# How do i change the status message?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-status-message/87958>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 7, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-status-message/87958 "2007-03-07T04:51:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tyler\_MacDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@Tyler\_MacDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tyler_MacDonald)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-status-message/87958/1 "2007-03-07T04:51:12Z")

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Hi,

I know how to change the status code in a response;

render :status =\> 403, …

But how do i change the message that goes with it? Eg; the default  
message for 403 is “Forbidden”, but I’d like to change it to something  
else.

Thanks,  
Tyler

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**Author:** ![Tyler\_MacDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@Tyler\_MacDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tyler_MacDonald)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-status-message/87958/2 "2007-03-08T16:56:24Z")

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On Mar 7, 2007, at 06:49, Tyler MacDonald wrote:

> Thanks,  
> Tyler

Hi!  
AFAIK status message is a part of HTTP specification along with the  
code, thus I think you cannot change it easily.  
If you want to display some special message for an error code, you  
should probably make use of ErrorDocument Apache directive or the like.

Yours sincerely,  
Damian/Three-eyed Fish

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tyler\_MacDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@Tyler\_MacDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tyler_MacDonald)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-status-message/87958/3 "2007-03-08T20:00:50Z")

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Acutally, the status is just a header (Status: …) so you can set it to  
anything you want.

Doesn’t make it a good idea though… the messages are indeed part of  
the http spec… although most clients probably just look at the numeric  
code.

b