might wait for a
   100 (Continue) interim response (see Section 10.1.1 of [HTTP]) before
   committing to work.

11.1.1.  Upgrading To Resumable Uploads

   Optimistic upload creation allows clients and servers to
   automatically upgrade non-resumable uploads to resumable ones.  In a
   non-resumable upload, the representation is transferred in a single
   request, usually POST or PUT, without any ability to resume from
   interruptions.  The client can offer the server to upgrade such a
   request to a resumable upload by adding the Upload-Complete: ?1
   header field to the original request.  The Upload-Length header field
   SHOULD be added if the representation data's length is known upfront.
   The request is not changed otherwise.

   A server that supports resumable uploads at the target URI can create
   an upload resource and send its URI in a 104 (Upload Resumption
   Supported) interim response for the client to resume the upload after
   interruptions.  A server that does not support resumable uploads or
   does not want to upgrade to a resumable upload for this request
   ignores the Upload-Complete: ?1 header.  The transfer then falls back
   to a non-resumable upload without additional cost.

   This upgrade can also be performed transparently by the client
   without the user taking an active role.  When a user asks the client
   to send a non-resumable request, the client can perform the upgrade
   and handle potential interruptions and resumptions under the hood
   without involving the user.  The last response received by the client
   is considered the response for the entire upload and should be
   presented to the user.

11.2.  Careful Upload Creation

   For a "careful upload creation" the client knows that the server
   supports resumable uploads and sends an empty upload creation request
   without including any representation data.  Upon successful response
   reception, the client can use the included upload resource URI to
   transmit the representation data (Section 4.4) and resume the upload
   at any stage if an interruption occurs.  The client should inspect
   the response for the Upload-Limit header field, which would indicate
   limits applying to the remaining upload procedure.





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   The retransmission of representation data or the ultimate upload
   failure that can happen with an "optimistic upload creation" is
   therefore avoided at the expense of an additional request that does
   not carry representation data.

   This approach is best suited if the client cannot receive interim
   responses, e.g. due to a limitation in the provided HTTP interface,
   or if large representations are transferred where the cost of the
   additional request is minuscule compared to the effort of
   transferring the representation itself.

12.  Security Considerations

   The upload resource URI is the identifier used for modifying the
   upload.  Without further protection of this URI, an attacker may
   obtain information about an upload, append data to it, or cancel it.
   To prevent this, the server SHOULD ensure that only authorized
   clients can access the upload resource.  In addition, the upload
   resource URI SHOULD be generated in such a way that makes it hard to
   be guessed by unauthorized clients.

   Some servers or intermediaries provide scanning of content uploaded
   by clients.  Any scanning mechanism that relies on receiving a
   complete representation in a single request message can be defeated
   by resumable uploads because content can be split across multiple
   messages.  Servers or intermediaries wishing to perform content
   scanning SHOULD consider how resumable uploads can circumvent
   scanning and take appropriate measures.  Possible strategies include
   waiting for the upload to complete before scanning the entire
   representation, or disabling resumable uploads.

   Resumable uploads are vulnerable to Slowloris-style attacks
   [SLOWLORIS].  A malicious client may create upload resources and keep
   them alive by regularly sending PATCH requests with no or small
   content to the upload resources.  This could be abused to exhaust
   server resources by creating and holding open uploads indefinitely
   with minimal work.

   Servers SHOULD provide mitigations for Slowloris attacks, such as
   increasing the maximum number of clients the server will allow,
   limiting the number of uploads a single client is allowed to make,
   imposing restrictions on the minimum transfer speed an upload is
   allowed to have, and restricting the length of time an upload
   resource can exist.







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13.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is asked to register the following entries in the "Hypertext
   Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Field Name Registry":

   +=================+===========+=================+==================+
   | Field Name      | Status    | Structured Type | Reference        |
   +=================+===========+=================+==================+
   | Upload-Complete | permanent | Item            | Section 4.1.2 of |
   |                 |           |                 | this document    |
   +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+
   | Upload-Offset   | permanent | Item            | Section 4.1.1 of |
   |                 |           |                 | this document    |
   +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+
   | Upload-Limit    | permanent | Dictionary      | Section 4.1.4 of |
   |                 |           |                 | this document    |
   +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+
   | Upload-Length   | permanent | Item            | Section 4.1.3 of |
   |                 |           |                 | this document    |
   +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+

                                 Table 1

   IANA is asked to register the following entry in the "HTTP Status
   Codes" registry:

   Value:  104 (suggested value)

   Description:  Upload Resumption Supported

   Specification:  This document

   IANA is asked to register the following entry in the "Media Types"
   registry:

   Type name:  application

   Subtype name:  partial-upload

   Required parameters:  N/A

   Optional parameters:  N/A

   Encoding considerations:  binary

   Security considerations:  see Section 12 of this document

   Interoperability considerations:  N/A



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   Published specification:  This document

   Applications that use this media type:  Applications that transfer
      files over unreliable networks or want pause- and resumable
      uploads.

   Fragment identifier considerations:  N/A

   Additional information:

   *  Deprecated alias names for this type: N/A

   *  Magic number(s): N/A

   *  File extension(s): N/A

   *  Macintosh file type code(s): N/A

   *  Windows Clipboard Name: N/A

   Person and email address to contact for further information:  See the
      Authors' Addresses section of this document.

   Intended usage:  COMMON

   Restrictions on usage:  N/A

   Author:  See the Authors' Addresses section of this document.

