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http://nautil.us appears to respect HEAD, and uses Apache. Do you have a specific example of it not respecting it?

% curl -vX HEAD http://nautil.us Warning: Setting custom HTTP method to HEAD with -X/--request may not work the Warning: way you want. Consider using -I/--head instead. * Rebuilt URL to: http://nautil.us/ * Trying 107.20.148.228... * Connected to nautil.us (107.20.148.228) port 80 (#0) > HEAD / HTTP/1.1 > Host: nautil.us > User-Agent: curl/7.47.0 > Accept: / > < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * < Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0, max-age=0 < Cache-control: no-cache="set-cookie" < Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 < Date: Sun, 07 May 2017 04:55:46 GMT < Expires: Thu, 11 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT < Last-Modified: Sun, 07 May 2017 04:55:47 GMT < Pragma: no-cache < Server: Apache/2.4.25 (Amazon) PHP/5.5.38 < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=%2B67OvEeIwXsDYbsLxSZLVjlyp%2BWUj%2BOntgIOlRdx6qoOLqyx3WuVpd2ZEH074o5bxTr7IebRTJsGpVdyaw75GEir4ZwZwrmiKAojkoOkvduxZAtpg8D4SAqwNb1EB0l3eOb1gMt%2FMuYpGZsouFJtPHTXssM82%2FKFkU7Gxm%2BTAheHa%2F7VyQ%2BAysgzthDcDyd9RYvU7NXmFAwh596ZEk7TtkwzAGVcoL%2FLjImPvk5q6Xl%2BKMWQDvOkVPIc0JtuC1rWIy3DUsOas8vCM%2BWYdv9KW9lElqzk5IHS6L7kkWSNb7U%3D44229d0bd83cc6954cf8ad73bc14d08a1d039d9a; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:46 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=eDfxDyIM%2BJFhuIpEml2KXA9B8Wcyc4Bo8GJfD0Xr3dNzGgh%2B2QdqgZWRhFVFBguslYrnQfnmrKorJjhwM47N969Qwx1NFLintVOKhP3ivrS5BVq4Kwos59OOpklaUifDEOH1FX9BG8%2BHGX9Fn8kb2duHS%2F1BRJFnGaEyOA1qmB7sFPhsjVPAL2%2BTYHNByRvxwnA2CqaY09uKs%2FC5ui6rnYCRYvI3Q7Z6KLL8QWVlT5rs71FQ%2BYXbdQyIHgiPR7yN8JnaHMgaz4qzETfr6heE04uLfUSKjIjQMM5v0YAEK0I%3D06738da1155f8af1a61c5d13cd8cee0513d4175c; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:47 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=9jlaxMJdXhuYik9BjvgSVfG2Xp8HJBLTUNeI8HNcw52ORZC5bbei%2F22YgBTWHMmym1fSQHljSs9dwUbQE5Zgx%2FIWki3S8aakHI%2BXac30JU5eI3FFLeWORwFrsJDniM%2BKCDyhUi5i2zad8aYF%2FNnndhh4yISYk0ASjKa4%2BAnQxR3fZjqK1iw44K3Oe%2FoVc4weHIYCra6ecNnMWkFzBZkLUuJ%2F1gJN0w%2FNdjFs8DERSHLteTbg2OnqjOSEmn62fYXUb%2FW6YRQblJB0J%2BElbJ%2BKIn5v5NRXAerGcIT2O%2F6t08s%3D70ec7ec53459a33b68c9fda357cfbf634fcada85; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:47 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: lbh_session=DUK2jE22vfFQmL5vZpV8LpqFsFD0%2F1aHV2mpi6MHNOw4oEastxJGbqL70Tlq79lpD%2F41%2Bl9P%2Bz4%2B8aNESLphAr4%2BlwkEn83jPGE2J83JazLGQJC07ndgXRL7Hf%2FsXbMnyaOwpFPGRwQ7AdLvuIfX8j0lQ7gEEoAF4NQmupcPo0PeQ41gTAf3tJbusD4ONNqkLVi3lGH1qhT%2FjXbu1mpPwYdcZyU18OU3qomqbWkx%2B1RsX8vsiHjoCADs%2FIHhZaY4rBH%2BDi6oDS8JR9vgBG5ll6jN3eTlXtvRblDHE1IMHMA%3D78fb89e5fda5a29bb58f6ab3b872d9150e7ecd9b; expires=Wed, 17-May-2017 04:55:47 GMT; Max-Age=864000; path=/ < Set-Cookie: AWSELB=E93BBFC71E4DF46DDD850E2C67B1FBE52FEAA0E103B670233CA20FC7694721647519A155E8C10ED0C96618595B97A7D45BA1E9EE061A86361B235D0E008D08712CA9113D57;PATH=/;MAX-AGE=604800 < X-Powered-By: PHP/5.5.38 < X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 < Connection: keep-alive * no chunk, no close, no size. Assume close to signal end <




There is no need for keep-alive for a single HEAD request. Why use HTTP/1.1?

   cat << eof |nc -vv nautil.us 80
   HEAD / HTTP/1.0^M
   Host: nautil.us^M
   User-Agent: curl/7.47.0^M
   Accept: */*^M
   Connection: close^M
   ^M
   eof
Anyway, it looks like they fixed the problem or I was mistaken.

I will need to find another example.

Meanwhile looking on stackexchange one can still see people running websites asking whether to block or "turn off" HEAD as recently as last year.

If a user expects every website to respond properly to a HEAD request, then the user might be occasionally "surprised". This is because not every person running a website understands or agrees how HEAD can be useful. Sadly, GET is the only method that a user can expect to work on across all websites.




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