# Patch Request Method Operation Description

Kubernetes APIs use the HTTP header "Content-Type" to distinguish between patch request method operations.

#### Operation Description

Currently, three types of patch request method operations are supported:

1. JSON Patch, Content-Type: application/json-patch+json

   According to RFC 6902, JSON patch operations indicate a series of operations performed on resource objects. The following provides an example of the JSON patch operation:

       {
            "op": "add",
            "path": "/spec/containers/0/image",
            "value": "busybox:latest"
        }

   In the preceding example:

   - "op" indicates a series of operations performed on resource objects, and it contains the following operations:

     add

     replace

     remove (not supported)

     move (not supported)

     copy (not supported)

     test (not supported)

   - "path" indicates the path to the to-be-operated resource object.

     For example, /spec/containers/0/image indicates that the object to be operated is spec.containers[0].image.

   - "value" indicates the to-be-modified value.
2. Merge Patch, Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json

   According to RFC 7386, merge patch contains some description of a resource object (namely, JSON object). The JSON object is submitted to the server end, and merges with the current object of the server end (that is, replaces the list field of the current resource object) to form a new object.

3. Strategic Merge Patch, Content-Type: application/strategic-merge-patch+json

   Strategic merge patch is used to add legal metadata to API objects, and uses new metadata to determine which list should be merged and which should not. The current metadata is used as the structure labels.

For more information about the difference between Merge Patch and Strategic Merge Patch, see Patch Request Method Operation Example.

Parent topic: Appendix