What's the difference between HTTP 301 and 308 status codes?
HttpHttp Status-Code-301Http Status-CodesHttp Status-Code-308Http Problem Overview
What's the difference between HTTP 301
and 308
status codes?
-
301
(Moved Permanently): This and all future requests should be directed to the given URI. -
308
(Permanent Redirect): The request and all future requests should be repeated using another URI.
They seem to be similar.
Http Solutions
Solution 1 - Http
301
, 302
and 307
An overview of The RFC 7231, the current reference for semantics and content of the HTTP/1.1 protocol, defines the 301
(Moved Permanently) and 302
(Found) status code, that allows the request method to be changed from POST
to GET
. This specification also defines the 307
(Temporary Redirect) status code that doesn't allow the request method to be changed from POST
to GET
.
See more details below:
> 6.4.2. 301 Moved Permanently
>
> The 301
(Moved Permanently) status code indicates that the target
> resource has been assigned a new permanent URI and any future
> references to this resource ought to use one of the enclosed URIs. [...]
>
> Note: For historical reasons, a user agent MAY change the request
> method from POST
to GET
for the subsequent request. If this
> behavior is undesired, the 307
(Temporary Redirect) status code
> can be used instead.
> 6.4.3. 302 Found
>
> The 302
(Found) status code indicates that the target resource
> resides temporarily under a different URI. Since the redirection
> might be altered on occasion, the client ought to continue to use the
> effective request URI for future requests. [...]
>
> Note: For historical reasons, a user agent MAY change the request
> method from POST
to GET
for the subsequent request. If this
> behavior is undesired, the 307
(Temporary Redirect) status code
> can be used instead.
> 6.4.7. 307 Temporary Redirect
>
> The 307
(Temporary Redirect) status code indicates that the target
> resource resides temporarily under a different URI and the user agent
> MUST NOT change the request method if it performs an automatic
> redirection to that URI. Since the redirection can change over time,
> the client ought to continue using the original effective request URI
> for future requests. [...]
>
> Note: This status code is similar to 302
(Found), except that it
> does not allow changing the request method from POST
to GET
. This
> specification defines no equivalent counterpart for 301
(Moved
> Permanently) (RFC 7238, however, defines the status code 308
> (Permanent Redirect) for this purpose).
308
The need for The RFC 7238 has been created to define the 308
(Permanent Redirect) status code, that is similar to 301
(Moved Permanently) but does not allows the request method to be changed from POST
to GET
.
The 308
status code is now defined by the RFC 7538 (that obsoleted the RFC 7238).
> 3. 308 Permanent Redirect
>
> The 308
(Permanent Redirect) status code indicates that the target
> resource has been assigned a new permanent URI and any future
> references to this resource ought to use one of the enclosed URIs.
> Clients with link editing capabilities ought to automatically re-link
> references to the effective request URI to
> one or more of the new references sent by the server, where possible. [...]
>
> Note: This status code is similar to 301
(Moved Permanently),
> except that it does not allow changing the request method from
> POST
to GET
.
Se we have the following:
+-----------+-----------+
| Permanent | Temporary |
+------------------------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Allows changing the request method from POST to GET | 301 | 302 |
+------------------------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Doesn't allow changing the request method from POST to GET | 308 | 307 |
+------------------------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
Choosing the most suitable status code
Michael Kropat put together a set of decision charts that helps to determine the best status code for each situation. See the following for 2xx
and 3xx
status codes: