1. 4.6 Links
      1. 4.6.1 Introduction
      2. 4.6.2 Links created by a and area elements
      3. 4.6.3 API for a and area elements
      4. 4.6.4 Following hyperlinks
      5. 4.6.5 Downloading resources
        1. 4.6.5.1 Hyperlink auditing
      6. 4.6.6 Link types
        1. 4.6.6.1 Link type "alternate"
        2. 4.6.6.2 Link type "author"
        3. 4.6.6.3 Link type "bookmark"
        4. 4.6.6.4 Link type "canonical"
        5. 4.6.6.5 Link type "dns-prefetch"
        6. 4.6.6.6 Link type "external"
        7. 4.6.6.7 Link type "help"
        8. 4.6.6.8 Link type "icon"
        9. 4.6.6.9 Link type "license"
        10. 4.6.6.10 Link type "manifest"
        11. 4.6.6.11 Link type "modulepreload"
        12. 4.6.6.12 Link type "nofollow"
        13. 4.6.6.13 Link type "noopener"
        14. 4.6.6.14 Link type "noreferrer"
        15. 4.6.6.15 Link type "opener"
        16. 4.6.6.16 Link type "pingback"
        17. 4.6.6.17 Link type "preconnect"
        18. 4.6.6.18 Link type "prefetch"
        19. 4.6.6.19 Link type "preload"
        20. 4.6.6.20 Link type "prerender"
        21. 4.6.6.21 Link type "search"
        22. 4.6.6.22 Link type "stylesheet"
        23. 4.6.6.23 Link type "tag"
        24. 4.6.6.24 Sequential link types
          1. 4.6.6.24.1 Link type "next"
          2. 4.6.6.24.2 Link type "prev"
        25. 4.6.6.25 Other link types

4.6.1 Introduction

Links are a conceptual construct, created by a, area, form, and link elements, that represent a connection between two resources, one of which is the current Document. There are two kinds of links in HTML:

Links to external resources

These are links to resources that are to be used to augment the current document, generally automatically processed by the user agent. All external resource links have a fetch and process the linked resource algorithm which describes how the resource is obtained.

Hyperlinks

These are links to other resources that are generally exposed to the user by the user agent so that the user can cause the user agent to navigate to those resources, e.g. to visit them in a browser or download them.

For link elements with an href attribute and a rel attribute, links must be created for the keywords of the rel attribute, as defined for those keywords in the link types section.

Similarly, for a and area elements with an href attribute and a rel attribute, links must be created for the keywords of the rel attribute as defined for those keywords in the link types section. Unlike link elements, however, a and area elements with an href attribute that either do not have a rel attribute, or whose rel attribute has no keywords that are defined as specifying hyperlinks, must also create a hyperlink. This implied hyperlink has no special meaning (it has no link type) beyond linking the element's node document to the resource given by the element's href attribute.

Similarly, for form elements with a rel attribute, links must be created for the keywords of the rel attribute as defined for those keywords in the link types section. form elements that do not have a rel attribute, or whose rel attribute has no keywords that are defined as specifying hyperlinks, must also create a hyperlink.

A hyperlink can have one or more hyperlink annotations that modify the processing semantics of that hyperlink.

The href attribute on a and area elements must have a value that is a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The href attribute on a and area elements is not required; when those elements do not have href attributes they do not create hyperlinks.

The target attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name or keyword. It gives the name of the browsing context that will be used. User agents use this name when following hyperlinks.

When an a or area element's activation behavior is invoked, the user agent may allow the user to indicate a preference regarding whether the hyperlink is to be used for navigation or whether the resource it specifies is to be downloaded.

In the absence of a user preference, the default should be navigation if the element has no download attribute, and should be to download the specified resource if it does.

Whether determined by the user's preferences or via the presence or absence of the attribute, if the decision is to use the hyperlink for navigation then the user agent must follow the hyperlink, and if the decision is to use the hyperlink to download a resource, the user agent must download the hyperlink. These terms are defined in subsequent sections below.

HTMLAnchorElement/download

Support in all current engines.

Firefox20+SafariYesChrome14+
Opera15+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)13+Internet ExplorerNo
Firefox AndroidYesSafari iOS?Chrome Android18+WebView AndroidYesSamsung Internet1.0+Opera AndroidYes

The download attribute, if present, indicates that the author intends the hyperlink to be used for downloading a resource. The attribute may have a value; the value, if any, specifies the default file name that the author recommends for use in labeling the resource in a local file system. There are no restrictions on allowed values, but authors are cautioned that most file systems have limitations with regard to what punctuation is supported in file names, and user agents are likely to adjust file names accordingly.

Element/a#attr-ping

Firefox🔰 YesSafariNoChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android🔰 YesSafari iOSNoChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera Android?
caniuse.com table

The ping attribute, if present, gives the URLs of the resources that are interested in being notified if the user follows the hyperlink. The value must be a set of space-separated tokens, each of which must be a valid non-empty URL whose scheme is an HTTP(S) scheme. The value is used by the user agent for hyperlink auditing.

The rel attribute on a and area elements controls what kinds of links the elements create. The attribute's value must be a unordered set of unique space-separated tokens. The allowed keywords and their meanings are defined below.

rel's supported tokens are the keywords defined in HTML link types which are allowed on a and area elements, impact the processing model, and are supported by the user agent. The possible supported tokens are noreferrer, noopener, and opener. rel's supported tokens must only include the tokens from this list that the user agent implements the processing model for.

The rel attribute has no default value. If the attribute is omitted or if none of the values in the attribute are recognized by the user agent, then the document has no particular relationship with the destination resource other than there being a hyperlink between the two.

The hreflang attribute on a elements that create hyperlinks, if present, gives the language of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid BCP 47 language tag. [BCP47] User agents must not consider this attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must use only language information associated with the resource to determine its language, not metadata included in the link to the resource.

The type attribute, if present, gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid MIME type string. User agents must not consider the type attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must not use metadata included in the link to the resource to determine its type.

The referrerpolicy attribute is a referrer policy attribute. Its purpose is to set the referrer policy used when following hyperlinks. [REFERRERPOLICY]

4.6.3 API for a and area elements

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes
interface mixin HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils {
  [CEReactions] stringifier attribute USVString href;
  readonly attribute USVString origin;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString protocol;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString username;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString password;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString host;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString hostname;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString port;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString pathname;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString search;
  [CEReactions] attribute USVString hash;
};
hyperlink . toString()
hyperlink . href

Returns the hyperlink's URL.

Can be set, to change the URL.

hyperlink . origin

Returns the hyperlink's URL's origin.

hyperlink . protocol

Returns the hyperlink's URL's scheme.

Can be set, to change the URL's scheme.

hyperlink . username

Returns the hyperlink's URL's username.

Can be set, to change the URL's username.

hyperlink . password

Returns the hyperlink's URL's password.

Can be set, to change the URL's password.

hyperlink . host

Returns the hyperlink's URL's host and port (if different from the default port for the scheme).

Can be set, to change the URL's host and port.

hyperlink . hostname

Returns the hyperlink's URL's host.

Can be set, to change the URL's host.

hyperlink . port

Returns the hyperlink's URL's port.

Can be set, to change the URL's port.

hyperlink . pathname

Returns the hyperlink's URL's path.

