The
Max-Forwards
request HTTP header is used with the
TRACE
method to limit the number of nodes (usually proxies) that request goes through. Its value is an integer value indicating the
maximum amount
of nodes it must visit. At each node, the value is decremented and the
TRACE
request is forwarded to the next node, until the destination is reached, or the received value of
Max-Forwards
is zero. The request is then sent back, except for some headers, as the body of a
200 OK
response.
If the
Max-Forwards
header is not present in a
TRACE
request, a node will assume that there is no maximum number of forwards.