A request message from a client to a server includes, within the first line of that message, the method to be applied to the resource, the identifier of the resource, and the protocol version in use. For backwards compatibility with the more limited HTTP/0.9 protocol, there are two valid formats for an HTTP request:
Request = Simple-Request | Full-Request Simple-Request = "GET" SP Request-URI CRLF Full-Request = Request-Line ; Section 5.1 *( General-Header ; Section 4.3 | Request-Header ; Section 5.2 | Entity-Header ) ; Section 7.1 CRLF [ Entity-Body ] ; Section 7.2
If an HTTP/1.0 server receives a Simple-Request, it must respond with an HTTP/0.9 Simple-Response. An HTTP/1.0 client capable of receiving a Full-Response should never generate a Simple-Request.