Can be set, to change the URL's path.

hyperlink . search

Returns the hyperlink's URL's query (includes leading "?" if non-empty).

Can be set, to change the URL's query (ignores leading "?").

hyperlink . hash

Returns the hyperlink's URL's fragment (includes leading "#" if non-empty).

Can be set, to change the URL's fragment (ignores leading "#").

An element implementing the HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils mixin has an associated url (null or a URL). It is initially null.

An element implementing the HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils mixin has an associated set the url algorithm, which runs these steps:

  1. If this element's href content attribute is absent, set this element's url to null.

  2. Otherwise, parse this element's href content attribute value relative to this element's node document. If parsing is successful, set this element's url to the result; otherwise, set this element's url to null.

When elements implementing the HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils mixin are created, and whenever those elements have their href content attribute set, changed, or removed, the user agent must set the url.

This is only observable for blob: URLs as parsing them involves a Blob URL Store lookup.

An element implementing the HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils mixin has an associated reinitialize url algorithm, which runs these steps:

  1. If element's url is non-null, its scheme is "blob", and its cannot-be-a-base-URL flag is set, terminate these steps.

  2. Set the url.

To update href, set the element's href content attribute's value to the element's url, serialized.


HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/href

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/toString

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChrome52+
OperaYesEdge79+
Edge (Legacy)18Internet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome Android52+WebView Android52+Samsung Internet6.0+Opera AndroidYes

The href attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null and this element has no href content attribute, return the empty string.

  4. Otherwise, if url is null, return this element's href content attribute's value.

  5. Return url, serialized.

The href attribute's setter must set this element's href content attribute's value to the given value.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/origin

Support in all current engines.

Firefox26+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)17+Internet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android26+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The origin attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. If this element's url is null, return the empty string.

  3. Return the serialization of this element's url's origin.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/protocol

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The protocol attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. If this element's url is null, return ":".

  3. Return this element's url's scheme, followed by ":".

The protocol attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. If this element's url is null, terminate these steps.

  3. Basic URL parse the given value, followed by ":", with this element's url as url and scheme start state as state override.

    Because the URL parser ignores multiple consecutive colons, providing a value of "https:" (or even "https::::") is the same as providing a value of "https".

  4. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/username

Support in all current engines.

Firefox26+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android26+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The username attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. If this element's url is null, return the empty string.

  3. Return this element's url's username.

The username attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null or url cannot have a username/password/port, then return.

  4. Set the username, given url and the given value.

  5. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/password

Support in all current engines.

Firefox26+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android26+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The password attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null, then return the empty string.

  4. Return url's password.

The password attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null or url cannot have a username/password/port, then return.

  4. Set the password, given url and the given value.

  5. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/host

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The host attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url or url's host is null, return the empty string.

  4. If url's port is null, return url's host, serialized.

  5. Return url's host, serialized, followed by ":" and url's port, serialized.

The host attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null or url's cannot-be-a-base-URL flag is set, terminate these steps.

  4. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and host state as state override.

  5. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/hostname

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The hostname attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url or url's host is null, return the empty string.

  4. Return url's host, serialized.

The hostname attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null or url's cannot-be-a-base-URL flag is set, terminate these steps.

  4. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and hostname state as state override.

  5. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/port

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The port attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url or url's port is null, return the empty string.

  4. Return url's port, serialized.

The port attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null or url cannot have a username/password/port, then return.

  4. If the given value is the empty string, then set url's port to null.

  5. Otherwise, basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and port state as state override.

  6. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/pathname

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The pathname attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null, return the empty string.

  4. If url's cannot-be-a-base-URL flag is set, return the first string in url's path.

  5. If url's path is empty, then return the empty string.

  6. Return "/", followed by the strings in url's path (including empty strings), separated from each other by "/".

The pathname attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null or url's cannot-be-a-base-URL flag is set, terminate these steps.

  4. Set url's path to the empty list.

  5. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and path start state as state override.

  6. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/search

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The search attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null, or url's query is either null or the empty string, return the empty string.

  4. Return "?", followed by url's query.

The search attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null, terminate these steps.

  4. If the given value is the empty string, set url's query to null.

  5. Otherwise:

    1. Let input be the given value with a single leading "?" removed, if any.

    2. Set url's query to the empty string.

    3. Basic URL parse input, with url as url and query state as state override, and this element's node document's document's character encoding as encoding override.

  6. Update href.

HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils/hash

Support in all current engines.

Firefox22+SafariYesChromeYes
OperaYesEdgeYes
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer5+
Firefox Android22+Safari iOSYesChrome AndroidYesWebView AndroidYesSamsung InternetYesOpera AndroidYes

The hash attribute's getter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null, or url's fragment is either null or the empty string, return the empty string.

  4. Return "#", followed by url's fragment.

The hash attribute's setter must run these steps:

  1. Reinitialize url.

  2. Let url be this element's url.

  3. If url is null, then return.

  4. If the given value is the empty string, set url's fragment to null.

  5. Otherwise:

    1. Let input be the given value with a single leading "#" removed, if any.

    2. Set url's fragment to the empty string.

    3. Basic URL parse input, with url as url and fragment state as state override.

  6. Update href.

An element element cannot navigate if one of the following is true:

This is also used by form submission for the form element. The exception for a elements is for compatibility with web content.

To get an element's noopener, given an a, area, or form element element and a string target, run these steps:

  1. If element's link types include the noopener or noreferrer keyword, then return true.

  2. If element's link types do not include the opener keyword and target is an ASCII case-insensitive match for "_blank", then return true.

  3. Return false.

When a user follows a hyperlink created by an element subject, optionally with a hyperlink suffix, the user agent must run the following steps:

  1. If subject cannot navigate, then return.

  2. Let replace be false.

  3. Let source be subject's node document's browsing context.

  4. Let targetAttributeValue be the empty string.

  5. If subject is an a or area element, then set targetAttributeValue to the result of getting an element's target given subject.

  6. Let noopener be the result of getting an element's noopener with subject and targetAttributeValue.

  7. Let target and windowType be the result of applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given targetAttributeValue, source, and noopener.

  8. If target is null, then return.

  9. Parse the URL given by subject's href attribute, relative to subject's node document.

  10. If that is successful, let URL be the resulting URL string.

    Otherwise, if parsing the URL failed, the user agent may report the error to the user in a user-agent-specific manner, may queue an element task on the DOM manipulation task source given subject to navigate the target browsing context to an error page to report the error, or may ignore the error and do nothing. In any case, the user agent must then return.

  11. If there is a hyperlink suffix, append it to URL.

  12. Let request be a new request whose url is URL and whose referrer policy is the current state of subject's referrerpolicy content attribute.

  13. If subject's link types includes the noreferrer keyword, then set request's referrer to "no-referrer".

  14. Let historyHandling be "replace" if windowType is not "existing or none"; otherwise, "default".

  15. Queue an element task on the DOM manipulation task source given subject to navigate target to request with historyHandling set to historyHandling and the source browsing context set to source.

4.6.5 Downloading resources

HTMLAnchorElement/download

Support in all current engines.

Firefox20+SafariYesChrome14+
Opera15+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)13+Internet ExplorerNo
Firefox AndroidYesSafari iOS?Chrome Android18+WebView AndroidYesSamsung Internet1.0+Opera AndroidYes
caniuse.com table

In some cases, resources are intended for later use rather than immediate viewing. To indicate that a resource is intended to be downloaded for use later, rather than immediately used, the download attribute can be specified on the a or area element that creates the hyperlink to that resource.

