Since JMeter 3.1 HTTP request sampler adds unnecessary Content-Type header into GET requests without body

[asfimport]

lpetr (Bug 60579):
Hello,

I found since JMeter 3.1 "HTTP request" sampler adds unnecessary "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1" header into GET requests with no data in body.

RFC2616 section 7.2.1 says:
"Any HTTP/1.1 message containing an entity-body SHOULD include a Content-Type header field defining the media type of that body. If and only if the media type is not given by a Content-Type field, the recipient MAY attempt to guess the media type via inspection of its content and/or the name extension(s) of the URI used to identify the resource. If the media type remains unknown, the recipient SHOULD treat it as type "application/octet-stream"."

If my understanding is correct, the header should not be present for simple GET requests without "entity-body".

JMeter 3.1 behavior:
GET http://www.google.com/

GET data:
[no cookies]

Request Headers:
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Length: 0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Host: www.google.com
User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.5.2 (Java/1.8.0_111)

JMeter 3.0 behavior (correct/expected):
GET http://www.google.com/

GET data:
[no cookies]

Request Headers:
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Length: 0
Host: www.google.com
User-Agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.5.2 (Java/1.8.0_111)

Created attachment content-type_issue.jmx: Test plan used to reproduce the issue

content-type_issue.jmx

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jmeterTestPlan version="1.2" properties="3.1" jmeter="3.1 r1770033">
  <hashTree>
    <TestPlan guiclass="TestPlanGui" testclass="TestPlan" testname="Test Plan" enabled="true">
      <stringProp name="TestPlan.comments"></stringProp>
      <boolProp name="TestPlan.functional_mode">false</boolProp>
      <boolProp name="TestPlan.serialize_threadgroups">false</boolProp>
      <elementProp name="TestPlan.user_defined_variables" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="ArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" testname="User Defined Variables" enabled="true">
        <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments"/>
      </elementProp>
      <stringProp name="TestPlan.user_define_classpath"></stringProp>
    </TestPlan>
    <hashTree>
      <ThreadGroup guiclass="ThreadGroupGui" testclass="ThreadGroup" testname="Thread Group" enabled="true">
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.on_sample_error">continue</stringProp>
        <elementProp name="ThreadGroup.main_controller" elementType="LoopController" guiclass="LoopControlPanel" testclass="LoopController" testname="Loop Controller" enabled="true">
          <boolProp name="LoopController.continue_forever">false</boolProp>
          <stringProp name="LoopController.loops">1</stringProp>
        </elementProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.num_threads">1</stringProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.ramp_time">1</stringProp>
        <longProp name="ThreadGroup.start_time">1484226139000</longProp>
        <longProp name="ThreadGroup.end_time">1484226139000</longProp>
        <boolProp name="ThreadGroup.scheduler">false</boolProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.duration"></stringProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.delay"></stringProp>
      </ThreadGroup>
      <hashTree>
        <HTTPSamplerProxy guiclass="HttpTestSampleGui" testclass="HTTPSamplerProxy" testname="HTTP Request" enabled="true">
          <elementProp name="HTTPsampler.Arguments" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="HTTPArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" testname="User Defined Variables" enabled="true">
            <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments"/>
          </elementProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.domain">google.com</stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.port"></stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.connect_timeout"></stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.response_timeout"></stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.protocol"></stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.contentEncoding"></stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.path"></stringProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.method">GET</stringProp>
          <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.follow_redirects">true</boolProp>
          <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.auto_redirects">false</boolProp>
          <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.use_keepalive">true</boolProp>
          <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.DO_MULTIPART_POST">false</boolProp>
          <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.monitor">false</boolProp>
          <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.embedded_url_re"></stringProp>
        </HTTPSamplerProxy>
        <hashTree/>
        <ResultCollector guiclass="ViewResultsFullVisualizer" testclass="ResultCollector" testname="View Results Tree" enabled="true">
          <boolProp name="ResultCollector.error_logging">false</boolProp>
          <objProp>
            <name>saveConfig</name>
            <value class="SampleSaveConfiguration">
              <time>true</time>
              <latency>true</latency>
              <timestamp>true</timestamp>
              <success>true</success>
              <label>true</label>
              <code>true</code>
              <message>true</message>
              <threadName>true</threadName>
              <dataType>true</dataType>
              <encoding>false</encoding>
              <assertions>true</assertions>
              <subresults>true</subresults>
              <responseData>false</responseData>
              <samplerData>false</samplerData>
              <xml>false</xml>
              <fieldNames>true</fieldNames>
              <responseHeaders>false</responseHeaders>
              <requestHeaders>false</requestHeaders>
              <responseDataOnError>false</responseDataOnError>
              <saveAssertionResultsFailureMessage>true</saveAssertionResultsFailureMessage>
              <assertionsResultsToSave>0</assertionsResultsToSave>
              <bytes>true</bytes>
              <sentBytes>true</sentBytes>
              <threadCounts>true</threadCounts>
              <idleTime>true</idleTime>
              <connectTime>true</connectTime>
            </value>
          </objProp>
          <stringProp name="filename"></stringProp>
        </ResultCollector>
        <hashTree/>
      </hashTree>
    </hashTree>
  </hashTree>
</jmeterTestPlan>

Severity: normal
OS: Linux

Duplicated by:

• HTTP request: Even if there are no Parameters, a Body is sent for GET method #4221

[asfimport]

@FSchumacher (migrated from Bugzilla):
Looks like the same bug in the end.

This bug has been marked as a duplicate of #4221