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<manualpage metafile="caching.xml.meta">

  <title>Caching Guide</title>

  <summary>
    <p>This document supplements the <module>mod_cache</module>,
    <module>mod_cache_disk</module>, <module>mod_file_cache</module> and <a 
    href="programs/htcacheclean.html">htcacheclean</a> reference documentation.
    It describes how to use the Apache HTTP Server's caching features to accelerate web and 
    proxy serving, while avoiding common problems and misconfigurations.</p>
  </summary>

  <section id="introduction">
    <title>Introduction</title>

    <p>As of Apache HTTP server version 2.2 <module>mod_cache</module>
    and <module>mod_file_cache</module> are no longer marked
    experimental and are considered suitable for production use. These
    caching architectures provide a powerful means to accelerate HTTP
    handling, both as an origin webserver and as a proxy.</p>

    <p><module>mod_cache</module> and its provider modules 
    <module>mod_cache_disk</module> 
    provide intelligent, HTTP-aware caching. The content itself is stored
    in the cache, and mod_cache aims to honor all of the various HTTP
    headers and options that control the cachability of content. It can
    handle both local and proxied content. <module>mod_cache</module>
    is aimed at both simple and complex caching configurations, where
    you are dealing with proxied content, dynamic local content or 
    have a need to speed up access to local files which change with 
    time.</p>

    <p><module>mod_file_cache</module> on the other hand presents a more
    basic, but sometimes useful, form of caching. Rather than maintain
    the complexity of actively ensuring the cachability of URLs,
    <module>mod_file_cache</module> offers file-handle and memory-mapping 
    tricks to keep a cache of files as they were when httpd was last 
    started. As such, <module>mod_file_cache</module> is aimed at improving 
    the access time to local static files which do not change very
    often.</p>

    <p>As <module>mod_file_cache</module> presents a relatively simple
    caching implementation, apart from the specific sections on <directive 
    module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive> and <directive 
    module="mod_file_cache">MMapFile</directive>, the explanations
    in this guide cover the <module>mod_cache</module> caching 
    architecture.</p>

    <p>To get the most from this document, you should be familiar with 
    the basics of HTTP, and have read the Users' Guides to 
    <a href="urlmapping.html">Mapping URLs to the Filesystem</a> and 
    <a href="content-negotiation.html">Content negotiation</a>.</p>

  </section>
   
  <section id="overview">

    <title>Caching Overview</title>
    
    <related>
      <modulelist>
        <module>mod_cache</module>
        <module>mod_cache_disk</module>
        <module>mod_file_cache</module>
      </modulelist>
      <directivelist>
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheEnable</directive>
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheDisable</directive>
        <directive module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive>
        <directive module="mod_file_cache">MMapFile</directive>
        <directive module="core">UseCanonicalName</directive>
        <directive module="mod_negotiation">CacheNegotiatedDocs</directive>
      </directivelist>
    </related>

    <p>There are two main stages in <module>mod_cache</module> that can
    occur in the lifetime of a request. First, <module>mod_cache</module>
    is a URL mapping module, which means that if a URL has been cached,
    and the cached version of that URL has not expired, the request will 
    be served directly by <module>mod_cache</module>.</p>

    <p>This means that any other stages that might ordinarily happen
    in the process of serving a request -- for example being handled
    by <module>mod_proxy</module>, or <module>mod_rewrite</module> --
    won't happen.  But then this is the point of caching content in
    the first place.</p>

    <p>If the URL is not found within the cache, <module>mod_cache</module>
    will add a <a href="filter.html">filter</a> to the request handling. After
    httpd has located the content by the usual means, the filter will be run
    as the content is served. If the content is determined to be cacheable, 
    the content will be saved to the cache for future serving.</p>

    <p>If the URL is found within the cache, but also found to have expired,
    the filter is added anyway, but <module>mod_cache</module> will create
    a conditional request to the backend, to determine if the cached version
    is still current. If the cached version is still current, its
    meta-information will be updated and the request will be served from the
    cache. If the cached version is no longer current, the cached version
    will be deleted and the filter will save the updated content to the cache
    as it is served.</p>