The attribute can furthermore be given a value, to specify the file name that user agents are to use when storing the resource in a file system. This value can be overridden by the `Content-Disposition` HTTP header's filename parameters. [RFC6266]

In cross-origin situations, the download attribute has to be combined with the `Content-Disposition` HTTP header, specifically with the attachment disposition type, to avoid the user being warned of possibly nefarious activity. (This is to protect users from being made to download sensitive personal or confidential information without their full understanding.)


The following allowed to download algorithm takes an initiator browsing context and an instantiator browsing context, and returns a boolean indicating whether or not downloading is allowed:

  1. If the initiator browsing context's sandboxing flags has the sandboxed downloads browsing context flag set, then return false.

  2. If the instantiator browsing context is non-null, and its sandboxing flags has the sandboxed downloads browsing context flag set, then return false.

  3. Optionally, the user agent may return false, if it believes doing so would safeguard the user from a potentially hostile download.

  4. Return true.

When a user downloads a hyperlink created by an element subject, optionally with a hyperlink suffix, the user agent must run the following steps:

  1. If subject cannot navigate, then return.

  2. Run the allowed to download algorithm with the subject's node document's browsing context and null. If the algorithm returns false, then return.

  3. Parse the URL given by subject's href attribute, relative to subject's node document.

  4. If parsing the URL fails, the user agent may report the error to the user in a user-agent-specific manner, may navigate to an error page to report the error, or may ignore the error and do nothing. In either case, the user agent must return.

  5. Otherwise, let URL be the resulting URL string.

  6. If there is a hyperlink suffix, append it to URL.

  7. Run these steps in parallel:

    1. Let request be a new request whose url is URL, client is entry settings object, initiator is "download", destination is the empty string, and whose synchronous flag and use-URL-credentials flag are set.

    2. Handle the result of fetching request as a download.

When a user agent is to handle a resource obtained from a fetch as a download, it should provide the user with a way to save the resource for later use, if a resource is successfully obtained. Otherwise, it should report any problems downloading the file to the user.

If the user agent needs a file name for a resource being handled as a download, it should select one using the following algorithm.

This algorithm is intended to mitigate security dangers involved in downloading files from untrusted sites, and user agents are strongly urged to follow it.

  1. Let filename be the undefined value.

  2. If the resource has a `Content-Disposition` header, that header specifies the attachment disposition type, and the header includes file name information, then let filename have the value specified by the header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC6266]

  3. Let interface origin be the origin of the Document in which the download or navigate action resulting in the download was initiated, if any.

  4. Let resource origin be the origin of the URL of the resource being downloaded, unless that URL's scheme component is data, in which case let resource origin be the same as the interface origin, if any.

  5. If there is no interface origin, then let trusted operation be true. Otherwise, let trusted operation be true if resource origin is the same origin as interface origin, and false otherwise.

  6. If trusted operation is true and the resource has a `Content-Disposition` header and that header includes file name information, then let filename have the value specified by the header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC6266]

  7. If the download was not initiated from a hyperlink created by an a or area element, or if the element of the hyperlink from which it was initiated did not have a download attribute when the download was initiated, or if there was such an attribute but its value when the download was initiated was the empty string, then jump to the step labeled no proposed file name.

  8. Let proposed filename have the value of the download attribute of the element of the hyperlink that initiated the download at the time the download was initiated.

  9. If trusted operation is true, let filename have the value of proposed filename, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.

  10. If the resource has a `Content-Disposition` header and that header specifies the attachment disposition type, let filename have the value of proposed filename, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC6266]

  11. No proposed file name: If trusted operation is true, or if the user indicated a preference for having the resource in question downloaded, let filename have a value derived from the URL of the resource in an implementation-defined manner, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.

  12. Let filename be set to the user's preferred file name or to a file name selected by the user agent, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.

    If the algorithm reaches this step, then a download was begun from a different origin than the resource being downloaded, and the origin did not mark the file as suitable for downloading, and the download was not initiated by the user. This could be because a download attribute was used to trigger the download, or because the resource in question is not of a type that the user agent supports.

    This could be dangerous, because, for instance, a hostile server could be trying to get a user to unknowingly download private information and then re-upload it to the hostile server, by tricking the user into thinking the data is from the hostile server.

    Thus, it is in the user's interests that the user be somehow notified that the resource in question comes from quite a different source, and to prevent confusion, any suggested file name from the potentially hostile interface origin should be ignored.

  13. Sanitize: Optionally, allow the user to influence filename. For example, a user agent could prompt the user for a file name, potentially providing the value of filename as determined above as a default value.

  14. Adjust filename to be suitable for the local file system.

    For example, this could involve removing characters that are not legal in file names, or trimming leading and trailing whitespace.

  15. If the platform conventions do not in any way use extensions to determine the types of file on the file system, then return filename as the file name.

  16. Let claimed type be the type given by the resource's Content-Type metadata, if any is known. Let named type be the type given by filename's extension, if any is known. For the purposes of this step, a type is a mapping of a MIME type to an extension.

  17. If named type is consistent with the user's preferences (e.g. because the value of filename was determined by prompting the user), then return filename as the file name.

  18. If claimed type and named type are the same type (i.e. the type given by the resource's Content-Type metadata is consistent with the type given by filename's extension), then return filename as the file name.

  19. If the claimed type is known, then alter filename to add an extension corresponding to claimed type.

    Otherwise, if named type is known to be potentially dangerous (e.g. it will be treated by the platform conventions as a native executable, shell script, HTML application, or executable-macro-capable document) then optionally alter filename to add a known-safe extension (e.g. ".txt").

    This last step would make it impossible to download executables, which might not be desirable. As always, implementers are forced to balance security and usability in this matter.

  20. Return filename as the file name.

For the purposes of this algorithm, a file extension consists of any part of the file name that platform conventions dictate will be used for identifying the type of the file. For example, many operating systems use the part of the file name following the last dot (".") in the file name to determine the type of the file, and from that the manner in which the file is to be opened or executed.

User agents should ignore any directory or path information provided by the resource itself, its URL, and any download attribute, in deciding where to store the resulting file in the user's file system.

If a hyperlink created by an a or area element has a ping attribute, and the user follows the hyperlink, and the value of the element's href attribute can be parsed, relative to the element's node document, without failure, then the user agent must take the ping attribute's value, split that string on ASCII whitespace, parse each resulting token relative to the element's node document, and then run these steps for each resulting URL record ping URL, ignoring tokens that fail to parse:

  1. If ping URL's scheme is not an HTTP(S) scheme, then return.

  2. Optionally, return. (For example, the user agent might wish to ignore any or all ping URLs in accordance with the user's expressed preferences.)

  3. Let request be a new request whose url is ping URL, method is `POST`, body is `PING`, client is the environment settings object of the Document containing the hyperlink, destination is the empty string, credentials mode is "include", referrer is "no-referrer", and whose use-URL-credentials flag is set.