   Change controller:  IETF

   IANA is asked to register the following entry in the "HTTP Problem
   Types" registry:

   Type URI:  https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-
      types#mismatching-upload-offset Title:

      Mismatching Upload Offset Recommended HTTP status code:

      409 Reference:

      This document

   IANA is asked to register the following entry in the "HTTP Problem
   Types" registry:

   Type URI:  https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-types#completed-
      upload Title:



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      Upload Is Completed Recommended HTTP status code:

      400 Reference:

      This document

   IANA is asked to register the following entry in the "HTTP Problem
   Types" registry:

   Type URI:  https://iana.org/assignments/http-problem-
      types#inconsistent-upload-length Title:

      Inconsistent Upload Length Values Recommended HTTP status code:

      400 Reference:

      This document

14.  References

14.1.  Normative References

   [CACHING]  Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "HTTP Caching", STD 98, RFC 9111,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9111, June 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9111>.

   [CONTENT-DISPOSITION]
              Reschke, J., "Use of the Content-Disposition Header Field
              in the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)", RFC 6266,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6266, June 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6266>.

   [DIGEST-FIELDS]
              Polli, R. and L. Pardue, "Digest Fields", RFC 9530,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9530, February 2024,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9530>.

   [HTTP]     Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "HTTP Semantics", STD 97, RFC 9110,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9110, June 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110>.

   [HTTP/1.1] Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "HTTP/1.1", STD 99, RFC 9112, DOI 10.17487/RFC9112,
              June 2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9112>.





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   [PATCH]    Dusseault, L. and J. Snell, "PATCH Method for HTTP",
              RFC 5789, DOI 10.17487/RFC5789, March 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5789>.

   [PROBLEM]  Nottingham, M., Wilde, E., and S. Dalal, "Problem Details
              for HTTP APIs", RFC 9457, DOI 10.17487/RFC9457, July 2023,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9457>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

   [STRUCTURED-FIELDS]
              Nottingham, M. and P. Kamp, "Structured Field Values for
              HTTP", RFC 9651, DOI 10.17487/RFC9651, September 2024,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9651>.

14.2.  Informative References

   [SLOWLORIS]
              "RSnake" Hansen, R., "Welcome to Slowloris - the low
              bandwidth, yet greedy and poisonous HTTP client!", June
              2009, <https://web.archive.org/web/20150315054838/
              http://ha.ckers.org/slowloris/>.

Acknowledgments

   This document is based on an Internet-Draft specification written by
   Jiten Mehta, Stefan Matsson, and the authors of this document.

   The tus v1 protocol (https://tus.io/) is a specification for a
   resumable file upload protocol over HTTP.  It inspired the early
   design of this protocol.  Members of the tus community helped
   significantly in the process of bringing this work to the IETF.

   The authors would like to thank Mark Nottingham for substantive
   contributions to the text.

Changes

   This section is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.





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Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-06

   *  Minor editorial improvements to introduction and examples.

   *  Define structured types for new header fields.

Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-05

   *  Increase the draft interop version.

   *  Numerous editorial changes.

   *  Rename expires limit to max-age.

   *  Require Upload-Complete, but not Upload-Offset or Upload-Limit,
      for append responses.

   *  Add problem type for inconsistent length values.

   *  Reduce use of "file" in favor of "representation".

Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-04

   *  Clarify implications of Upload-Limit header.

   *  Allow client to fetch upload limits upfront via OPTIONS.

   *  Add guidance on upload creation strategy.

   *  Add Upload-Length header to indicate length during creation.

   *  Describe possible usage of Want-Repr-Digest.

Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-03

   *  Add note about Content-Location for referring to subsequent
      resources.

   *  Require application/partial-upload for appending to uploads.

   *  Explain handling of content and transfer codings.

   *  Add problem types for mismatching offsets and completed uploads.

   *  Clarify that completed uploads must not be appended to.

   *  Describe interaction with Digest Fields from RFC9530.




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   *  Require that upload offset does not decrease over time.

   *  Add Upload-Limit header field.

   *  Increase the draft interop version.

Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-02

   *  Add upload progress notifications via informational responses.

   *  Add security consideration regarding request filtering.

   *  Explain the use of empty requests for creation uploads and
      appending.

   *  Extend security consideration to include resource exhaustion
      attacks.

   *  Allow 200 status codes for offset retrieval.

   *  Increase the draft interop version.

Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-01

   *  Replace Upload-Incomplete header with Upload-Complete.

   *  Replace terminology about procedures with HTTP resources.

   *  Increase the draft interop version.

Since draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-00

   *  Remove Upload-Token and instead use Server-generated upload URL
      for upload identification.

   *  Require the Upload-Incomplete header field in Upload Creation
      Procedure.

   *  Increase the draft interop version.

Since draft-tus-httpbis-resumable-uploads-protocol-02

   None

Since draft-tus-httpbis-resumable-uploads-protocol-01

   *  Clarifying backtracking and preventing skipping ahead during the
      Offset Receiving Procedure.



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   *  Clients auto-retry 404 is no longer allowed.

Since draft-tus-httpbis-resumable-uploads-protocol-00

   *  Split the Upload Transfer Procedure into the Upload Creation
      Procedure and the Upload Appending Procedure.

Authors' Addresses

   Marius Kleidl (editor)
   Transloadit
   Email: marius@transloadit.com


   Guoye Zhang (editor)
   Apple Inc.
   Email: guoye_zhang@apple.com


   Lucas Pardue (editor)
   Cloudflare
   Email: lucas@lucaspardue.com





























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