    <section>
      <title>Improving Cache Hits</title>

      <p>When caching locally generated content, ensuring that  
      <directive module="core">UseCanonicalName</directive> is set to 
      <code>On</code> can dramatically improve the ratio of cache hits. This
      is because the hostname of the virtual-host serving the content forms
      a part of the cache key. With the setting set to <code>On</code>
      virtual-hosts with multiple server names or aliases will not produce
      differently cached entities, and instead content will be cached as
      per the canonical hostname.</p>

      <p>Because caching is performed within the URL to filename translation 
      phase, cached documents will only be served in response to URL requests.
      Ordinarily this is of little consequence, but there is one circumstance
      in which it matters: If you are using <a href="howto/ssi.html">Server 
      Side Includes</a>;</p>

      <example>
&lt;!-- The following include can be cached --&gt;<br />
&lt;!--#include virtual="/footer.html" --&gt; <br />
<br />
&lt;!-- The following include can not be cached --&gt;<br />
&lt;!--#include file="/path/to/footer.html" --&gt;
      </example>

      <p>If you are using Server Side Includes, and want the benefit of speedy
      serves from the cache, you should use <code>virtual</code> include
      types.</p>
    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>Expiry Periods</title>
    
      <p>The default expiry period for cached entities is one hour, however 
      this can be easily over-ridden by using the <directive 
      module="mod_cache">CacheDefaultExpire</directive> directive. This
      default is only used when the original source of the content does not
      specify an expire time or time of last modification.</p>

      <p>If a response does not include an <code>Expires</code> header but does
      include a <code>Last-Modified</code> header, <module>mod_cache</module>
      can infer an expiry period based on the use of the <directive 
      module="mod_cache">CacheLastModifiedFactor</directive> directive.</p>

      <p>For local content, <module>mod_expires</module> may be used to
      fine-tune the expiry period.</p>

      <p>The maximum expiry period may also be controlled by using the
      <directive module="mod_cache">CacheMaxExpire</directive>.</p>

    </section>

    <section>
      <title>A Brief Guide to Conditional Requests</title>

      <p>When content expires from the cache and is re-requested from the 
      backend or content provider, rather than pass on the original request,
      httpd will use a conditional request instead.</p>

      <p>HTTP offers a number of headers which allow a client, or cache
      to discern between different versions of the same content. For
      example if a resource was served with an "Etag:" header, it is
      possible to make a conditional request with an "If-None-Match:" 
      header. If a resource was served with a "Last-Modified:" header
      it is possible to make a conditional request with an 
      "If-Modified-Since:" header, and so on.</p>

      <p>When such a conditional request is made, the response differs
      depending on whether the content matches the conditions. If a request is 
      made with an "If-Modified-Since:" header, and the content has not been 
      modified since the time indicated in the request then a terse "304 Not 
      Modified" response is issued.</p>

      <p>If the content has changed, then it is served as if the request were
      not conditional to begin with.</p>

      <p>The benefits of conditional requests in relation to caching are 
      twofold. Firstly, when making such a request to the backend, if the 
      content from the backend matches the content in the store, this can be
      determined easily and without the overhead of transferring the entire
      resource.</p>

      <p>Secondly, conditional requests are usually less strenuous on the
      backend. For static files, typically all that is involved is a call
      to <code>stat()</code> or similar system call, to see if the file has
      changed in size or modification time. As such, even if httpd is
      caching local content, even expired content may still be served faster
      from the cache if it has not changed. As long as reading from the cache
      store is faster than reading from the backend (e.g. <module
      >mod_cache_disk</module> with memory disk
      compared to reading from disk).</p> 
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>What Can be Cached?</title>

      <p>As mentioned already, the two styles of caching in httpd work 
      differently, <module>mod_file_cache</module> caching maintains file 
      contents as they were when httpd was started. When a request is 
      made for a file that is cached by this module, it is intercepted 
      and the cached file is served.</p>

