The status code 412, also known as "Precondition Failed", is an error code used in communication between web servers and clients (like web browsers) based on the HTTP protocol. It indicates that a specific condition set by the client in a request has not been met by the server.
These conditions are typically specified using special headers within the request, and they allow the client to control how the server responds to the request. For instance, a client might ask the server to only update a resource if it hasn't been modified since a certain date. If the server finds that the resource has already been changed, it would respond with a 412 error code.
This code is mainly used with requests that modify data on the server (like PUT or DELETE) rather than simply retrieving data (GET).