Linear whitespace

At the end of section 2.1 of RFC 2616 there is a rule about implied linear 
whitespace

implied *LWS
The grammar described by this specification is word-based. Except where 
noted otherwise, linear white space (LWS) can be included between any two 
adjacent words (token or quoted-string), and between adjacent words and 
separators, without changing the interpretation of a field. At least one 
delimiter (LWS and/or separators) MUST exist between any two tokens (for 
the definition of "token" below), since they would otherwise be interpreted 
as a single token.
And in section 2.2 a definition of LWS is given

HTTP/1.1 header field values can be folded onto multiple lines if the 
continuation line begins with a space or horizontal tab. All linear white 
space, including folding, has the same semantics as SP. A recipient MAY 
replace any linear white space with a single SP before interpreting the 
field value or forwarding the message downstream.
        LWS            = [CRLF] 1*( SP | HT )

Does the optional carriage return linefeed at the beginning of the LWS only 
apply to headers? Or can this CRLF appear between any two words or between 
a word an separator?

For example, is the following valid?

GET<CR><LF><SP>/<CR><LF><SP>HTTP/1.1<CR><LF>host:<SP>blah...
Thanks.

Marc Schneider
Senior Software Engineer

OPNET Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPNT)
tel: +1.240.497.3000
fax: +1.240.497.3001
<http://www.opnet.com/>http://www.opnet.com

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Received on Wednesday, 4 May 2005 16:50:58 UTC