title: Resumable Uploads for HTTP abbrev: Resumable Uploads docname: draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload-latest category: std

ipr: trust200902 area: ART workgroup: HTTP keyword: Internet-Draft

stand_alone: yes smart_quotes: no pi: [toc, sortrefs, symrefs]

venue: group: HTTP type: Working Group home: https://httpwg.org/ mail: ietf-http-wg@w3.org arch: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/ repo: resumable-upload github-issue-label: resumable-upload

author:

ins: M. Kleidl
name: Marius Kleidl
role: editor
organization: Transloadit
email: marius@transloadit.com

ins: G. Zhang name: Guoye Zhang role: editor organization: Apple Inc. email: guoye_zhang@apple.com
ins: L. Pardue name: Lucas Pardue role: editor organization: Cloudflare email: lucas@lucaspardue.com

normative: HTTP: RFC9110 CACHING: RFC9111 RFC9112: display: HTTP/1.1 STRUCTURED-FIELDS: RFC8941 PATCH: RFC5789 PROBLEM: RFC9457 DIGEST-FIELDS: RFC9530 CONTENT-DISPOSITION: RFC6266

informative:

SLOWLORIS: title: "Welcome to Slowloris - the low bandwidth, yet greedy and poisonous HTTP client!" author: - initials: R. surname: ""RSnake" Hansen" date: 2009-06 target: "https://web.archive.org/web/20150315054838/http://ha.ckers.org/slowloris/"

--- abstract

HTTP clients often encounter interrupted data transfers as a result of canceled requests or dropped connections. Prior to interruption, part of a representation may have been exchanged. To complete the transfer of the entire representation, it is often desirable to issue subsequent requests that transfer only the remainder of the representation. 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.

--- middle

Introduction

HTTP clients often encounter interrupted data transfers as a result of canceled requests or dropped connections. Prior to interruption, part of a representation (see {{Section 3.2 of HTTP}}) might have been exchanged. To complete the transfer of the entire representation, it is often desirable to issue subsequent requests that transfer only the remainder of the representation. HTTP range requests (see {{Section 14 of HTTP}}) support this concept of resumable downloads from server to client.

HTTP methods such as POST or PUT can be used by clients to request processing of representation data enclosed in the request message. The transfer of representation data from client to server is often referred to as an upload. Uploads are just as likely as downloads to suffer from the effects of data transfer interruption. Humans can play a role in upload interruptions through manual actions such as pausing an upload. Regardless of the cause of an interruption, servers may have received part of the representation data before its occurrence and it is desirable if clients can complete the data transfer by sending only the remainder of the representation data. The process of sending additional parts of a representation using subsequent HTTP requests from client to server is herein referred to as a resumable upload.

Connection interruptions are common and the absence of a standard mechanism for resumable uploads has lead to a proliferation of custom solutions. Some of those use HTTP, while others rely on other transfer mechanisms entirely. An HTTP-based standard solution is desirable for such a common class of problem.

This document defines an optional mechanism for HTTP that enables resumable uploads 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. Different from ranged downloads, this protocol does not support transferring different parts of the same representation in parallel.

Conventions and Definitions

{::boilerplate bcp14-tagged}

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 ({{upload-resource}}).

Overview

Resumable uploads are supported in HTTP through use of a temporary resource, an upload resource ({{upload-resource}}), 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 ({{offset-retrieving}}), append to the upload ({{upload-appending}}), and cancel the upload ({{upload-cancellation}}).

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.

Example 1: Complete upload of representation data with known size {#example-1}

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

The client notifies the server that it wants to begin an upload ({{upload-creation}}). 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                                       |
|------------------------------------------->|
|                                            |
|                                            | Reserve resources
|                                            | for upload
|                                            |-----------------.
|                                            |                 |
|                                            |<----------------'
|                                            |
|            104 Upload Resumption Supported |
|            with upload resource URI        |
|<-------------------------------------------|
|                                            |
X--------------Flow Interrupted--------------X

{: #fig-upload-creation title="Upload Creation"}

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 ({{offset-retrieving}}) from the upload resource.

Client                                       Server
|                                                 |
| HEAD to upload resource URI                     |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|               204 No Content with Upload-Offset |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-offset-retrieving title="Offset Retrieval"}

The client can resume the upload by sending the remaining representation data to the upload resource ({{upload-appending}}), 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.

Client                                       Server
|                                                 |
| PATCH to upload resource URI with Upload-Offset |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|                      201 Created on completion  |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-upload-appending title="Upload Append"}

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 ({{upload-cancellation}}).

Client                                       Server
|                                                 |
| DELETE to upload resource URI                   |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|                    204 No Content on completion |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-upload-cancellation title="Upload Cancellation"}

Example 2: Upload as a series of parts {#example-2}

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.

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 with Upload-Complete: ?0                   |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|            201 Created with Upload-Complete: ?0 |
|            and Location on completion           |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-upload-creation-incomplete title="Upload creation with partial representation data"}

Subsequent, intermediate parts are appended ({{upload-appending}}) 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.