  4. Let target URL be the resulting URL string obtained from parsing the value of the element's href attribute and then:

    If the URL of the Document object containing the hyperlink being audited and ping URL have the same origin
    If the origins are different, but the scheme of the URL of the Document containing the hyperlink being audited is not "https"
    request must include a `Ping-From` header with, as its value, the URL of the document containing the hyperlink, and a `Ping-To` HTTP header with, as its value, the target URL.
    Otherwise
    request must include a `Ping-To` HTTP header with, as its value, target URL. request does not include a `Ping-From` header.
  5. Fetch request.

This may be done in parallel with the primary fetch, and is independent of the result of that fetch.

User agents should allow the user to adjust this behavior, for example in conjunction with a setting that disables the sending of HTTP `Referer` (sic) headers. Based on the user's preferences, UAs may either ignore the ping attribute altogether, or selectively ignore URLs in the list (e.g. ignoring any third-party URLs); this is explicitly accounted for in the steps above.

User agents must ignore any entity bodies returned in the responses. User agents may close the connection prematurely once they start receiving a response body.

When the ping attribute is present, user agents should clearly indicate to the user that following the hyperlink will also cause secondary requests to be sent in the background, possibly including listing the actual target URLs.

For example, a visual user agent could include the hostnames of the target ping URLs along with the hyperlink's actual URL in a status bar or tooltip.

The ping attribute is redundant with pre-existing technologies like HTTP redirects and JavaScript in allowing web pages to track which off-site links are most popular or allowing advertisers to track click-through rates.

However, the ping attribute provides these advantages to the user over those alternatives:

Thus, while it is possible to track users without this feature, authors are encouraged to use the ping attribute so that the user agent can make the user experience more transparent.

4.6.6 Link types

Link_types

The following table summarizes the link types that are defined by this specification, by their corresponding keywords. This table is non-normative; the actual definitions for the link types are given in the next few sections.

In this section, the term referenced document refers to the resource identified by the element representing the link, and the term current document refers to the resource within which the element representing the link finds itself.

To determine which link types apply to a link, a, area, or form element, the element's rel attribute must be split on ASCII whitespace. The resulting tokens are the keywords for the link types that apply to that element.

Except where otherwise specified, a keyword must not be specified more than once per rel attribute.

Some of the sections that follow the table below list synonyms for certain keywords. The indicated synonyms are to be handled as specified by user agents, but must not be used in documents (for example, the keyword "copyright").

Keywords are always ASCII case-insensitive, and must be compared as such.

Thus, rel="next" is the same as rel="NEXT".

Keywords that are body-ok affect whether link elements are allowed in the body. The body-ok keywords are dns-prefetch, modulepreload, pingback, preconnect, prefetch, preload, prerender, and stylesheet.

New link types that are to be implemented by web browsers are to be added to this standard. The remainder can be registered as extensions.

Link typeEffect on...body-okBrief description
linka and areaform
alternateHyperlinknot allowed · Gives alternate representations of the current document.
canonicalHyperlinknot allowed · Gives the preferred URL for the current document.
authorHyperlinknot allowed · Gives a link to the author of the current document or article.
bookmarknot allowedHyperlinknot allowed · Gives the permalink for the nearest ancestor section.
dns-prefetchExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Specifies that the user agent should preemptively perform DNS resolution for the target resource's origin.
externalnot allowedAnnotation · Indicates that the referenced document is not part of the same site as the current document.
helpHyperlink · Provides a link to context-sensitive help.
iconExternal Resourcenot allowed · Imports an icon to represent the current document.
manifestExternal Resourcenot allowed · Imports or links to an application manifest. [MANIFEST]
modulepreloadExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Specifies that the user agent must preemptively fetch the module script and store it in the document's module map for later evaluation. Optionally, the module's dependencies can be fetched as well.
licenseHyperlink · Indicates that the main content of the current document is covered by the copyright license described by the referenced document.
nextHyperlink · Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the next document in the series is the referenced document.
nofollownot allowedAnnotation · Indicates that the current document's original author or publisher does not endorse the referenced document.
noopenernot allowedAnnotation · Creates a top-level browsing context that is not an auxiliary browsing context if the hyperlink would create either of those to begin with (i.e., has an appropriate target attribute value).
noreferrernot allowedAnnotation · No `Referer` (sic) header will be included. Additionally, has the same effect as noopener.
openernot allowedAnnotation · Creates an auxiliary browsing context if the hyperlink would otherwise create a top-level browsing context that is not an auxiliary browsing context (i.e., has "_blank" as target attribute value).
pingbackExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Gives the address of the pingback server that handles pingbacks to the current document.
preconnectExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Specifies that the user agent should preemptively connect to the target resource's origin.
prefetchExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Specifies that the user agent should preemptively fetch and cache the target resource as it is likely to be required for a followup navigation.
preloadExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Specifies that the user agent must preemptively fetch and cache the target resource for current navigation according to the potential destination given by the as attribute (and the priority associated with the corresponding destination).
prerenderExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Specifies that the user agent should preemptively fetch the target resource and process it in a way that helps deliver a faster response in the future.
prevHyperlink · Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the previous document in the series is the referenced document.
searchHyperlink · Gives a link to a resource that can be used to search through the current document and its related pages.
stylesheetExternal Resourcenot allowed Yes Imports a style sheet.
tagnot allowedHyperlinknot allowed · Gives a tag (identified by the given address) that applies to the current document.
4.6.6.1 Link type "alternate"

Alternative_style_sheets

Support in one engine only.

Firefox3+Safari?Chrome1–48
OperaYesEdgeNo
Edge (Legacy)?Internet Explorer8+
Firefox Android4+Safari iOS?Chrome Android?WebView Android?Samsung Internet?Opera Android?

The alternate keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements.

The meaning of this keyword depends on the values of the other attributes.

If the element is a link element and the rel attribute also contains the keyword stylesheet

The alternate keyword modifies the meaning of the stylesheet keyword in the way described for that keyword. The alternate keyword does not create a link of its own.

Here, a set of link elements provide some style sheets:

<!-- a persistent style sheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css">

<!-- the preferred alternate style sheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="green.css" title="Green styles">

<!-- some alternate style sheets -->
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="contrast.css" title="High contrast">
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="big.css" title="Big fonts">
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="wide.css" title="Wide screen">
If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute set to the value application/rss+xml or the value application/atom+xml

The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing a syndication feed (though not necessarily syndicating exactly the same content as the current page).

For the purposes of feed autodiscovery, user agents should consider all link elements in the document with the alternate keyword used and with their type attribute set to the value application/rss+xml or the value application/atom+xml. If the user agent has the concept of a default syndication feed, the first such element (in tree order) should be used as the default.

The following link elements give syndication feeds for a blog:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="posts.xml" title="Cool Stuff Blog">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="posts.xml?category=robots" title="Cool Stuff Blog: robots category">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="comments.xml" title="Cool Stuff Blog: Comments">

Such link elements would be used by user agents engaged in feed autodiscovery, with the first being the default (where applicable).

The following example offers various different syndication feeds to the user, using a elements:

<p>You can access the planets database using Atom feeds:</p>
<ul>
 <li><a href="recently-visited-planets.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Recently Visited Planets</a></li>
 <li><a href="known-bad-planets.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Known Bad Planets</a></li>
 <li><a href="unexplored-planets.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Unexplored Planets</a></li>
</ul>

These links would not be used in feed autodiscovery.

Otherwise

The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing an alternate representation of the current document.

