stateless

1. Having no state.
2. Not having any recognized citizenship in a state or nation.

Refers to software that does not keep track of configuration settings, transaction information or any other data for the next session. When a program "does not maintain state" (is stateless) or when the infrastructure of a system prevents a program from maintaining state, it cannot take information about the last session into the next, such as settings the user chose or conditions that arose during processing.

The Perfect Example

The most ubiquitous stateless environment is the World Wide Web. The HTTP protocol, which is the communications vehicle for Web transactions, is stateless. After a Web page is delivered to the user, the connection is closed. Counter measures, such as the use of cookies, have been developed to maintain the state of a user moving from page to page on a Web site. Contrast with "stateful," which means that continuity is maintained from session to session. See HTTP and cookie.

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The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: without nationality or citizenship
  Synonym: homeless

Look up stateless in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Stateless may refer to:

In society:

• Stateless nation, a group of people without a nation-state
• Statelessness, the legal and social concept applicable to persons who are not citizens or subjects of any state
• Stateless people
• Stateless society, anarchy
• Stateless communism, which Karl Marx predicted would follow capitalism and socialism

In computing:

• State (computer science), relating to the configuration of information, the opposite of stateful
• Stateless server, that treats each request as independent and unrelated to any previous request
• Stateless firewall, that treats each network frame (or packet) in isolation
• Stateless IP/ICMP Translation algorithm, an IPv6 translation mechanism

In music:

• Stateless (album), an album by Lene Lovich
• Stateless (band), a Leeds, England-based alternative band
  • Stateless (Stateless album)
• Stateless (Unwed Sailor album)

In other uses:

• Stateless, a large artificial island in the fiction of Greg Egan that is home to refugees of all nations
• Stateless, a film by Chris Morrissey

See also

• State (disambiguation)

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