Skip to content

208 Already Reported

WebDAV binding extension code used inside a 207 body to avoid repeating members that were already listed.

Status

HTTP/1.1 208 Already Reported

Details

  • Category: 2xx
  • Status: Standard. Registered with IANA and defined by a current standards-track RFC.
  • Specification: RFC 5842 §7.1
  • Cacheable: Not cacheable
  • Response body: Allowed
  • Retry: Not applicable

WebDAV bindings let the same resource appear under several paths, so a deep PROPFIND can hit the same collection more than once. 208 marks the second and later appearances: the members were already enumerated earlier in the same multistatus document and are not repeated.

It only ever appears inside a 207 body, never on the status line of a response. Without it, a bound collection graph with a cycle produces an enormous, redundant response.

Common causes

  • A deep PROPFIND encountered a collection reachable through more than one binding.

Usage notes

For clients

  • Resolve the earlier occurrence of the resource in the same document instead of expecting the members again.

For servers

  • Emit 208 rather than repeating large subtrees, and use 508 when a binding cycle makes the request impossible to complete.

Examples

A collection reachable through two bindings

Log

<D:response>
  <D:href>/dav/shared/reports/</D:href>
  <D:status>HTTP/1.1 208 Already Reported</D:status>
</D:response>

Specifications

See also