http content type, and binary data

Question

I thought I knew this already but now I'm not sure: Is all content sent over http always encoded to character data? ie, if my content type is a binary file type, is it always converted to binhex, or is it possible to send "actual" binary data across the wire?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '10 at 00:29

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In HTTP there is no content transfer encoding (e.g. base64) done, so binary data is sent just binary, byte-by-byte.

answered Nov 15 '10 at 00:29

AndreKR

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '10 at 00:35

2

Character data is just binary data with special meaning to humans :p
The actual body of the HTTP request may be encoded and/or compressed, and this is specified in the headers.

answered Nov 15 '10 at 00:35

Niet the Dark Absol

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Yes. according to the request the response may be gzipped if the request has accept gzip header – Jayapal Chandran Sep 01 '11 at 01:32

http content type, and binary data

2 Answers2