How clear Apache cache?

**6tr6tr** · 01-Sep-2010, 16:15

I'm getting a weird situation where even though I updated an image in a folder for a website in apache, it's still showing the old image. And yes, I checked it in multiple browsers and on diff. computers. (Apache is in a virtualbox OS) Here's what I've done:

1. Checked it in firefox on the host, cleared cache, reloaded
2. Restarted apache
3. Checked it in konqueror for first time, still showing old version
4. Checked it in the actual file folder and it's correct there
5. Checked it for first time on virtual machine's OS in its firefox, and it shows the wrong/old image

Any ideas?

**ken_yap** · 01-Sep-2010, 16:48

Apache has no cache, it's normally your web browser or any proxies in between. Often a new file is not served because the modification date is older than the file it replaced.

**6tr6tr** · 01-Sep-2010, 17:38

Originally Posted by ken_yap

Apache has no cache, it's normally your web browser or any proxies in between. Often a new file is not served because the modification date is older than the file it replaced.

No, that's impossible here because when I loaded it into konqueror for the first time ever (I'd never visited the site or viewed the image in konqueror before) it showed the old image! So the old image was still being served up by apache.

And apache does have some sort of cache: Caching Guide - Apache HTTP Server

**ken_yap** · 01-Sep-2010, 17:45

That's only if you have set it up. Out of the box Apache does not have a cache. You can look at the logs in /var/log/apache2 to see if the request was served by a 200 reply or a 304 not modified reply. It could also be a simple typo, you put the new file in the wrong directory or under a different name.

**6tr6tr** · 01-Sep-2010, 17:50

Originally Posted by ken_yap

That's only if you have set it up. Out of the box Apache does not have a cache. You can look at the logs in /var/log/apache2 to see if the request was served by a 200 reply or a 304 not modified reply. It could also be a simple typo, you put the new file in the wrong directory or under a different name.

Well then what's causing the image not to refresh/change? I tried everything: cleared the whole cache in firefox. Tried viewing the image directly in the browser (not in a web page but straight to the image url) and refreshing. Nothing changes it!

**6tr6tr** · 01-Sep-2010, 18:00

The only way I've been able to get it to change the image is to change the name of the image, reload the web page and then change the name back and reload again and then I get the image.

ab · 01-Sep-2010, 18:36

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Where is the website? This could easily happen with a proxy server
somewhere on which you do not plan. For example, if your website is
outside your network any number of devices between your computer and the
web server could cache pictures for you. Similarly if your server is in
your network but your system or browser is configured to use a proxy
server then that proxy could be "helping" you or your organization. Using
a Firefox plugin like Live HTTP Headers (or getting a LAN trace if the
traffic is not encrypted) would probably show this fairly well.

Either way, ken's right; Apache doesn't cache by default.

Good luck.

On 09/01/2010 06:06 PM, 6tr6tr wrote:
>
> The only way I've been able to get it to change the image is to change
> the name of the image, reload the web page and then change the name back
> and reload again and then I get the image.
>
>
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**ken_yap** · 01-Sep-2010, 19:04

Is there a proxy between you and the web server? Even one you might not know about, like an ISP's "transparent" proxy.

**6tr6tr** · 01-Sep-2010, 19:08

Originally Posted by ken_yap

Is there a proxy between you and the web server? Even one you might not know about, like an ISP's "transparent" proxy.

No, the website is hosted locally in an Ubuntu LAMP setup inside VirtualBox. So I've viewed the site both on the host computer and inside the virtual machine and both show this issue.