Absolute urls, relative urls, and…?

Here are the URL components:

http://www.example.com/en/public/img/logo.gif
\__/   \_____________/\_____________________/
 #1     #2             #3

1. scheme/protocol
2. host
3. path

A URL is called an absolute URL if it begins with the scheme and scheme specific part (here // after http:). Anything else is a relative URL.

A URL path is called an absolute URL path if it begins with a /. Any other URL path is called a relative URL path.

Thus:

• http://www.example.com/en/public/img/logo.gif is a absolute URL,
• ../../public/img/logo.gif is a relative URL with a relative URL path and
• /en/public/img/logo.gif is a relative URL with an absolute URL path.

Note: The current definition of URI (RFC 3986) is different from the old URL definition (RFC 1738 and RFC 1808).

The three examples with URI terms:

• http://www.example.com/en/public/img/logo.gif is a URI,
• ../../public/img/logo.gif is a relative reference with just a relative path and
• /en/public/img/logo.gif is a relative reference with just an absolute path.