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There's one thing I haven't found in rfc 2616 and that's a "canonical" name for a request/response pair. Is there such thing?

  4.1 Message Types

    HTTP messages consist of requests from client to server and responses
    from server to client.

       HTTP-message   = Request | Response     ; HTTP/1.1 messages

Taking this as a template, which word would you put in the following sentence?

  A single complete HTTP ... consists of one HTTP Request and one HTTP Response

       HTTP-... = Request Response 

roundtrip? cycle?

A: 

Transaction, yes, or "A singe HTTP Request consists of one HTTP Request message and one HTTP Response message."

ysth
+6  A: 

The spec calls them "exchanges" (or "request/response exchanges"),

In HTTP/1.0, most implementations used a new connection for each
request/response exchange. In HTTP/1.1, a connection may be used for one or more request/response exchanges.

Greg
Though I like the term transaction, what I really was looking for was a more "authoritative" reference like ..um, yeah.. the rfc itself. Thanks.
VolkerK
I like "transaction" too but I guess maybe that implies some guarantees that aren't there... if the response can't be delivered, then the request won't be rolled back.
Greg
True again. Then "exchange" it is.
VolkerK
rollback is kind of database specific. transaction is used in many non-database contexts. but if the rfc says exchange, go with that.
ysth