4.5 General Header Fields


There are a few header fields which have general applicability for both request and response messages, but which do not apply to the entity being transferred. These header fields apply only to the

message being transmitted.
       general-header = Cache-Control            ; Section 14.9
                      | Connection               ; Section 14.10
                      | Date                     ; Section 14.18
                      | Pragma                   ; Section 14.32
                      | Trailer                  ; Section 14.40
                      | Transfer-Encoding        ; Section 14.41
                      | Upgrade                  ; Section 14.42
                      | Via                      ; Section 14.45
                      | Warning                  ; Section 14.46


General-header field names can be extended reliably only in combination with a change in the protocol version. However, new or experimental header fields may be given the semantics of general header fields if all parties in the communication recognize them to be general-header fields. Unrecognized header fields are treated as entity-header fields.