<?xml version='1.0'?>

<reference anchor='RFC2396'>

<front>
<title abbrev='URI Generic Syntax'>Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax</title>
<author initials='T.' surname='Berners-Lee' fullname='Tim Berners-Lee'>
<organization abbrev='MIT/LCS'>World Wide Web Consortium</organization>
<address>
<postal>
<street>MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, NE43-356</street>
<street>545 Technology Square</street>
<city>Cambridge</city>
<region>MA</region>
<code>02139</code></postal>
<facsimile>+1(617)258-8682</facsimile>
<email>timbl@w3.org</email></address></author>
<author initials='R.T.' surname='Fielding' fullname='Roy T. Fielding'>
<organization abbrev='U.C. Irvine'>Department of Information and Computer Science</organization>
<address>
<postal>
<street>University of California, Irvine</street>
<city>Irvine</city>
<region>CA</region>
<code>92697-3425</code></postal>
<facsimile>+1(949)824-1715</facsimile>
<email>fielding@ics.uci.edu</email></address></author>
<author initials='L.' surname='Masinter' fullname='Larry Masinter'>
<organization abbrev='Xerox Corporation'>Xerox PARC</organization>
<address>
<postal>
<street>3333 Coyote Hill Road</street>
<city>Palo Alto</city>
<region>CA</region>
<code>94034</code></postal>
<facsimile>+1(415)812-4333</facsimile>
<email>masinter@parc.xerox.com</email></address></author>
<date month='August' year='1998' />
<area>Applications</area>
<keyword>uniform resource</keyword>
<keyword>URI</keyword>
<abstract>
<t>
   A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a compact string of characters
   for identifying an abstract or physical resource.  This document
   defines the generic syntax of URI, including both absolute and
   relative forms, and guidelines for their use; it revises and replaces
   the generic definitions in RFC 1738 and RFC 1808.
</t>
<t>
   This document defines a grammar that is a superset of all valid URI,
   such that an implementation can parse the common components of a URI
   reference without knowing the scheme-specific requirements of every
   possible identifier type.  This document does not define a generative
   grammar for URI; that task will be performed by the individual
   specifications of each URI scheme.
</t></abstract>
<note title='IESG Note'>
<t>
   This paper describes a "superset" of operations that can be applied
   to URI.  It consists of both a grammar and a description of basic
   functionality for URI.  To understand what is a valid URI, both the
   grammar and the associated description have to be studied.  Some of
   the functionality described is not applicable to all URI schemes, and
   some operations are only possible when certain media types are
   retrieved using the URI, regardless of the scheme used.
</t></note></front>

<seriesInfo name='RFC' value='2396' />
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</reference>
