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/HTTP

If-Unmodified-Since

The If-Unmodified-Since request HTTP header makes the request conditional: the server will send back the requested resource, or accept it in the case of a POST or another non-safe method, only if it has not been last modified after the given date. If the request has been modified after the given date, the response will be a 412 (Precondition Failed) error.

There are two common use cases:

  • In conjunction with non-safe methods, like POST, it can be used to implement an optimistic concurrency control, like done by some wikis: editions are rejected if the stored document has been modified since the original has been retrieved.
  • In conjunction with a range request with a If-Range header, it can be used to ensure that the new fragment requested comes from an unmodified document.

Syntax

If-Unmodified-Since: <day-name>, <day> <month> <year> <hour>:<minute>:<second> GMT

Directives

<day-name>
One of "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", or "Sun" (case-sensitive).
<day>
2 digit day number, e.g. "04" or "23".
<month>
One of "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec" (case sensitive).
<year>
4 digit year number, e.g. "1990" or "2016".
<hour>
2 digit hour number, e.g. "09" or "23".
<minute>
2 digit minute number, e.g. "04" or "59".
<second>
2 digit second number, e.g. "04" or "59".
GMT

Greenwich Mean Time. HTTP dates are always expressed in GMT, never in local time.

Examples

If-Unmodified-Since: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 07:28:00 GMT 

Specifications

Specification Title
RFC 7232, section 3.4: If-Unmodified-Since Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Conditional Requests

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Feature Android webview Chrome for Android Edge mobile Firefox for Android IE mobile Opera Android iOS Safari
Basic support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/If-Unmodified-Since