Re: [squid-users] reverse proxy to improve HTTP responses?

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 01:24:20 +0200 (CEST), Henrik Nordstrom
<hno@squid-cache.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Aug 2004, Laurian Gridinoc wrote:
>
> > I wonder if squid in reverse proxy mode (probably with cache turned
> > on) can improve the metadata that the web server is delivering:
>
> Not really no.
>
> > If my web server delivers only content-type and expires, no
> > content-length or Etag; may squid add for a cached response the
> > content-length so the client may pipeline data with the reverse proxy?
>
> ETag can only be constructed in a reliable manner by the origin server.
> This header must not be taken lightly as it is a very fundamental header
> of HTTP/1.1 operations.
>
> > may squid respond with 304 Not Modified if it is the case? may squid
> > upgrade the communication to HTTP/1.1?
>
> For 304 responses it is sufficient to have a Last-Modified header. Almost
> all web servers is capable of sending this header.

Yes, if the page is a static document, imagine a CGI app. that knows
only of Content-type (mandatory) and Expires; would squid not only
serve the response from its cache while the response is still fresh,
but reply with 304 if is the case?

Thank you,

-- 
Laurian Gridinoc
Chief Developer
GRAPEFRUIT DESIGN
www.gd.ro