The nature of the referenced document is given by the hreflang, and type attributes.

If the alternate keyword is used with the hreflang attribute, and that attribute's value differs from the document element's language, it indicates that the referenced document is a translation.

If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute, it indicates that the referenced document is a reformulation of the current document in the specified format.

The hreflang and type attributes can be combined when specified with the alternate keyword.

The following example shows how you can specify versions of the page that use alternative formats, are aimed at other languages, and that are intended for other media:

<link rel=alternate href="/en/html" hreflang=en type=text/html title="English HTML">
<link rel=alternate href="/fr/html" hreflang=fr type=text/html title="French HTML">
<link rel=alternate href="/en/html/print" hreflang=en type=text/html media=print title="English HTML (for printing)">
<link rel=alternate href="/fr/html/print" hreflang=fr type=text/html media=print title="French HTML (for printing)">
<link rel=alternate href="/en/pdf" hreflang=en type=application/pdf title="English PDF">
<link rel=alternate href="/fr/pdf" hreflang=fr type=application/pdf title="French PDF">

This relationship is transitive — that is, if a document links to two other documents with the link type "alternate", then, in addition to implying that those documents are alternative representations of the first document, it is also implying that those two documents are alternative representations of each other.

The author keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

For a and area elements, the author keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author of the nearest article element ancestor of the element defining the hyperlink, if there is one, or of the page as a whole, otherwise.

For link elements, the author keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author for the page as a whole.

The "referenced document" can be, and often is, a mailto: URL giving the email address of the author. [MAILTO]

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat link, a, and area elements that have a rev attribute with the value "made" as having the author keyword specified as a link relationship.

The bookmark keyword may be used with a and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The bookmark keyword gives a permalink for the nearest ancestor article element of the linking element in question, or of the section the linking element is most closely associated with, if there are no ancestor article elements.

The following snippet has three permalinks. A user agent could determine which permalink applies to which part of the spec by looking at where the permalinks are given.

 ...
 <body>
  <h1>Example of permalinks</h1>
  <div id="a">
   <h2>First example</h2>
   <p><a href="a.html" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to
   only the content from the first H2 to the second H2</a>. The DIV isn't
   exactly that section, but it roughly corresponds to it.</p>
  </div>
  <h2>Second example</h2>
  <article id="b">
   <p><a href="b.html" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to
   the outer ARTICLE element</a> (which could be, e.g., a blog post).</p>
   <article id="c">
    <p><a href="c.html" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to
    the inner ARTICLE element</a> (which could be, e.g., a blog comment).</p>
   </article>
  </article>
 </body>
 ...

The canonical keyword may be used with link element. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The canonical keyword indicates that URL given by the href attribute is the preferred URL for the current document. That helps search engines reduce duplicate content, as described in more detail in The Canonical Link Relation. [RFC6596]

Link_types/dns-prefetch

Firefox3+Safari?Chrome46+
Opera33+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet Explorer?
Firefox Android4+Safari iOS?Chrome AndroidYesWebView Android46+Samsung InternetYesOpera Android?

The dns-prefetch keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

The dns-prefetch keyword indicates that preemptively performing DNS resolution for the origin of the specified resource is likely to be beneficial, as it is highly likely that the user will require resources located at that origin, and the user experience would be improved by preempting the latency costs associated with DNS resolution. User agents must implement the processing model of the dns-prefetch keyword described in Resource Hints. [RESOURCEHINTS]

There is no default type for resources given by the dns-prefetch keyword.

The external keyword may be used with a, area, and form elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).

The external keyword indicates that the link is leading to a document that is not part of the site that the current document forms a part of.

The help keyword may be used with link, a, area, and form elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

For a, area, and form elements, the help keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further help information for the parent of the element defining the hyperlink, and its children.

In the following example, the form control has associated context-sensitive help. The user agent could use this information, for example, displaying the referenced document if the user presses the "Help" or "F1" key.

 <p><label> Topic: <input name=topic> <a href="help/topic.html" rel="help">(Help)</a></label></p>

For link elements, the help keyword indicates that the referenced document provides help for the page as a whole.

For a and area elements, on some browsers, the help keyword causes the link to use a different cursor.

4.6.6.8 Link type "icon"

Link_types#icon

Support in all current engines.

Firefox2+Safari3.1+Chrome4+
Opera9+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer11
Firefox Android4+Safari iOSNoChrome Android18+WebView Android38+Samsung Internet4.0+Opera AndroidNo
caniuse.com table

The icon keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link.

The specified resource is an icon representing the page or site, and should be used by the user agent when representing the page in the user interface.

Icons could be auditory icons, visual icons, or other kinds of icons. If multiple icons are provided, the user agent must select the most appropriate icon according to the type, media, and sizes attributes. If there are multiple equally appropriate icons, user agents must use the last one declared in tree order at the time that the user agent collected the list of icons. If the user agent tries to use an icon but that icon is determined, upon closer examination, to in fact be inappropriate (e.g. because it uses an unsupported format), then the user agent must try the next-most-appropriate icon as determined by the attributes.

User agents are not required to update icons when the list of icons changes, but are encouraged to do so.

There is no default type for resources given by the icon keyword. However, for the purposes of determining the type of the resource, user agents must expect the resource to be an image.

The sizes keywords represent icon sizes in raw pixels (as opposed to CSS pixels).

An icon that is 50 CSS pixels wide intended for displays with a device pixel density of two device pixels per CSS pixel (2x, 192dpi) would have a width of 100 raw pixels. This feature does not support indicating that a different resource is to be used for small high-resolution icons vs large low-resolution icons (e.g. 50×50 2x vs 100×100 1x).

To parse and process the attribute's value, the user agent must first split the attribute's value on ASCII whitespace, and must then parse each resulting keyword to determine what it represents.

The any keyword represents that the resource contains a scalable icon, e.g. as provided by an SVG image.

Other keywords must be further parsed as follows to determine what they represent:

The keywords specified on the sizes attribute must not represent icon sizes that are not actually available in the linked resource.

The linked resource fetch setup steps for this type of linked resource, given a link element el and request request, are:

  1. Set request's destination to "image".

  2. Return true.

In the absence of a link with the icon keyword, for Document objects whose URL's scheme is an HTTP(S) scheme, user agents may instead run these steps in parallel:

  1. Let request be a new request whose url is the URL record obtained by resolving the URL "/favicon.ico" against the Document object's URL, client is the Document object's relevant settings object, destination is "image", synchronous flag is set, credentials mode is "include", and whose use-URL-credentials flag is set.

  2. Let response be the result of fetching request.

  3. Use response's unsafe response as an icon as if it had been declared using the icon keyword.

The following snippet shows the top part of an application with several icons.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
  <title>lsForums — Inbox</title>
  <link rel=icon href=favicon.png sizes="16x16" type="image/png">
  <link rel=icon href=windows.ico sizes="32x32 48x48" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon">
  <link rel=icon href=mac.icns sizes="128x128 512x512 8192x8192 32768x32768">
  <link rel=icon href=iphone.png sizes="57x57" type="image/png">
  <link rel=icon href=gnome.svg sizes="any" type="image/svg+xml">
  <link rel=stylesheet href=lsforums.css>
  <script src=lsforums.js></script>
  <meta name=application-name content="lsForums">
 </head>
 <body>
  ...

