Range
The Range HTTP request header indicates the part of a document that the server should return. Several parts can be requested with one Range header at once, and the server may send back these ranges in a multipart document. If the server sends back ranges, it uses the 206 Partial Content for the response. If the ranges are invalid, the server returns the 416 Range Not Satisfiable error. The server can also ignore the Range header and return the whole document with a 200 status code.
| Header type | Request header |
|---|---|
| Forbidden header name | no |
Syntax
http
Range: <unit>=<range-start>-
Range: <unit>=<range-start>-<range-end>
Range: <unit>=<range-start>-<range-end>, <range-start>-<range-end>
Range: <unit>=<range-start>-<range-end>, <range-start>-<range-end>, <range-start>-<range-end>
Range: <unit>=-<suffix-length>
Directives
- <unit>
-
The unit in which ranges are specified. This is usually
bytes. - <range-start>
-
An integer in the given unit indicating the beginning of the request range.
- <range-end>
-
An integer in the given unit indicating the end of the requested range. This value is optional and, if omitted, the end of the document is taken as the end of the range.
- <suffix-length>
-
An integer in the given unit indicating the number of units at the end of the file to return.
Examples
Requesting three ranges from the file.
http
Range: bytes=200-1000, 2000-6576, 19000-
The ranges-specifier value 19000- specifies 19000 as the first position, and omits any last position — in order to indicate that all bytes from 19000 onward are part of the third range.
Requesting the first 500 and last 500 bytes of the file. The request may be rejected by the server if the ranges overlap.
http
Range: bytes=0-499, -500
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| HTTP Semantics # field.range |
Browser compatibility
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