TRACE
Echoes the received request back to the client. Used for debugging and diagnostics. Rarely used; often disabled for security (can expose sensitive data).
Properties
- Safe
- Yes
- Idempotent
- Yes
- Has body
- No
Typical use cases
Debugging, diagnostics, testing proxy paths
cURL example
curl -X TRACE https://api.example.com/debug
Typical response
Echo of the request (body, headers) as received by server
Common status codes
200 OK405 Method Not Allowed501 Not Implemented
Comparison with similar methods
TRACE echoes; GET retrieves. TRACE is rarely enabled in production.