Node:POST and PUT, Next:Other HTTP proxies, Previous:Partial instances, Up:Background
The previous sections pretend that there is only one kind of request
in HTTP -- the GET request. In fact, there are some others.
The HEAD request method retrieves data about an resource. Polipo
does not normally use HEAD, but will fall back to using it for
validation it if finds that a given server fails to cooperate with its
standard validation methods (see Cache transparency). Polipo will
correctly reply to a client's HEAD request.
The POST method is used to request that the server should do
something rather than merely sending an entity; it is usually used
with HTML forms that have an effect1.
The PUT method is used to replace an resource with a different
instance; it is typically used by web publishing applications.
POST and PUT requests are handled pretty much like
GET and HEAD; however, for various reasons, some
precautions must be taken. In particular, any cached data for the
resource they refer to must be discarded, and they can never be
pipelined.
Finally, HTTP/1.1 includes a convenient backdoor with the
CONNECT method. For more information, please see
Tunnelling connections.
Polipo does not currently handle the more exotic methods such as
OPTIONS and PROPFIND.
HTML forms should use the
GET method when the form has no side-effect as this makes the
results cacheable.