RFC 1738 (rfc1738) - Page 1 of 25
Uniform Resource Locators (URL)
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group T. Berners-Lee
Request for Comments: 1738 CERN
Category: Standards Track L. Masinter
Xerox Corporation
M. McCahill
University of Minnesota
Editors
December 1994
Uniform Resource Locators (URL)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This document specifies a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the syntax
and semantics of formalized information for location and access of
resources via the Internet.
1. Introduction
This document describes the syntax and semantics for a compact string
representation for a resource available via the Internet. These
strings are called "Uniform Resource Locators" (URLs).
The specification is derived from concepts introduced by the World-
Wide Web global information initiative, whose use of such objects
dates from 1990 and is described in "Universal Resource Identifiers
in WWW", RFC 1630. The specification of URLs is designed to meet the
requirements laid out in "Functional Requirements for Internet
Resource Locators" [12].
This document was written by the URI working group of the Internet
Engineering Task Force. Comments may be addressed to the editors, or
to the URI-WG [email protected]>. Discussions of the group are archived
at
Berners-Lee, Masinter & McCahill