diff --git a/doc/xml/release.xml b/doc/xml/release.xml
index fdfd488a3..07330dd5f 100644
--- a/doc/xml/release.xml
+++ b/doc/xml/release.xml
@@ -32,6 +32,14 @@
                 </release-feature-list>
 
                 <release-improvement-list>
+                    <release-item>
+                        <release-item-contributor-list>
+                            <release-item-ideator id="sumner.adam.k"/>
+                        </release-item-contributor-list>
+
+                        <p>Improve the HTTP client to set <id>content-length</id> to 0 when not specified by the server.  S3 (and gateways) always set <id>content-length</id> or <id>transfer-encoding</id> but <id>HTTP 1.1</id> does not require it and proxies (e.g. <proper>HAProxy</proper>) may not include either.</p>
+                    </release-item>
+
                     <release-item>
                         <release-item-contributor-list>
                             <release-item-ideator id="frost.stephen"/>
diff --git a/lib/pgBackRest/Common/Http/Client.pm b/lib/pgBackRest/Common/Http/Client.pm
index 01d09c986..c3818aa49 100644
--- a/lib/pgBackRest/Common/Http/Client.pm
+++ b/lib/pgBackRest/Common/Http/Client.pm
@@ -159,8 +159,7 @@ sub new
                 split(' ', trim($self->readLine()));
 
             # Read the response headers
-            $self->{iContentLength} = undef;
-
+            $self->{iContentLength} = 0;
             $self->{strResponseHeader} = '';
             my $strHeader = trim($self->readLine());
 
@@ -206,17 +205,6 @@ sub new
                 $strHeader = trim($self->readLine());
             }
 
-            # Test response code
-            if ($self->{iResponseCode} == 200)
-            {
-                # Content length should have been defined either by content-length or transfer encoding
-                if (!defined($self->{iContentLength}))
-                {
-                    confess &log(ERROR,
-                        HTTP_HEADER_CONTENT_LENGTH . ' or ' . HTTP_HEADER_TRANSFER_ENCODING . ' must be defined', ERROR_PROTOCOL);
-                }
-            }
-
             # Prefetch response - mostly useful when the response is known to be short
             if ($bResponseBodyPrefetch)
             {
diff --git a/src/perl/embed.auto.c b/src/perl/embed.auto.c
index 7f60a5d41..5739a3207 100644
--- a/src/perl/embed.auto.c
+++ b/src/perl/embed.auto.c
@@ -6114,8 +6114,7 @@ static const EmbeddedModule embeddedModule[] =
             "split(' ', trim($self->readLine()));\n"
             "\n"
             "\n"
-            "$self->{iContentLength} = undef;\n"
-            "\n"
+            "$self->{iContentLength} = 0;\n"
             "$self->{strResponseHeader} = '';\n"
             "my $strHeader = trim($self->readLine());\n"
             "\n"
@@ -6162,17 +6161,6 @@ static const EmbeddedModule embeddedModule[] =
             "}\n"
             "\n"
             "\n"
-            "if ($self->{iResponseCode} == 200)\n"
-            "{\n"
-            "\n"
-            "if (!defined($self->{iContentLength}))\n"
-            "{\n"
-            "confess &log(ERROR,\n"
-            "HTTP_HEADER_CONTENT_LENGTH . ' or ' . HTTP_HEADER_TRANSFER_ENCODING . ' must be defined', ERROR_PROTOCOL);\n"
-            "}\n"
-            "}\n"
-            "\n"
-            "\n"
             "if ($bResponseBodyPrefetch)\n"
             "{\n"
             "$self->{strResponseBody} = $self->responseBody();\n"
diff --git a/test/lib/pgBackRestTest/Module/Common/CommonHttpClientPerlTest.pm b/test/lib/pgBackRestTest/Module/Common/CommonHttpClientPerlTest.pm
index 631de8c23..a77b30649 100644
--- a/test/lib/pgBackRestTest/Module/Common/CommonHttpClientPerlTest.pm
+++ b/test/lib/pgBackRestTest/Module/Common/CommonHttpClientPerlTest.pm
@@ -148,10 +148,10 @@ sub run
         $self->httpsServer(sub
         {
             $self->httpsServerAccept();
-            $self->{oConnection}->write("HTTP/1.1 200 NoContentLengthMessage1\r\n\r\n");
+            $self->{oConnection}->write("HTTP/1.1 404 Error\r\nBogus-Header\r\n\r\n");
 
             $self->httpsServerAccept();
-            $self->{oConnection}->write("HTTP/1.1 200 NoContentLengthMessage2\r\n\r\n");
+            $self->{oConnection}->write("HTTP/1.1 404 Error\r\nBogus-Header\r\n\r\n");
 
             $self->httpsServerAccept();
             $self->httpsServerResponse(200, $strTestData);
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ sub run
         $self->testException(
             sub {new pgBackRest::Common::Http::Client(
                 $strTestHost, HTTP_VERB_GET, {iPort => HTTPS_TEST_PORT, bVerifySsl => false, iTryTotal => 1})},
-            ERROR_PROTOCOL, 'content-length or transfer-encoding must be defined');
+            ERROR_PROTOCOL, "http header 'Bogus-Header' requires colon separator");
 
         $self->testResult(
             sub {new pgBackRest::Common::Http::Client(