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protocolsstateless

Opposite of Stateless Protocol?

I would like to know what the opposite of a 'stateless protocol' is. Am I correct in assuming that, seeing as HTTP is stateless, for example, then a protocol such as FTP is the opposite/one that maintains state?

Thanks.

Solution

  • There are stateless protocols (like http) and stateful protocols (like ftp, telnet, ...).

    According to wikipedia :

    In computing, a stateless protocol is a communications protocol that treats each request as an independent transaction that is unrelated to any previous request so that the communication consists of independent pairs of requests and responses. A stateless protocol does not require the server to retain session information or status about each communications partner for the duration of multiple requests.

    According to this article - Stateful protocol :

    The client connects to the server, conducts a series of operations via that conneciton, and then disconnects.Then server can associate all of the requests together and knows that thy all came from the same user.