<p>I'm automating a web application (the Mantis bug tracker) and I'm getting an interesting response header from it, called Refresh:</p>

<pre><code>HTTP/1.x 200 OK
...
Refresh: 0;url=my_view_page.php
</code></pre>

<p>It seems to be acting the same way that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh" rel="noreferrer">meta refresh</a> does, and the meta refresh technique implies that it is an equivalent of a header in HTTP.</p>

<p>Problem is, I can't find any mention of the Refresh header in the <a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html" rel="noreferrer">HTTP standard</a> or any other definitive documentation on how it should be parsed and what the browser should do when it encounters it.</p>

<p>What's going on here?</p>

from the W3C HTML 4.01 specification, quote:
META and HTTP headers
The http-equiv attribute can be used in place of the name attribute and has a special significance when documents are retrieved via the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP servers may use the property name specified by the http-equiv attribute to create an [RFC822]-style header in the HTTP response. Please see the HTTP specification ([RFC2616]) for details on valid HTTP headers.
What this means is that when you use the
```
<meta http-equiv="refresh" url="..."/>
```
tag, you are actually instructing the browser to act as if there were a
```
Refresh
```
header being sent.
a good overview of the history of it can be found at
http://www.securiteam.com/securityreviews/6Z00320HFQ.html