HTTP Header Samples

This is a set of samples of HTTP request and response headers, from browsers to Web sites. It is intended to inform decisions (including, but not limited to, header compression) in the design of HTTP 2.0.

Samples are in directories that indicate who generated them, and are named using the primary Web site that was used to do so. They are in HAR format, and can be viewed using the HAR viewer.

Caveats

There are an absurd number of caveats to understand when using these traces.

• They are not representative of the whole Web
• They are not representative of all browsers
• They are not representative of all users' interaction patterns
• They may contain noise in the form of irrelevant requests
• They are a snapshot of how a few Web sites operated at a given time, for a given user

Contributing

If you'd like to add more traces to the sample, please fork this repository, add a directory with your samples (using your github user name for the directory name), and make a pull request.

When contributing, remember to:

• Turn off as much other software that generates HTTP requests as possible, to limit noise
• Remove cookies and other PII-containing tokens, or (preferably) use a "fresh" browser
• Do a sanity check on the traces to assure that they're sensible

Any HAR-producing tool can be used. For non-SSL traffic, hdrgrab is preferred, because it records the headers as they happen "on the wire".

NOTE WELL

Any submission to the IETF intended by the Contributor for publication as all or part of an IETF Internet-Draft or RFC and any statement made within the context of an IETF activity is considered an "IETF Contribution". Such statements include oral statements in IETF sessions, as well as written and electronic communications made at any time or place, which are addressed to:

• The IETF plenary session
• The IESG, or any member thereof on behalf of the IESG
• Any IETF mailing list, including the IETF list itself, any working group or design team list, or any other list functioning under IETF auspices
• Any IETF working group or portion thereof
• Any Birds of a Feather (BOF) session
• The IAB or any member thereof on behalf of the IAB
• The RFC Editor or the Internet-Drafts function
• All IETF Contributions are subject to the rules of RFC 5378 and RFC 3979 (updated by RFC 4879).

Statements made outside of an IETF session, mailing list or other function, that are clearly not intended to be input to an IETF activity, group or function, are not IETF Contributions in the context of this notice.

Please consult RFC 5378 and RFC 3979 for details.

A participant in any IETF activity is deemed to accept all IETF rules of process, as documented in Best Current Practices RFCs and IESG Statements.

A participant in any IETF activity acknowledges that written, audio and video records of meetings may be made and may be available to the public.