Re: Squid and HTML meta tags

Tan Juay Kwang wrote:

> Hi, I would like to confirm some stuff regarding Squid honoring (or not
> honouring) HTML meta tags. I've come to realize that Squid ignore the HTML
> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache"> tag and continues to cache
> this particular object. Would appreciate if somebody can confirm that this
> is normal behaviour.

It is normal. To use HTML META HTTP tags they must be supported by the
HTTP server, translating them into HTTP headers which is understood by
proxies and browser (some browsers also parses HTML META HTTP tags,
making a lot of authors confused into thinking that it works on their
server ;-)

> If this is, then am I right to say that only a Pragma=no-cache served out by
> the web server is honoured by Squid? Is there any other way to prevent Squid
> from caching an object with a normal URL? (ie. no special characters such as
> ? = etc etc)

"Pragma: no-cache" is unstandard on replies.

The correct methods for marking a object uncachable is to use "Expires:
<current time or earlier>" or "Cache-Control: no-cache" (or both). See
the HTTP specifications (the HTTP/1.1 draft internet standard is more up
to date than the latest RFC, see http://www.w3.org/)

--
Henrik Nordstrom
Spare time Squid hacker