      <p><module>mod_cache</module> caching on the other hand is more
      complex. When serving a request, if it has not been cached
      previously, the caching module will determine if the content
      is cacheable. The conditions for determining cachability of 
      a response are;</p>

      <ol>
        <li>Caching must be enabled for this URL. See the <directive 
        module="mod_cache">CacheEnable</directive> and <directive
        module="mod_cache">CacheDisable</directive> directives.</li>

        <li>The response must have a HTTP status code of 200, 203, 300, 301 or 
        410.</li>

        <li>The request must be a HTTP GET request.</li>

        <li>If the request contains an "Authorization:" header, the response
        will not be cached.</li>

        <li>If the response contains an "Authorization:" header, it must
        also contain an "s-maxage", "must-revalidate" or "public" option
        in the "Cache-Control:" header.</li>

        <li>If the URL included a query string (e.g. from a HTML form GET
        method) it will not be cached unless the response specifies an
        explicit expiration by including an "Expires:" header or the max-age
        or s-maxage directive of the "Cache-Control:" header, as per RFC2616
        sections 13.9 and 13.2.1.</li>

        <li>If the response has a status of 200 (OK), the response must
        also include at least one of the "Etag", "Last-Modified" or
        the "Expires" headers, or the max-age or s-maxage directive of
        the "Cache-Control:" header, unless the 
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheIgnoreNoLastMod</directive> 
        directive has been used to require otherwise.</li>

        <li>If the response includes the "private" option in a "Cache-Control:"
        header, it will not be stored unless the 
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheStorePrivate</directive> has been
        used to require otherwise.</li>

        <li>Likewise, if the response includes the "no-store" option in a 
        "Cache-Control:" header, it will not be stored unless the 
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheStoreNoStore</directive> has been
        used.</li>

        <li>A response will not be stored if it includes a "Vary:" header
        containing the match-all "*".</li>
      </ol>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>What Should Not be Cached?</title>
    
      <p>In short, any content which is highly time-sensitive, or which varies
      depending on the particulars of the request that are not covered by
      HTTP negotiation, should not be cached.</p>

      <p>If you have dynamic content which changes depending on the IP address
      of the requester, or changes every 5 minutes, it should almost certainly
      not be cached.</p>

      <p>If on the other hand, the content served differs depending on the
      values of various HTTP headers, it might be possible
      to cache it intelligently through the use of a "Vary" header.</p>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Variable/Negotiated Content</title>

      <p>If a response with a "Vary" header is received by 
      <module>mod_cache</module> when requesting content by the backend it
      will attempt to handle it intelligently. If possible, 
      <module>mod_cache</module> will detect the headers attributed in the
      "Vary" response in future requests and serve the correct cached 
      response.</p>

      <p>If for example, a response is received with a vary header such as;</p>

      <example>
Vary: negotiate,accept-language,accept-charset
      </example>

      <p><module>mod_cache</module> will only serve the cached content to
      requesters with accept-language and accept-charset headers
      matching those of the original request.</p>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="security">
    <title>Security Considerations</title>

    <section>
      <title>Authorization and Access Control</title>

      <p>Using <module>mod_cache</module> is very much like having a built
      in reverse-proxy. Requests will be served by the caching module unless
      it determines that the backend should be queried. When caching local
      resources, this drastically changes the security model of httpd.</p>

      <p>As traversing a filesystem hierarchy to examine potential
      <code>.htaccess</code> files would be a very expensive operation,
      partially defeating the point of caching (to speed up requests),
      <module>mod_cache</module> makes no decision about whether a cached
      entity is authorised for serving. In other words; if
      <module>mod_cache</module> has cached some content, it will be served
      from the cache as long as that content has not expired.</p>