For historical reasons, the icon keyword may be preceded by the keyword "shortcut". If the "shortcut" keyword is present, the rel attribute's entire value must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "shortcut icon" (with a single U+0020 SPACE character between the tokens and no other ASCII whitespace).

The license keyword may be used with link, a, area, and form elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The license keyword indicates that the referenced document provides the copyright license terms under which the main content of the current document is provided.

This specification does not specify how to distinguish between the main content of a document and content that is not deemed to be part of that main content. The distinction should be made clear to the user.

Consider a photo sharing site. A page on that site might describe and show a photograph, and the page might be marked up as follows:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
  <title>Exampl Pictures: Kissat</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/style/default">
 </head>
 <body>
  <h1>Kissat</h1>
  <nav>
   <a href="../">Return to photo index</a>
  </nav>
  <figure>
   <img src="/pix/39627052_fd8dcd98b5.jpg">
   <figcaption>Kissat</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <p>One of them has six toes!</p>
  <p><small><a rel="license" href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php">MIT Licensed</a></small></p>
  <footer>
   <a href="/">Home</a> | <a href="../">Photo index</a>
   <p><small>© copyright 2009 Exampl Pictures. All Rights Reserved.</small></p>
  </footer>
 </body>
</html>

In this case the license applies to just the photo (the main content of the document), not the whole document. In particular not the design of the page itself, which is covered by the copyright given at the bottom of the document. This could be made clearer in the styling (e.g. making the license link prominently positioned near the photograph, while having the page copyright in light small text at the foot of the page).

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "copyright" like the license keyword.

The manifest keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link.

The manifest keyword indicates the manifest file that provides metadata associated with the current document.

There is no default type for resources given by the manifest keyword.

The appropriate time to fetch and process the linked resource for this link type is when the user agent deems it necessary. For example, when the user chooses to install the web application. In that case, only the first link element in tree order whose rel attribute contains the token manifest may be used.

A user agent must not delay the load event for this link type.

The linked resource fetch setup steps for this type of linked resource, given a link element el and request request, are:

  1. Let context be el's node document's browsing context.

  2. If context is null, then return false.

  3. If context is not a top-level browsing context, then return false.

  4. Set request's initiator to "manifest".

  5. Set request's destination to "manifest".

  6. Set request's mode to "cors".

  7. Set request's credentials mode to the CORS settings attribute credentials mode for el's crossorigin content attribute.

  8. Return true.

To process this type of linked resource given a link element el, boolean success, and response response:

  1. If response's Content-Type metadata is not a JSON MIME type, then set success to false.

  2. If success is true, then process the manifest given el and response. [MANIFEST]

Link_types/modulepreload

Support in one engine only.

Firefox?Safari?Chrome66+
Opera53+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet Explorer?
Firefox Android?Safari iOS?Chrome Android66+WebView Android66+Samsung Internet9.0+Opera Android47+
caniuse.com table

The modulepreload keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

The modulepreload keyword is a specialized alternative to the preload keyword, with a processing model geared toward preloading module scripts. In particular, it uses the specific fetch behavior for module scripts (including, e.g., a different interpretation of the crossorigin attribute), and places the result into the appropriate module map for later evaluation. In contrast, a similar external resource link using the preload keyword would place the result in the preload cache, without affecting the document's module map.

Additionally, implementations can take advantage of the fact that module scripts declare their dependencies in order to fetch the specified module's dependency as well. This is intended as an optimization opportunity, since the user agent knows that, in all likelihood, those dependencies will also be needed later. It will not generally be observable without using technology such as service workers, or monitoring on the server side. Notably, the appropriate load or error events will occur after the specified module is fetched, and will not wait for any dependencies.

The appropriate times to fetch and process the linked resource for such a link are:

Unlike some other link relations, changing the relevant attributes (such as as, crossorigin, and referrerpolicy) of such a link does not trigger a new fetch. This is because the document's module map has already been populated by a previous fetch, and so re-fetching would be pointless.

The fetch and process the linked resource algorithm for modulepreload links, given a link element el, is as follows:

  1. If the href attribute's value is the empty string, then return.

  2. Let destination be the current state of the as attribute (a destination), or "script" if it is in no state.

  3. If destination is not script-like, then queue an element task on the networking task source given the link element to fire an event named error at the link element, and return.

  4. Parse the URL given by the href attribute, relative to the element's node document. If that fails, then return. Otherwise, let url be the resulting URL record.

  5. Let settings object be the link element's node document's relevant settings object.

  6. Let credentials mode be the CORS settings attribute credentials mode for the crossorigin attribute.

  7. Let cryptographic nonce be the current value of the element's [[CryptographicNonce]] internal slot.

  8. Let integrity metadata be the value of the integrity attribute, if it is specified, or the empty string otherwise.

  9. Let referrer policy be the current state of the element's referrerpolicy attribute.

  10. Let options be a script fetch options whose cryptographic nonce is cryptographic nonce, integrity metadata is integrity metadata, parser metadata is "not-parser-inserted", credentials mode is credentials mode, and referrer policy is referrer policy.

  11. Fetch a modulepreload module script graph given url, destination, settings object, and options. Wait until the algorithm asynchronously completes with result.

  12. If result is null, then fire an event named error at the link element, and return.

  13. Fire an event named load at the link element.

The following snippet shows the top part of an application with several modules preloaded:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<title>IRCFog</title>

<link rel="modulepreload" href="app.mjs">
<link rel="modulepreload" href="helpers.mjs">
<link rel="modulepreload" href="irc.mjs">
<link rel="modulepreload" href="fog-machine.mjs">

<script type="module" src="app.mjs">
...

Assume that the module graph for the application is as follows:

The module graph is rooted at app.mjs, which depends on irc.mjs and fog-machine.mjs. In turn, irc.mjs depends on helpers.mjs.

Here we see the application developer has used modulepreload to declare all of the modules in their module graph, ensuring that the user agent initiates fetches for them all. Without such preloading, the user agent might need to go through multiple network roundtrips before discovering helpers.mjs, if technologies such as HTTP/2 Server Push are not in play. In this way, modulepreload link elements can be used as a sort of "manifest" of the application's modules.

The following code shows how modulepreload links can be used in conjunction with import() to ensure network fetching is done ahead of time, so that when import() is called, the module is already ready (but not evaluated) in the module map:

<link rel="modulepreload" href="awesome-viewer.mjs">

<button onclick="import('./awesome-viewer.mjs').then(m => m.view())">
  View awesome thing
</button>

The nofollow keyword may be used with a, area, and form elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).

The nofollow keyword indicates that the link is not endorsed by the original author or publisher of the page, or that the link to the referenced document was included primarily because of a commercial relationship between people affiliated with the two pages.

Link_types/noopener

Support in all current engines.

Firefox52+Safari10.1+Chrome49+
Opera36+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android52+Safari iOS10.3+Chrome Android49+WebView Android49+Samsung Internet5.0+Opera Android36+
caniuse.com table

Link_types/noopener

Support in all current engines.

Firefox52+Safari10.1+Chrome49+
Opera36+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android52+Safari iOS10.3+Chrome Android49+WebView Android49+Samsung Internet5.0+Opera Android36+
caniuse.com table

The noopener keyword may be used with a, area, and form elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).

