topic
Verified 2026-09-18

Warning Header and Legacy Cache Diagnostics

The Warning response field historically reported cache and representation conditions using numeric warning codes.

Prefer current Cache-Control, Age, and response semantics for new designs. If a legacy client requires Warning, preserve its quoted text carefully and do not treat intermediary diagnostics as an authoritative application decision.

httpcacheheaderlegacy

Reference (http)

Warning: 110 - "Response is stale"
Age: 3600

Prefer current Cache-Control, Age, and response semantics for new designs. If a legacy client requires Warning, preserve its quoted text carefully and do not treat intermediary diagnostics as an authoritative application decision.

Common mistakes

  • Adding Warning to modern responses as a replacement for Cache-Control, or exposing internal cache implementation details to users.
Permalink: https://merginit.com/reference/http/warning-header-legacy