      <p>If, for example, your configuration permits access to a resource by IP
      address you should ensure that this content is not cached. You can do this
      by using the <directive module="mod_cache">CacheDisable</directive>
      directive, or <module>mod_expires</module>. Left unchecked,
      <module>mod_cache</module> - very much like a reverse proxy - would cache
      the content when served and then serve it to any client, on any IP
      address.</p>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Local exploits</title>

      <p>As requests to end-users can be served from the cache, the cache
      itself can become a target for those wishing to deface or interfere with
      content. It is important to bear in mind that the cache must at all
      times be writable by the user which httpd is running as. This is in 
      stark contrast to the usually recommended situation of maintaining
      all content unwritable by the Apache user.</p>

      <p>If the Apache user is compromised, for example through a flaw in
      a CGI process, it is possible that the cache may be targeted. When
      using <module>mod_cache_disk</module>, it is relatively easy to 
      insert or modify a cached entity.</p>

      <p>This presents a somewhat elevated risk in comparison to the other 
      types of attack it is possible to make as the Apache user. If you are 
      using <module>mod_cache_disk</module> you should bear this in mind - 
      ensure you upgrade httpd when security upgrades are announced and 
      run CGI processes as a non-Apache user using <a 
      href="suexec.html">suEXEC</a> if possible.</p>

    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Cache Poisoning</title>

      <p>When running httpd as a caching proxy server, there is also the
      potential for so-called cache poisoning. Cache Poisoning is a broad 
      term for attacks in which an attacker causes the proxy server to 
      retrieve incorrect (and usually undesirable) content from the backend.
      </p>

      <p>For example if the DNS servers used by your system running
      httpd
      are vulnerable to DNS cache poisoning, an attacker may be able to control
      where httpd connects to when requesting content from the origin server.
      Another example is so-called HTTP request-smuggling attacks.</p>

      <p>This document is not the correct place for an in-depth discussion
      of HTTP request smuggling (instead, try your favourite search engine)
      however it is important to be aware that it is possible to make
      a series of requests, and to exploit a vulnerability on an origin
      webserver such that the attacker can entirely control the content
      retrieved by the proxy.</p>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="filehandle">
    <title>File-Handle Caching</title>

    <related>
      <modulelist>
        <module>mod_file_cache</module>
      </modulelist>
      <directivelist>
        <directive module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive>
      </directivelist>
    </related>

    <p>The act of opening a file can itself be a source of delay, particularly 
    on network filesystems. By maintaining a cache of open file descriptors
    for commonly served files, httpd can avoid this delay. Currently
        httpd
    provides one implementation of File-Handle Caching.</p> 

    <section>
      <title>CacheFile</title>

      <p>The most basic form of caching present in httpd is the file-handle
      caching provided by <module>mod_file_cache</module>. Rather than caching 
      file-contents, this cache maintains a table of open file descriptors. Files 
      to be cached in this manner are specified in the configuration file using
      the <directive module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive> 
      directive.</p>

      <p>The 
      <directive module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive> directive 
      instructs httpd to open the file when it is started and to re-use 
      this file-handle for all subsequent access to this file.</p>

      <example>
      CacheFile /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/index.html
      </example>

      <p>If you intend to cache a large number of files in this manner, you 
      must ensure that your operating system's limit for the number of open 
      files is set appropriately.</p>

      <p>Although using <directive module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive>
      does not cause the file-contents to be cached per-se, it does mean
      that if the file changes while httpd is running these changes will
      not be picked up. The file will be consistently served as it was
      when httpd was started.</p>

      <p>If the file is removed while httpd is running, it will continue
      to maintain an open file descriptor and serve the file as it was when
      httpd was started. This usually also means that although the file
      will have been deleted, and not show up on the filesystem, extra free
      space will not be recovered until httpd is stopped and the file
      descriptor closed.</p>
    </section>

  </section>
  
  <section id="inmemory">
    <title>In-Memory Caching</title>

     <related>
      <modulelist>
        <module>mod_file_cache</module>
      </modulelist>
      <directivelist>
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheEnable</directive>
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheDisable</directive>
        <directive module="mod_file_cache">MMapFile</directive>
      </directivelist>
    </related>
       
