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Bug #67298 $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] contains request target, not an actual URI
Submitted: 2014-05-18 00:51 UTC Modified: 2026-05-20 13:53 UTC
From: chealer at gmail dot com Assigned:
Status: Open Package: *General Issues
PHP Version: Irrelevant OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2014-05-18 00:51 UTC] chealer at gmail dot com 
Description:
------------
According to http://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php the REQUEST_URI entry of $_SERVER contains "The URI which was given in order to access this page".

As reported in #66978, this is not the case, as the example given just after shows: "for instance, '/index.html'". Actually, REQUEST_URI contains a URI reference.

This bug exists since as far as I can remember. At this point, it is probably a bad idea to simply fix. This should probably be treated as a documentation bug, and just cause the $_SERVER documentation to fix the entry description, adding a warning about the name.

However, having the actual request URI would be useful too, be it through a new "ACTUAL_REQUEST_URI" entry, a function, or something.

Note: this bug is not completely PHP-specific. http://labs.apache.org/webarch/uri/rfc/rfc3986.html#hierarchical gives a historical perspective on URI/URL terminology.

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 [2026-05-20 13:53 UTC] chealer at gmail dot com
-Summary: $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] does not contain the request's complete URI +Summary: $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] contains request target, not an actual URI
 [2026-05-20 13:53 UTC] chealer at gmail dot com 
This persists. The link is broken, but RFC 3986 is basically replaced by the URL standard.

I figured out what the issue is. What PHP calls REQUEST_URI is what HTTP 1.1 calls Request-URI, which is not actually a URI. That misleading term has been replaced with “request target” in HTTP 2.

This could be fixed by replacing with:
The request target which was given in order to access this page; for instance, '/index.html' or FIXME: 'htt://example .org/index.html'. HTTP 1.1 and below called the request target the "Request-URI.

I recommend renaming REQUEST_URI to REQUEST_TARGET.

License: All my contributions to this ticket (including comments and attachments) without a copyright notice are offered under the terms of CC0 1.0 (unless otherwise indicated).
 
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