diff --git a/lldb/bindings/interface/SBTarget.i b/lldb/bindings/interface/SBTarget.i
--- a/lldb/bindings/interface/SBTarget.i
+++ b/lldb/bindings/interface/SBTarget.i
@@ -412,6 +412,9 @@
     uint32_t
     GetCodeByteSize ();
 
+    uint32_t
+    GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay() const;
+
     lldb::SBError
     SetSectionLoadAddress (lldb::SBSection section,
                            lldb::addr_t section_base_addr);
diff --git a/lldb/examples/synthetic/gnu_libstdcpp.py b/lldb/examples/synthetic/gnu_libstdcpp.py
--- a/lldb/examples/synthetic/gnu_libstdcpp.py
+++ b/lldb/examples/synthetic/gnu_libstdcpp.py
@@ -9,6 +9,14 @@
 # before relying on these formatters to do the right thing for your setup
 
 
+def ForwardListSummaryProvider(valobj, dict):
+    list_capping_size = valobj.GetTarget().GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay()
+    text = "size=" + str(valobj.GetNumChildren())
+    if valobj.GetNumChildren() > list_capping_size:
+        return "(capped) " + text
+    else:
+        return text
+
 class AbstractListSynthProvider:
     def __init__(self, valobj, dict, has_prev):
         '''
@@ -20,6 +28,7 @@
         self.valobj = valobj
         self.count = None
         self.has_prev = has_prev
+        self.list_capping_size = self.valobj.GetTarget().GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay()
         logger >> "Providing synthetic children for a list named " + \
             str(valobj.GetName())
 
@@ -99,6 +108,9 @@
                     '_M_next').GetValueAsUnsigned(0) != self.get_end_of_list_address():
                 size = size + 1
                 current = current.GetChildMemberWithName('_M_next')
+                # In case of forward_list capping size is the limit of the children to be displayed
+                if not self.has_prev and size >= self.list_capping_size:
+                    break
             return size 
         except:
             logger >> "Error determining the size"
diff --git a/lldb/include/lldb/API/SBTarget.h b/lldb/include/lldb/API/SBTarget.h
--- a/lldb/include/lldb/API/SBTarget.h
+++ b/lldb/include/lldb/API/SBTarget.h
@@ -336,6 +336,11 @@
   /// unit from the Architecture's code bus
   uint32_t GetCodeByteSize();
 
+  /// Gets the target.max-children-count value
+  /// It should be used to limit the number of
+  /// children of large data structures to be displayed.
+  uint32_t GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay() const;
+
   /// Set the base load address for a module section.
   ///
   /// \param[in] section
diff --git a/lldb/source/API/SBTarget.cpp b/lldb/source/API/SBTarget.cpp
--- a/lldb/source/API/SBTarget.cpp
+++ b/lldb/source/API/SBTarget.cpp
@@ -1745,6 +1745,16 @@
   return 0;
 }
 
+uint32_t SBTarget::GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay() const {
+  LLDB_RECORD_METHOD_CONST_NO_ARGS(uint32_t, SBTarget, GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay);
+
+  TargetSP target_sp(GetSP());
+  if(target_sp){
+     return target_sp->GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay();
+  }
+  return 0;
+}
+
 uint32_t SBTarget::GetAddressByteSize() {
   LLDB_RECORD_METHOD_NO_ARGS(uint32_t, SBTarget, GetAddressByteSize);
 
@@ -2679,6 +2689,7 @@
   LLDB_REGISTER_METHOD(const char *, SBTarget, GetTriple, ());
   LLDB_REGISTER_METHOD(uint32_t, SBTarget, GetDataByteSize, ());
   LLDB_REGISTER_METHOD(uint32_t, SBTarget, GetCodeByteSize, ());
+  LLDB_REGISTER_METHOD_CONST(uint32_t, SBTarget, GetMaximumNumberOfChildrenToDisplay,());
   LLDB_REGISTER_METHOD(uint32_t, SBTarget, GetAddressByteSize, ());
   LLDB_REGISTER_METHOD(lldb::SBModule, SBTarget, GetModuleAtIndex,
                        (uint32_t));
diff --git a/lldb/source/Plugins/Language/CPlusPlus/CPlusPlusLanguage.cpp b/lldb/source/Plugins/Language/CPlusPlus/CPlusPlusLanguage.cpp
--- a/lldb/source/Plugins/Language/CPlusPlus/CPlusPlusLanguage.cpp
+++ b/lldb/source/Plugins/Language/CPlusPlus/CPlusPlusLanguage.cpp
@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@
   cpp_category_sp->GetRegexTypeSummariesContainer()->Add(
       RegularExpression("^std::(__cxx11::)?forward_list<.+>(( )?&)?$"),
       TypeSummaryImplSP(
-          new StringSummaryFormat(stl_summary_flags, "size=${svar%#}")));
+          new ScriptSummaryFormat(stl_summary_flags, "lldb.formatters.cpp.gnu_libstdcpp.ForwardListSummaryProvider")));
 
   AddCXXSynthetic(
       cpp_category_sp,
diff --git a/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/TestDataFormatterGenericForwardList.py b/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/TestDataFormatterGenericForwardList.py
--- a/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/TestDataFormatterGenericForwardList.py
+++ b/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/TestDataFormatterGenericForwardList.py
@@ -52,6 +52,38 @@
                              '[4] = 55555',
                              '}'])
 
+        self.expect("settings show target.max-children-count", matching=True,
+                    substrs=['target.max-children-count (int) = 256'])
+
+        self.expect("frame variable thousand_elts",matching=False,
+                    substrs=[ 
+                             '[256]',
+                             '[333]',
+                             '[444]',
+                             '[555]',
+                             '[666]',
+                             '...'
+                             ])
+        self.runCmd(
+                "settings set target.max-children-count 3",
+                check=False)
+
+        self.expect("frame variable thousand_elts",matching=False,
+                    substrs=[
+                             '[3]',
+                             '[4]',
+                             '[5]',
+                             ])
+
+        self.expect("frame variable thousand_elts",matching=True,
+                    substrs=[
+                             'size=256',
+                             '[0]',
+                             '[1]',
+                             '[2]',
+                             '...'
+                             ])
+
     @add_test_categories(["libstdcxx"])
     def test_libstdcpp(self):
         self.do_test(USE_LIBSTDCPP)
diff --git a/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/main.cpp b/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/main.cpp
--- a/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/main.cpp
+++ b/lldb/test/API/functionalities/data-formatter/data-formatter-stl/generic/forward_list/main.cpp
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 int main() {
   std::forward_list<int> empty{}, one_elt{47},
-      five_elts{1, 22, 333, 4444, 55555};
+      five_elts{1, 22, 333, 4444, 55555}, thousand_elts{};
+  for(int i = 0; i<1000;i++){
+    thousand_elts.push_front(i);
+  }
   return 0; // break here
 }