Re: [squid-users] refresh_pattern configuration

From: Muhammad Sharfuddin <m.sharfuddin_at_nds.com.pk>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:21:10 +0600

On Sun, 2009-08-09 at 14:19 +1200, Amos Jeffries wrote:
> Muhammad Sharfuddin wrote:
> > Squid Cache: Version 2.5.STABLE12
> > and
> > Squid Cache: Version 2.7.STABLE5
> >
> > I am using following refresh_patterns and never encounter any problem.
> > e.g once I visit a website, on next visit usually squid serves it from
> > cache, and TCP_HIT or TCP_MEM_HIT or TCP_REFRESH_HIT etc are so common
> > in '/var/log/squid/access'
> >
> > But a person(who I beleive is a Linux/Squid Guru) critcize on the
> > refresh_pattern I am using in squid.
>
> (One of my posts or someone else?).
>
> >
> > So please pass your comments and corrections on the following configs
> >
> > #Suggested default:
> > refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
> > refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
> > ####refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320
> >
> > refresh_pattern -i \.ico$ 43200 100% 43200 override-lastmod
> > override-expire ignore-reload
>
> The problem with these commonly used patterns is that websites are now
> obfuscating the URL with query strings more and more often. Not always
> intentionally.
>
> Example; the above pattern will not match any website with:
> http://example.com/some.ico?sid=user-session-id&track=fukn-cookie-id
>
> changing the hard $ to softer (\?.*)?$ catches all of those websites
> and keeps Squid doing what you meant to configure.
>
>
> Other than that the only thing to draw real criticism is the use of
> non-compliant override options. It's not nice netizen behaviour, ... but
> ... "everyone else does it".
>
>
> [warning rant ahead: (not your fault I know)]
>
> Personally as a webmaster I set realistic expiry info on every website I
> touch in order to maximize speed and cacheability, particularly since
> getting to now Squid. It really annoys me that admin like yourself are
> forced to do this by a horribly large amount of clueless websites and
> CMS software developers.
> Such rules will in fact _decrease_ the cacheability times and benefits
> for many of the websites I and other clued-on people setup. We are
> forced to cope by changing filenames and sometimes URL links on every
> single edit, no matter how trivial.
> I'm sick of people complaining "why can Y see their user icon in forum X
> but I can't? ... what?! cant fix it till next month just because I live
> in country/ISP X?" always the webmaster to blame, never the browser
> author or transparent proxy admin.
> /rant
>
> Amos

So in other words its not a healthy practice to use 'refresh_patterns'
other then the defaults(in squid.conf 'Suggested default') ?.

Regards
--ms
Received on Mon Aug 10 2009 - 04:22:17 MDT

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