Client                                       Server
|                                                 |
| PATCH to upload resource URI with Upload-Offset |
| and Upload-Complete: ?0                         |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|                                     201 Created |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-upload-appending-incomplete title="Appending partial representation data to upload"}

If the connection was interrupted, the client might want to resume the upload, similar to the previous example ({{example-1}}). The client retrieves the offset ({{offset-retrieving}}) 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 to upload resource URI                     |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|               204 No Content with Upload-Offset |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |
| PATCH to upload resource URI with Upload-Offset |
| and Upload-Complete: ?0                         |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|                                     201 Created |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-upload-resume-incomplete title="Resuming an interrupted upload"}

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.

Client                                       Server
|                                                 |
| PATCH to upload resource URI with               |
| Upload-Offset and Upload-Complete: ?1           |
|------------------------------------------------>|
|                                                 |
|                       201 Created on completion |
|<------------------------------------------------|
|                                                 |

{: #fig-upload-appending-last-chunk title="Appending remaining representation data"}

Upload Resource {#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 ({{upload-creation}}). This upload resource is responsible for handling the upload of a representation. Using the upload resource, the client can query the upload progress ({{offset-retrieving}}), append representation data ({{upload-appending}}), or cancel the upload ({{upload-cancellation}}).

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

State

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

Offset {#upload-offset}

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

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 ({{offset-retrieving}}) and is required when appending representation data ({{upload-appending}}).

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.

Completeness {#upload-complete}

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 ({{upload-creation}}) or appending to it ({{upload-appending}}) included the Upload-Complete header field with a true value and the request content was fully received.

Length {#upload-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 ({{upload-creation}}) or appending to it ({{upload-appending}}):

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 ({{upload-offset}}) and the Content-Length header field value.
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.

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 ({{upload-complete}}) header field to indicate that a request completes the upload. The offset could match the length, but the upload can still be incomplete.

Limits {#upload-limit}

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 ({{upload-length}}) deduced from the upload creation request is larger than the maximum size. The upload resource MAY stop the upload if the offset ({{upload-offset}}) 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 ({{upload-length}}) 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 ({{upload-appending}}). The server MAY reject requests exceeding this limit and a client SHOULD NOT send larger upload append requests. The value is an Integer.
The min-append-size limit specifies a minimum size counted in bytes for the request content in a single upload append request ({{upload-appending}}). 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 ({{upload-creation}}) 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.

Upload Creation {#upload-creation}

Client Behavior

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

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

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

The client SHOULD respect any limits ({{upload-limit}}) 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 ({{upload-cancellation}}).

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 `Contenct-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 ({{upload-appending}}).
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 ({{offset-retrieving}}) if it received the URI of the upload resource in a 104 (Upload Resumption Supported) interim response.

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 ({{upload-limit}}). 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 intents 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 intents 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 MUST include the new offset in the Upload-Offset header field and the Upload-Complete header value set to false. The response SHOULD include the Upload-Limit header field with the corresponding limits if existing.

The server MUST record the length according to {{upload-length}} 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.

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.

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 6.

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.

Examples {#upload-creation-example}

The following example shows an upload creation, where the entire 100 bytes are transferred in the initial request:

POST /upload HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6
Upload-Complete: ?1
Content-Length: 100
Upload-Length: 100

[content (100 bytes)]

HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6
Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff

HTTP/1.1 104 Upload Resumption Supported
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6
Upload-Offset: 50
Upload-Limit: max-size=1000000000

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff
Upload-Offset: 100
Upload-Limit: max-size=1000000000

The next 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:

POST /upload HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6
Upload-Complete: ?0
Content-Length: 25
Upload-Length: 100

[partial content (25 bytes)]

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: https://example.com/upload/b530ce8ff
Upload-Complete: ?0
Upload-Offset: 25
Upload-Limit: max-size=1000000000

Offset Retrieval {#offset-retrieving}

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 ({{upload-appending}}) 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 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 ({{upload-cancellation}}) after rejecting the offset.

The client MUST NOT perform offset retrieval while creation ({{upload-creation}}) or appending ({{upload-appending}}) 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 ({{upload-appending}}) 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.

Server Behavior

A successful response to a HEAD request against an upload resource

MUST include the offset in the Upload-Offset header field ({{upload-offset}}),
MUST inlcude the completeless state in the Upload-Complete header field ({{upload-complete}}),
MUST include the length in the Upload-Length header field if known ({{upload-length}}),
MAY indicate the limits in the Upload-Limit header field ({{upload-limit}}), 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.

Example {#offset-retrieving-example}

The following example shows an offset retrieval request. The server indicates the new offset and that the upload is not complete yet:

HEAD /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Upload-Offset: 100
Upload-Complete: ?0
Cache-Control: no-store

Upload Append {#upload-appending}

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 ({{offset-retrieving}}) or appending representation data ({{upload-appending}}).

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 {{upload-creation}}). However, the client SHOULD consider the upload failed if the offset indicated by the Upload-Offset response field does not equal the representation data's length.
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 ({{offset-retrieving}}).

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}}.

If the Upload-Offset request header field value does not match the current offset ({{upload-offset}}), 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" ({{mismatching-offset}}).

