[squid-users] Can we use "no-cache" or "max-age=0" to refresh the cached objects

Dear all,

We have a Squid (2.6) server installed as a reverse proxy and connected to an original-server that uses the "Expire" header field to specify when the response should be considered stale.

If the client requests includes a "no-cache" cache-control directive can we assume that Squid will be forced to *reload* the cached object with a fresh response returned by the original server (assuming that the response has a new expiration date set)?  

The HTTP header specification (http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.9.4) says that "the server MUST NOT use a cached copy when responding to such a request" but does not say what should happen with the current cached object. Would it be replaced by new response?

What would be the behavior of Squid in case of "max-age=0" request directive (assuming again that the response has a newer expiration date set)?

Thanks,
 Chris

Christian Tzolov | Senior Software Developer - Content & Services | TomTom |
 
Received on Wed Oct 01 2008 - 18:09:05 MDT