HTTP Response Codes

This page describes reponse codes that enable you to customise error messages generated by the browser and server. For instance if someone follows a link to a page on your site that does not exist. See Redirecting Error Pages for more help. The important ones are the 4** errors, of which error 404 is the most useful.

HTTP Response Codes
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2** Success
200 OK

201 Created
Following a POST command, this indicates success, but the text of the
response line indicates the URL of the new document.

202 Accepted
Request accepted for asynchronous processing.

203 Partial Information
Returned information may be cached or private.

204 No Response
Used for scripts that don't return a visible result.

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3** Redirection
301 Moved
Browsers with link editing capabilities should automatically link to the new
reference.
The response contains one or more header lines of the form
URI: <url> string CrLf which specify alternative addresses for the object in
question. The string is an optional comment field.

302 Found
Same as move, except that linking to the found address doesn't make much
sense, since the document URL is expected to change.
This is the code that the httpd returns for a cgi script whose output
contained a Location: header.

303 Method
Same as found, but a different method may be used to access the document;
details about the method are sent in the message body.

304 Not modified
Use the local copy if you cached it.

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4** Client Error
400 Bad Request
Impossible request or syntax error

401 Unauthorized
Request should be retried with proper authorization header.

402 Payment Required
Request should be retried with proper charge-to header.

403 Forbidden
Authorization will not help

404 Not found
A document with that URL doesn't exist.

411 No such group
(NCSA httpd) the newsgroup in news:newsgroup doesn't exist.

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5** Server Error
500 Internal Error

501 Not implemented
``I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that.''

502 Timed out
(Seen in practice, not in the specification.)