If the upload is already complete ({{upload-complete}}), 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 ({{completed-upload}}).

If the Upload-Complete request header field is set to true, the client intents 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 ({{upload-creation}}), would have generated if it had received the entire representation in the initial request.

If the Upload-Complete request header field is set to false, the client intents to transfer the remaining representation over multiple requests. If the request content was fully received, the upload resource MUST acknowledge the new upload state by sending a response with the 201 (Created) status code. The response MUST include the offset in the Upload-Offset response header field and the Upload-Complete response header field set to false. The response SHOULD include the Upload-Limit header field with the corresponding limits if existing.

The upload resource MUST record the length according to {{upload-length}} 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.

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.

Example {#upload-appending-example}

The following example shows an upload append. The client transfers the next 100 bytes at an offset of 100 and does not indicate that the upload is then completed. The server acknowledges the new offset:

PATCH /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Upload-Offset: 100
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6
Content-Length: 100
Content-Type: application/partial-upload

[content (100 bytes)]

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Upload-Offset: 200

Upload Cancellation {#upload-cancellation}

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.

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.

Example {#upload-cancellation-example}

The following example shows an upload cancellation:

DELETE /upload/b530ce8ff HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Upload-Draft-Interop-Version: 6

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content

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 ({{offset-retrieving}}), appending representation data ({{upload-appending}}), or cancellation ({{upload-cancellation}}) while a previous request for creating the upload ({{upload-creation}}) or appending representation data ({{upload-appending}}) 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 resouce 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.

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.

Problem Types

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 ({{upload-appending}}) 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:

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
}

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 ({{upload-appending}}) 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"
}

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.

Transfer Codings

Unlike Content-Encoding (see {{Section 8.4.1 of HTTP}}), Transfer-Encoding (see {{Section 6.1 of RFC9112}}) 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.

Integrity Digests

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

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 ({{upload-creation}}). 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 ({{upload-creation}}), 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 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 ({{upload-creation}}) and upload appending requests ({{upload-appending}}) 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.

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 ({{upload-creation}}) or upload appending ({{upload-appending}}) 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.

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 ({{upload-creation}}). 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 ({{upload-creation}}), appending to ({{upload-appending}}), or retrieving the offset ({{offset-retrieving}}) of an upload. For example, a subsequent resource could allow the client to fetch information extracted from the uploaded representation data.

Upload Strategies

The definition of the upload creation request ({{upload-creation}}) 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.

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 succeeds, 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.

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.

Upgrading To Resumable Uploads {#upgrading-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.

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 ({{upload-appending}}) 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.

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 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 miniscule compared to the effort of transferring the representation itself.

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.

IANA Considerations

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

|----------------------|-----------|-------------------------------------------|

Field Name	Status	Reference
Upload-Complete	permanent	{{upload-complete}} of this document
Upload-Offset	permanent	{{upload-offset}} of this document
Upload-Limit	permanent	{{upload-limit}} of this document
Upload-Length	permanent	{{upload-length}} of this document
----------------------	-----------	-------------------------------------------

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 {{security-considerations}} of this document

Interoperability considerations: : N/A

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: : Upload Is Completed Recommended HTTP status code: : 400 Reference: : This document

--- back

Acknowledgments

{:numbered="false"}

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 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

{:numbered="false" removeinrfc="true"}

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

{:numbered="false"}

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

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

{:numbered="false"}

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

{:numbered="false"}

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.
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

{:numbered="false"}

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

{:numbered="false"}

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

{:numbered="false"}

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

{:numbered="false"}

None

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

{:numbered="false"}

Clarifying backtracking and preventing skipping ahead during the Offset Receiving Procedure.
Clients auto-retry 404 is no longer allowed.

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

{:numbered="false"}

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

Files

draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload.md

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draft-ietf-httpbis-resumable-upload.md

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author:

Introduction

Conventions and Definitions

Overview

Example 1: Complete upload of representation data with known size {#example-1}

Example 2: Upload as a series of parts {#example-2}

Upload Resource {#upload-resource}

State

Offset {#upload-offset}

Completeness {#upload-complete}

Length {#upload-length}

Limits {#upload-limit}

Upload Creation {#upload-creation}

Client Behavior

Server Behavior

Draft Version Identification

Examples {#upload-creation-example}

Offset Retrieval {#offset-retrieving}

Client Behavior

Server Behavior

Example {#offset-retrieving-example}

Upload Append {#upload-appending}

Client Behavior

Server Behavior

Example {#upload-appending-example}

Upload Cancellation {#upload-cancellation}

Client Behavior

Server Behavior

Example {#upload-cancellation-example}

Concurrency

Media Type application/partial-upload

Problem Types

Mismatching Offset

Completed Upload

Content Codings

Transfer Codings

Integrity Digests

Representation Digests

Content Digests

Subsequent Resources

Upload Strategies

Optimistic Upload Creation

Upgrading To Resumable Uploads {#upgrading-uploads}

Careful Upload Creation

Security Considerations

IANA Considerations

Acknowledgments

Changes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Media Type `application/partial-upload`