    <p>Serving directly from system memory is universally the fastest method
    of serving content. Reading files from a disk controller or, even worse,
    from a remote network is orders of magnitude slower. Disk controllers
    usually involve physical processes, and network access is limited by
    your available bandwidth. Memory access on the other hand can take mere
    nano-seconds.</p>

    <p>System memory isn't cheap though, byte for byte it's by far the most
    expensive type of storage and it's important to ensure that it is used
    efficiently. By caching files in memory you decrease the amount of 
    memory available on the system. As we'll see, in the case of operating
    system caching, this is not so much of an issue, but when using
    httpd's own in-memory caching it is important to make sure that you
    do not allocate too much memory to a cache. Otherwise the system
    will be forced to swap out memory, which will likely degrade 
    performance.</p>

    <section>
      <title>Operating System Caching</title>

      <p>Almost all modern operating systems cache file-data in memory managed
      directly by the kernel. This is a powerful feature, and for the most
      part operating systems get it right. For example, on Linux, let's look at
      the difference in the time it takes to read a file for the first time
      and the second time;</p>

      <example><pre>
colm@coroebus:~$ time cat testfile &gt; /dev/null
real    0m0.065s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.001s
colm@coroebus:~$ time cat testfile &gt; /dev/null
real    0m0.003s
user    0m0.003s
sys     0m0.000s</pre>
      </example>

      <p>Even for this small file, there is a huge difference in the amount
      of time it takes to read the file. This is because the kernel has cached
      the file contents in memory.</p>

      <p>By ensuring there is "spare" memory on your system, you can ensure 
      that more and more file-contents will be stored in this cache. This 
      can be a very efficient means of in-memory caching, and involves no 
      extra configuration of httpd at all.</p>

      <p>Additionally, because the operating system knows when files are 
      deleted or modified, it can automatically remove file contents from the 
      cache when necessary. This is a big advantage over httpd's in-memory 
      caching which has no way of knowing when a file has changed.</p>
    </section>

    <p>Despite the performance and advantages of automatic operating system
    caching there are some circumstances in which in-memory caching may be 
    better performed by httpd.</p>

    <section>
      <title>MMapFile Caching</title>

      <p><module>mod_file_cache</module> provides the 
      <directive module="mod_file_cache">MMapFile</directive> directive, which
      allows you to have httpd map a static file's contents into memory at
      start time (using the mmap system call). httpd will use the in-memory 
      contents for all subsequent accesses to this file.</p>

      <example>
      MMapFile /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/index.html
      </example>

      <p>As with the
      <directive module="mod_file_cache">CacheFile</directive> directive, any
      changes in these files will not be picked up by httpd after it has
      started.</p>

      <p> The <directive module="mod_file_cache">MMapFile</directive> 
      directive does not keep track of how much memory it allocates, so
      you must ensure not to over-use the directive. Each httpd child
      process will replicate this memory, so it is critically important
      to ensure that the files mapped are not so large as to cause the
      system to swap memory.</p>
    </section>
  </section>
             
  <section id="disk">
    <title>Disk-based Caching</title>

     <related>
      <modulelist>
        <module>mod_cache_disk</module>
      </modulelist>
      <directivelist>
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheEnable</directive>
        <directive module="mod_cache">CacheDisable</directive>
      </directivelist>
    </related>
       
    <p><module>mod_cache_disk</module> provides a disk-based caching mechanism 
    for <module>mod_cache</module>. This cache is intelligent and content will
    be served from the cache only as long as it is considered valid.</p>

    <p>Typically the module will be configured as so;</p>

    <example>  
CacheRoot   /var/cache/apache/<br />
CacheEnable disk /<br />
CacheDirLevels 2<br />
CacheDirLength 1
    </example>

