Uniform Resource Identifier : Generic Syntax
RFC 3986, “Uniform Resource Identifier : Generic Syntax”, is an Internet Standard document published in January 2005 by T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter. It updates RFC 1738. It obsoletes RFC 1808, RFC 2396, RFC 2732. It has since been updated by RFC 7320, RFC 8820. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.
Abstract
A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a compact sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource. This specification defines the generic URI syntax and a process for resolving URI references that might be in relative form, along with guidelines and security considerations for the use of URIs on the Internet. The URI syntax defines a grammar that is a superset of all valid URIs, allowing an implementation to parse the common components of a URI reference without knowing the scheme-specific requirements of every possible identifier. This specification does not define a generative grammar for URIs; that task is performed by the individual specifications of each URI scheme. [STANDARDS-TRACK]
What “Internet Standard” means
A mature, widely-implemented specification that has completed the full IETF standards process — the highest maturity level on the standards track.
The canonical text of RFC 3986 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in TXT,HTML.
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