Deleting a resource using http DELETE

Question

So, given that the DELETE verb in Http is idempotent, when I issue the following request, what should happen the second (or third, or fourth, etc...)?

DELETE         


        

Answer 1

The RESTful web services cookbook is a great resource for this. By chance, its google preview show the page about DELETE (page 11):

The DELETE method is idempotent. This implies that the server must return response code 200 (OK) even if the server deleted the resource in a previous request. But in practice, implementing DELETE as an idempotent operation requires the server to keep track of all deleted resources. Otherwise, it can return a 404 (Not Found).