8.12 TRACE and entity

• From: Dave Kristol <dmk@allegra.att.com>
• Date: Fri, 26 Apr 96 12:12:33 EDT
• To: http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com
• Message-Id: <9604261612.AA10154@zp.tempo.att.com.tempo.att.com>

As I implement TRACE, I'm puzzled by this passage:

                                          A TRACE request MUST NOT include an
      entity body and MUST include a Content-Length header field with a value
      of zero (0).

Why must there be a Content-Length: 0 header?

1) Wouldn't the absence of a Content-Length header be equivalent?

2) If a server does not find a Content-Length header in the
request, is it obliged to return an error?

Dave Kristol

Received on Friday, 26 April 1996 09:23:48 UTC