Where is stated the links starting with // are syntactically correct?

Question

I read this answer, that explains that links starting with // are used to maintain the procotol (http or https).

Is this something defined in a standard or RFC? Or is it just a hack implemented by browsers? I think it's useful, but before using it I want to make sure it is understood by all browsers.

The question links to an old question, which is itself a duplicate of an older question, which has an accepted answer, which cites the relevant Internet-standard. — Jukka K. Korpela, Sep 22 '14 at 10:57

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

2

It's in the RFC 3986:

From 4.2:

relative-ref = relative-part [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ]
  relative-part = "//" authority path-abempty

And:

5.4.1. Normal Examples

...

"//g" = "http://g"

So it is part of the standard, and used my all current browsers.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Sep 22 '14 at 08:59

Patrick Hofman

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RFC 1808 was obsoleted by RFC 3986 in 2005. – Jukka K. Korpela Sep 22 '14 at 10:54
@JukkaK.Korpela: You are right. Updated. – Patrick Hofman Sep 22 '14 at 11:08

Where is stated the links starting with // are syntactically correct?

1 Answers1