    <p>Importantly, as the cached files are locally stored, operating system
    in-memory caching will typically be applied to their access also. So 
    although the files are stored on disk, if they are frequently accessed 
    it is likely the operating system will ensure that they are actually
    served from memory.</p>

    <section>
      <title>Understanding the Cache-Store</title>

      <p>To store items in the cache, <module>mod_cache_disk</module> creates
      a 22 character hash of the URL being requested. This hash incorporates
      the hostname, protocol, port, path and any CGI arguments to the URL,
      to ensure that multiple URLs do not collide.</p>

      <p>Each character may be any one of 64-different characters, which mean
      that overall there are 64^22 possible hashes. For example, a URL might
      be hashed to <code>xyTGxSMO2b68mBCykqkp1w</code>. This hash is used
      as a prefix for the naming of the files specific to that URL within
      the cache, however first it is split up into directories as per
      the <directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLevels</directive> and
      <directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLength</directive> 
      directives.</p>

      <p><directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLevels</directive> 
      specifies how many levels of subdirectory there should be, and
      <directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLength</directive>
      specifies how many characters should be in each directory. With
      the example settings given above, the hash would be turned into
      a filename prefix as 
      <code>/var/cache/apache/x/y/TGxSMO2b68mBCykqkp1w</code>.</p>

      <p>The overall aim of this technique is to reduce the number of
      subdirectories or files that may be in a particular directory,
      as most file-systems slow down as this number increases. With
      setting of "1" for 
      <directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLength</directive>
      there can at most be 64 subdirectories at any particular level. 
      With a setting of 2 there can be 64 * 64 subdirectories, and so on.
      Unless you have a good reason not to, using a setting of "1"
      for <directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLength</directive>
      is recommended.</p>

      <p>Setting 
      <directive module="mod_cache_disk">CacheDirLevels</directive>
      depends on how many files you anticipate to store in the cache.
      With the setting of "2" used in the above example, a grand
      total of 4096 subdirectories can ultimately be created. With
      1 million files cached, this works out at roughly 245 cached 
      URLs per directory.</p>

      <p>Each URL uses at least two files in the cache-store. Typically
      there is a ".header" file, which includes meta-information about 
      the URL, such as when it is due to expire and a ".data" file
      which is a verbatim copy of the content to be served.</p>

      <p>In the case of a content negotiated via the "Vary" header, a
      ".vary" directory will be created for the URL in question. This 
      directory will have multiple ".data" files corresponding to the
      differently negotiated content.</p>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>Maintaining the Disk Cache</title>
    
      <p>Although <module>mod_cache_disk</module> will remove cached content
      as it is expired, it does not maintain any information on the total
      size of the cache or how little free space may be left.</p>

      <p>Instead, provided with httpd is the <a 
      href="programs/htcacheclean.html">htcacheclean</a> tool which, as the name
      suggests, allows you to clean the cache periodically. Determining 
      how frequently to run <a 
      href="programs/htcacheclean.html">htcacheclean</a> and what target size to 
      use for the cache is somewhat complex and trial and error may be needed to
      select optimal values.</p>

      <p><a href="programs/htcacheclean.html">htcacheclean</a> has two modes of 
      operation. It can be run as persistent daemon, or periodically from 
      cron. <a 
      href="programs/htcacheclean.html">htcacheclean</a> can take up to an hour 
      or more to process very large (tens of gigabytes) caches and if you are 
      running it from cron it is recommended that you determine how long a typical 
      run takes, to avoid running more than one instance at a time.</p>

      <p class="figure">
      <img src="images/caching_fig1.gif" alt="" width="600"
          height="406" /><br />
      <a id="figure1" name="figure1"><dfn>Figure 1</dfn></a>: Typical
      cache growth / clean sequence.</p>

      <p>Because <module>mod_cache_disk</module> does not itself pay attention
      to how much space is used you should ensure that 
      <a href="programs/htcacheclean.html">htcacheclean</a> is configured to 
      leave enough "grow room" following a clean.</p>
    </section>

  </section>

</manualpage>