The keyword indicates that any newly created top-level browsing context which results from following the hyperlink will not be an auxiliary browsing context. E.g., its window.opener attribute will be null.

See also the processing model where the branching between an auxiliary browsing context and a top-level browsing context is defined.

This typically creates an auxiliary browsing context (assuming there is no existing browsing context whose browsing context name is "example"):

<a href=help.html target=example>Help!</a>

This creates a top-level browsing context that is not an auxiliary browsing context (assuming the same thing):

<a href=help.html target=example rel=noopener>Help!</a>

These are equivalent and only navigate the parent browsing context:

<a href=index.html target=_parent>Home</a>
<a href=index.html target=_parent rel=noopener>Home</a>

Link_types/noreferrer

Support in all current engines.

Firefox33+Safari5+Chrome16+
Opera15+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)13+Internet Explorer🔰 11
Firefox Android33+Safari iOS4.3+Chrome Android18+WebView Android3+Samsung Internet1.5+Opera Android14+
caniuse.com table

Link_types/noreferrer

Support in all current engines.

Firefox33+Safari5+Chrome16+
Opera15+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)13+Internet Explorer🔰 11
Firefox Android33+Safari iOS4.3+Chrome Android18+WebView Android3+Samsung Internet1.5+Opera Android14+
caniuse.com table

The noreferrer keyword may be used with a, area, and form elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).

It indicates that no referrer information is to be leaked when following the link and also implies the noopener keyword behavior under the same conditions.

See also the processing model where referrer is directly manipulated.

<a href="..." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"> has the same behavior as <a href="..." rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">.

The opener keyword may be used with a, area, and form elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).

The keyword indicates that any newly created top-level browsing context which results from following the hyperlink will be an auxiliary browsing context.

See also the processing model.

In the following example the opener is used to allow the help page popup to navigate its opener, e.g., in case what the user is looking for can be found elsewhere. An alternative might be to use a named target, rather than _blank, but this has the potential to clash with existing names.

<a href="..." rel=opener target=_blank>Help!</a>

The pingback keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

For the semantics of the pingback keyword, see Pingback 1.0. [PINGBACK]

Link_types/preconnect

Support in all current engines.

Firefox39+Safari11.1+Chrome46+
Opera33+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet ExplorerNo
Firefox Android39+Safari iOS11.3+Chrome Android46+WebView Android46+Samsung Internet4.0+Opera Android33+

The preconnect keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

The preconnect keyword indicates that preemptively initiating a connection to the origin of the specified resource is likely to be beneficial, as it is highly likely that the user will require resources located at that origin, and the user experience would be improved by preempting the latency costs associated with establishing the connection. User agents must implement the processing model of the preconnect keyword described in Resource Hints. [RESOURCEHINTS]

There is no default type for resources given by the preconnect keyword.

Link_types/prefetch

Firefox2+SafariNoChrome8+
Opera15+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+Internet Explorer11
Firefox Android4+Safari iOSNoChrome Android18+WebView Android4.4+Samsung Internet1.5+Opera Android14+

The prefetch keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

The prefetch keyword indicates that preemptively fetching and caching the specified resource is likely to be beneficial, as it is highly likely that the user will require this resource for future navigations. User agents must implement the processing model of the prefetch keyword described in Resource Hints. [RESOURCEHINTS]

There is no default type for resources given by the prefetch keyword.

Link_types/preload

Support in one engine only.

Firefox56–57Safari?Chrome50+
Opera37+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet Explorer?
Firefox Android56–57Safari iOS?Chrome Android50+WebView Android50+Samsung Internet5.0+Opera Android?

The preload keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

The preload keyword indicates that the user agent must preemptively fetch and cache the specified resource according to the potential destination given by the as attribute (and the priority associated with the corresponding destination), as it is highly likely that the user will require this resource for the current navigation. User agents must implement the processing model of the preload keyword described in Preload, as well as in this specification's fetch and process the linked resource algorithm. [PRELOAD]

There is no default type for resources given by the preload keyword.

The linked resource fetch setup steps for this type of linked resource, given a link element el and request request, are:

  1. Let as be the current state of el's as attribute.

  2. If as does not represent a state, return false.

  3. Set request's destination to the result of translating as.

  4. If as is "image", then:

    1. Let selected source and selected pixel density be the URL and pixel density that results from selecting an image source given el, respectively.

    2. If selected source is null, then return false.

    3. Parse selected source, relative to el's node document. If that fails, then return false. Otherwise, let url be the resulting URL record.

    4. Set request's url to url.

  5. Return true.

Link_types/prerender

Support in one engine only.

FirefoxNoSafariNoChrome13+
Opera15+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)NoInternet Explorer11
Firefox AndroidNoSafari iOSNoChrome Android18+WebView Android4.4+Samsung Internet1.5+Opera Android14+

The prerender keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link. This keyword is body-ok.

The prerender keyword indicates that the specified resource might be required by the next navigation, and so it may be beneficial to not only preemptively fetch the resource, but also to process it, e.g. by fetching its subresources or performing some rendering. User agents must implement the processing model of the prerender keyword described in Resource Hints. [RESOURCEHINTS]

There is no default type for resources given by the prerender keyword.

The search keyword may be used with link, a, area, and form elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The search keyword indicates that the referenced document provides an interface specifically for searching the document and its related resources.

OpenSearch description documents can be used with link elements and the search link type to enable user agents to autodiscover search interfaces. [OPENSEARCH]

The stylesheet keyword may be used with link elements. This keyword creates an external resource link that contributes to the styling processing model. This keyword is body-ok.

The specified resource is a CSS style sheet that describes how to present the document.

Alternative_style_sheets

Support in one engine only.

Firefox3+Safari?Chrome1–48
OperaYesEdgeNo
Edge (Legacy)?Internet Explorer8+
Firefox Android4+Safari iOS?Chrome Android?WebView Android?Samsung Internet?Opera Android?

If the alternate keyword is also specified on the link element, then the link is an alternative style sheet; in this case, the title attribute must be specified on the link element, with a non-empty value.

The default type for resources given by the stylesheet keyword is text/css.

The appropriate times to fetch and process this type of link are:

Quirk: If the document has been set to quirks mode, has the same origin as the URL of the external resource, and the Content-Type metadata of the external resource is not a supported style sheet type, the user agent must instead assume it to be text/css.

The linked resource fetch setup steps for this type of linked resource, given a link element el (ignoring the request) are:

  1. If el's disabled attribute is set, then return false.

  2. If el contributes a script-blocking style sheet, increment el's node document's script-blocking style sheet counter by 1.

  3. Return true.

See issue #968 for plans to use the CSSOM fetch a CSS style sheet algorithm instead of the default fetch and process the linked resource algorithm.

To process this type of linked resource given a link element el, boolean success, and response response, the user agent must run these steps:

  1. If the resource's Content-Type metadata is not text/css, then set success to false.

  2. If el no longer creates an external resource link that contributes to the styling processing model, or if, since the resource in question was fetched, it has become appropriate to fetch it again, then return.

  3. If el has an associated CSS style sheet, remove the CSS style sheet.

  4. If success is true, then:

    1. Create a CSS style sheet with the following properties:

      type

      text/css

      location

      The resulting URL string determined during the fetch and process the linked resource algorithm.

      This is before any redirects get applied.

      owner node

      element

      media

      The media attribute of element.

