PATCH

The HTTP PATCH request method applies partial modifications to a resource.

The HTTP PUT method only allows complete replacement of a document. Unlike PUT, PATCH is not idempotent, meaning successive identical patch requests may have different effects. However, it is possible to issue PATCH requests in such a way as to be idempotent.

PATCH (like PUT) may have side-effects on other resources.

To find out whether a server supports PATCH, a server can advertise its support by adding it to the list in the Allow or Access-Control-Allow-Methods (for CORS) response headers.

Another (implicit) indication that PATCH is allowed, is the presence of the Accept-Patch header, which specifies the patch document formats accepted by the server.

Syntax

PATCH /file.txt HTTP/1.1 

Example

Request

PATCH /file.txt HTTP/1.1 
Host: www.example.com
Content-Type: application/example
If-Match: "e0023aa4e"
Content-Length: 100

[description of changes]

Response

A successful response is indicated by any 2xx status code.

In the example below a 204 response code is used, because the response does not carry a payload body.  A 200 response could have contained a payload body. 

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Content-Location: /file.txt
ETag: "e0023aa4f"

Specifications

See also

• 204
• Allow, Access-Control-Allow-Methods
• Accept-Patch – specifies the patch document formats accepted by the server.