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What HTTP response statuses mean that a client really got desired content?

The simple answer would be that all 2XX statuses mean that, but there is one notable exception I'm aware of: 304 NOT MODIFIED. 304 means that a client already has the desired content, i. e. a client really got content.

Other redirects don't mean that since a client have to do another request.

What is the full list of the statuses that mean a client really got content? And by that I mean, what statuses normally make me think a client saw something useful?

P. S. I understand that my "really got content" is pretty informal.

Vadim Pushtaev
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  • there are no http statuses which indicate whether client has or had got content, even 304 you mentioned just indicates that "content on server is not modified since provided date time", thats all, nothing about "client fetched resource in the past and have cached copy", server even cannot tell for sure that content reached the client, and client does not have any possibility to notify server that it got the content – Iłya Bursov May 08 '15 at 20:18
  • Of course it doesn't guarantee anything, but "200" and "304" in my http-server log _usually_ make me think that clients actually saw something useful. The question is, what other statuses should make me think that? – Vadim Pushtaev May 08 '15 at 20:21
  • http standard declares 1xx, 2xx, 3xx as valid responses, 4xx and 5xx as errors. So, in general case you should look at all 1/2/3 codes, at the same time 3xx could be tricky as they are mostly redirects (which also means that client got some content). Note about 304 - `The 304 response MUST NOT contain a message-body, and thus is always terminated by the first empty line after the header fields.` which basically means "client didnt get any response" – Iłya Bursov May 08 '15 at 20:25
  • I understand _formal_ meaning of the statuses pretty well, that's not what I'm trying to ask. – Vadim Pushtaev May 08 '15 at 20:28
  • then I don't understand your question, even modified one - 2xx codes could lead to another client's request (in case of 206 partial for example) too, so you should re-define "really got content" or probably just look at http rfc for all codes and create such list by yourself – Iłya Bursov May 08 '15 at 20:32
  • I need a full list of that "final" good statuses :) – Vadim Pushtaev May 08 '15 at 20:33

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