Sending Cache-control Headers Using Apache 2.x and mod_expires

Submitted by geekwisdom on Wed, 2006-03-29 12:44.

About a year ago I wrote about how use mod_header with Apache 1.3x to send Cache-control headers. It worked so well that I want to configure my Apache 2.x servers to send the same headers. It's even simpler with Apache 2.x since mod_expires is included in most default installs. Here's what I did.

I added a configuration directive for the main server configuration (inside the Directory block) which sends the Cache-control header for common graphics.
<IfModule mod_expires.c> # turn on the module for this directory ExpiresActive on

# cache common graphics for 3 days ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 3 days" ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 3 days" ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 3 days" ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 3 days" # cache CSS for 24 hours ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 24 hours"

# set the default to 24 hours ExpiresDefault "access plus 24 hours" </IfModule>

All that was left was to restart Apache and test everything.
/<your path>/apache2/bin/apachectl configtest /<your path>/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

Testing was simple. I tailed the access log and made two requests for the same page. The first request resulted with a flurry of files being requested (all the graphics being downloaded). The second request resulted in a single file request (no graphics) and the graphics where logged as HTTP status 304 (unmodified), success.

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( categories: Systems Administration )