      This is a reference to the (possibly absent at this time) attribute, rather than a copy of the attribute's current value. CSSOM defines what happens when the attribute is dynamically set, changed, or removed.

      title

      The title attribute of element, if element is in a document tree, or the empty string otherwise.

      This is similarly a reference to the attribute, rather than a copy of the attribute's current value.

      alternate flag

      Set if the link is an alternative style sheet and element's explicitly enabled is false; unset otherwise.

      origin-clean flag

      Set if the resource is CORS-same-origin; unset otherwise.

      parent CSS style sheet
      owner CSS rule

      null

      disabled flag

      Left at its default value.

      CSS rules

      Left uninitialized.

      This doesn't seem right. Presumably we should be using the response body? Tracked as issue #2997.

      The CSS environment encoding is the result of running the following steps: [CSSSYNTAX]

      1. If the element has a charset attribute, get an encoding from that attribute's value. If that succeeds, return the resulting encoding. [ENCODING]

      2. Otherwise, return the document's character encoding. [DOM]

    2. Fire an event named load at el.

  5. Otherwise, fire an event named error at el.

  6. If el contributes a script-blocking style sheet, then:

    1. Assert: el's node document's script-blocking style sheet counter is greater than 0.

    2. Decrement el's node document's script-blocking style sheet counter by 1.

The tag keyword may be used with a and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The tag keyword indicates that the tag that the referenced document represents applies to the current document.

Since it indicates that the tag applies to the current document, it would be inappropriate to use this keyword in the markup of a tag cloud, which lists the popular tags across a set of pages.

This document is about some gems, and so it is tagged with "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone" to unambiguously categorize it as applying to the "jewel" kind of gems, and not to, say, the towns in the US, the Ruby package format, or the Swiss locomotive class:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
  <title>My Precious</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <header><h1>My precious</h1> <p>Summer 2012</p></header>
  <p>Recently I managed to dispose of a red gem that had been
  bothering me. I now have a much nicer blue sapphire.</p>
  <p>The red gem had been found in a bauxite stone while I was digging
  out the office level, but nobody was willing to haul it away. The
  same red gem stayed there for literally years.</p>
  <footer>
   Tags: <a rel=tag href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone">Gemstone</a>
  </footer>
 </body>
</html>

In this document, there are two articles. The "tag" link, however, applies to the whole page (and would do so wherever it was placed, including if it was within the article elements).

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
  <title>Gem 4/4</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <article>
   <h1>801: Steinbock</h1>
   <p>The number 801 Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has an ibex and was rebuilt in 2002.</p>
  </article>
  <article>
   <h1>802: Murmeltier</h1>
   <figure>
    <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Trains_de_la_Bernina_en_hiver_2.jpg"
         alt="The 802 was red with pantographs and tall vents on the side.">
    <figcaption>The 802 in the 1980s, above Lago Bianco.</figcaption>
   </figure>
   <p>The number 802 Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has a marmot and was rebuilt in 2003.</p>
  </article>
  <p class="topic"><a rel=tag href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaetian_Railway_Gem_4/4">Gem 4/4</a></p>
 </body>
</html>

Some documents form part of a sequence of documents.

A sequence of documents is one where each document can have a previous sibling and a next sibling. A document with no previous sibling is the start of its sequence, a document with no next sibling is the end of its sequence.

A document may be part of multiple sequences.

The next keyword may be used with link, a, area, and form elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The next keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the next logical document in the sequence.

When the next keyword is used with a link element, user agents should implement one of the processing models described in Resource Hints, i.e. should process such links as if they were using one of the dns-prefetch, preconnect, prefetch, or prerender keywords. Which resource hint the user agent wishes to use is implementation-dependent; for example, a user agent may wish to use the less-costly preconnect hint when trying to conserve data, battery power, or processing power, or may wish to pick a resource hint depending on heuristic analysis of past user behavior in similar scenarios. [RESOURCEHINTS]

The prev keyword may be used with link, a, area, and form elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.

The prev keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the previous logical document in the sequence.

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "previous" like the prev keyword.

Extensions to the predefined set of link types may be registered in the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page. [MFREL]

Anyone is free to edit the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page at any time to add a type. Extension types must be specified with the following information:

Keyword

The actual value being defined. The value should not be confusingly similar to any other defined value (e.g. differing only in case).

If the value contains a U+003A COLON character (:), it must also be an absolute URL.

Effect on... link

One of the following:

Not allowed
The keyword must not be specified on link elements.
Hyperlink
The keyword may be specified on a link element; it creates a hyperlink.
External Resource
The keyword may be specified on a link element; it creates an external resource link.
Effect on... a and area

One of the following:

Not allowed
The keyword must not be specified on a and area elements.
Hyperlink
The keyword may be specified on a and area elements; it creates a hyperlink.
External Resource
The keyword may be specified on a and area elements; it creates an external resource link.
Hyperlink Annotation
The keyword may be specified on a and area elements; it annotates other hyperlinks created by the element.
Effect on... form

One of the following:

Not allowed
The keyword must not be specified on form elements.
Hyperlink
The keyword may be specified on form elements; it creates a hyperlink.
External Resource
The keyword may be specified on form elements; it creates an external resource link.
Hyperlink Annotation
The keyword may be specified on form elements; it annotates other hyperlinks created by the element.
Brief description

A short non-normative description of what the keyword's meaning is.

Specification

A link to a more detailed description of the keyword's semantics and requirements. It could be another page on the Wiki, or a link to an external page.

Synonyms

A list of other keyword values that have exactly the same processing requirements. Authors should not use the values defined to be synonyms, they are only intended to allow user agents to support legacy content. Anyone may remove synonyms that are not used in practice; only names that need to be processed as synonyms for compatibility with legacy content are to be registered in this way.

Status

One of the following:

Proposed
The keyword has not received wide peer review and approval. Someone has proposed it and is, or soon will be, using it.
Ratified
The keyword has received wide peer review and approval. It has a specification that unambiguously defines how to handle pages that use the keyword, including when they use it in incorrect ways.
Discontinued
The keyword has received wide peer review and it has been found wanting. Existing pages are using this keyword, but new pages should avoid it. The "brief description" and "specification" entries will give details of what authors should use instead, if anything.

If a keyword is found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value.

If a keyword is registered in the "proposed" state for a period of a month or more without being used or specified, then it may be removed from the registry.

If a keyword is added with the "proposed" status and found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value. If a keyword is added with the "proposed" status and found to be harmful, then it should be changed to "discontinued" status.

Anyone can change the status at any time, but should only do so in accordance with the definitions above.

Conformance checkers must use the information given on the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page to establish if a value is allowed or not: values defined in this specification or marked as "proposed" or "ratified" must be accepted when used on the elements for which they apply as described in the "Effect on..." field, whereas values marked as "discontinued" or not listed in either this specification or on the aforementioned page must be rejected as invalid. Conformance checkers may cache this information (e.g. for performance reasons or to avoid the use of unreliable network connectivity).

When an author uses a new type not defined by either this specification or the Wiki page, conformance checkers should offer to add the value to the Wiki, with the details described above, with the "proposed" status.

Types defined as extensions in the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page with the status "proposed" or "ratified" may be used with the rel attribute on link, a, and area elements in accordance to the "Effect on..." field. [MFREL]