Nginx caching based on file type

cachenginx

I'm using Nginx to serve my static files and proxy dynamic requests to Django. I'd like to cache the static files ("expires 24h;") for all static files except those ending with *.swf.

When I was using Apache, I placed this in the .htaccess file of the directory containing the *.swf files and it worked great:

<FilesMatch "\.(swf)$">
Header set Cache-Control "no-cache"
</FilesMatch>

How can I achieve a similar result in my Nginx config?

Best Answer

Using location directive with appropriate regex and with expires directive should work:

location ~ \.(swf)$ {
    expires -1;
}

Related Solutions

Nginx – How to Set Up as a Caching Reverse Proxy

I don't think that there is a way to explicitly invalidate cached items, but here is an example of how to do the rest. Update: As mentioned by Piotr in another answer, there is a cache purge module that you can use. You can also force a refresh of a cached item using nginx's proxy_cache_bypass - see Cherian's answer for more information.

In this configuration, items that aren't cached will be retrieved from example.net and stored. The cached versions will be served up to future clients until they are no longer valid (60 minutes).

Your Cache-Control and Expires HTTP headers will be honored, so if you want to explicitly set an expiration date, you can do that by setting the correct headers in whatever you are proxying to.

There are lots of parameters that you can tune - see the nginx Proxy module documentation for more information about all of this including details on the meaning of the different settings/parameters: http://nginx.org/r/proxy_cache_path

http {
  proxy_cache_path  /var/www/cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=my-cache:8m max_size=1000m inactive=600m;
  proxy_temp_path /var/www/cache/tmp; 


  server {
    location / {
      proxy_pass http://example.net;
      proxy_cache my-cache;
      proxy_cache_valid  200 302  60m;
      proxy_cache_valid  404      1m;
    }
  }
}

Nginx – Disable caching when serving static files with Nginx (for development)

Since the answer is somehow hidden in the question - here is the solution for nginx in a VirtualBox environment as standalone answer.

In your nginx config (usally /etc/nginx/nginx.conf) or vhost config file change the sendfile parameter to off:

sendfile  off;

While sendfile is at the heart of Nginx's fame (blazing-fast low-level static file serving efficiency) it might be a bane for local development, e.g. Javascripts that change often and need to be reloaded. Nonetheless Nginx sendfile is smart and probably isn't most people's issue; check your browser's "disable cache" options as well!

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Nginx – How to Set Up as a Caching Reverse Proxy

Nginx – Disable caching when serving static files with Nginx (for development)

Related Topic