Should I Return "500" or "404" if a Requested Image is not Found?

Posted by Michael Robinson on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Michael Robinson
Published on 2010-05-23T15:45:36Z Indexed on 2010/05/23 15:50 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 337

Filed under:

http

|

http-status-code-404

|

http-status-code-500

|

http-headers

I work with code written by other people, occasionally I am left somewhat confused and at these times Stack Overflow saves me. Please, save me again.

Our site allows people to upload images and later embed them within text in our site like so:

<img src="http://site.com/image_script.php?p=some_image_identifier"/>

My question is:

If the identifier, "p", does not lead us to an image should the server return "500" or "404"?

I would have thought it should be "404", but that's not what is happening right now.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about http

the size of apt-get update lists is too big

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I ran a clean install to Ubuntu 12.04 and so far everything has been working well. I especially commend the Ubuntu team for this release. I only noticed that the size of repository update is now about ~13MB. Normally, it is about this size for the first time you run apt-get update after a clean install… >>> More
Cannot update, apt-get cannot fetch index files

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 from the iso 'ubuntu-11.10-desktop-amd64.iso'. I installed this in VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 running on OSX 10.7.3. When setting up the VM, I allowed easy install to take care of creating my user and installing VMWare tools. No problems during installation, everything… >>> More
Quantal: Broken apt-index, cant fix dependencies

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I can't seem to add/remove/update packages Ubuntu software update has a notice about partial upgrades but fails Seems to be similar to this problem $ sudo apt-get update Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal InRelease Ign http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security InRelease Ign… >>> More
12.04: Apt-Get Update: failure to fetch; can't connect to any sources

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I realize there are dozens of "apt-get update: failure to fetch" questions (I read through all I could find), but my present circumstance is unique to 12.04 and it affects all sources; not just launchpad. Additionally, I've tried several different servers in Europe and the U.S. as well as the "main… >>> More
How can I remove the Translation entries in apt?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
This is the output of aptitude update: Ign http://archive.canonical.com natty InRelease Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com natty InRelease Ign http://dl.google.com stable InRelease Ign http://security.ubuntu.com natty-security InRelease Hit http://deb.torproject.org natty InRelease Get:1 http://dl.google… >>> More

Related posts about http-status-code-404

When to use HTTP status code 404 in an API

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am working on a project and after arguing with people at work for about more than a hour. I decided to know what people on stack-exchange might say. We're writing an API for a system, there is a query that should return a tree of Organization or a tree of Goals. The tree of Organization is the… >>> More
When to use http status code 404

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am working on a project and after arguing with people at work for about more than a hour. I decided to know what people on stack-exchange might say. We're writing an API for a system, there is a query that should return a tree of Organization or a tree of Goals. The tree of Organization is the… >>> More
How can I set up a 404 error page when people access http://ftp.mydomain.com?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am a freelance videographer/developer, and part of my job involves transferring large files over FTP to production houses/television stations. While the majority of people in my industry understand the difference between FTP and HTTP, I've experienced several interactions in the past couple months… >>> More
Nginx + PHP-FPM executes script, but returns 404

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am using Nginx + PHP-FPM to run a Wordpress based site. I have a URL that should return dynamically generated JSON data for use with the DataTables jQuery plugin. The data is returned properly, but with a return code of 404. I think this is a Nginx config issue, but I haven't been able to figure… >>> More
Strange request - http://66.196.81.202/error/vote

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi a friend of mine is asking about the request which can for example be found here: http://www.geoidee.ch/geodata/geoserver-2.0.0/logs/2010_11_23.request.log His original message: On a couple of hundred web sites worldwide, one of the 50 most popular "File not found" error 404 is caused by the… >>> More