# Homepage cache and cookies

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [March 24, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345 "2016-03-24T14:14:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rafa\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/958977/32.png) [@Rafa\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rafa_F)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/1 "2016-03-24T14:14:46Z")

</div>

I am trying to cache the home page to a site. I am only caching the home  
page. If I put in a condition to check for cookies existing before  
caching,  
everything works as expected, but there is a high BYPASS rate due to the  
client not having the cookies the first time they visit the site. Once I  
took out the check for cookies, clients started getting cached cookies  
from  
other users. Is there a way to still have the cookies set from the  
origin  
server, and have a cache hit?

server {  
listen 80;

```
if ($request_uri !~* "home.html") {
            set $skip_cache 1; }

location / {
    proxy_pass http://backend;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_cache_bypass $skip_cache;
    proxy_no_cache $skip_cache;
    proxy_pass_header Set-Cookie;
    proxy_cache one;
    proxy_cache_key

```

$scheme$proxy\_host$uri$is\_args$args$cookie\_myCookie$cookie\_myOtherCookie;  
proxy\_cache\_valid 200 302 10m;  
proxy\_cache\_valid 404 1m;  
proxy\_ignore\_headers “Set-Cookie” “Cache-Control” “Expires”;  
proxy\_hide\_header “Set-Cookie”;  
proxy\_cache\_lock on;  
if ($http\_user\_agent ~\*  
‘(iPhone|Android|Phone|PalmSource|BOLT|Symbian|Fennec|GoBrowser|Maemo|MIB|Minimo|NetFront|Presto|SEMC|Skyfire|TeaShark|Teleca|uZard|palm|psp|openweb|mmp|novarra|nintendo  
ds|hiptop|ipod|blackberry|up.browser|up.link|wap|windows  
ce|blackberry|iemobile|bb10)’ ) {  
proxy\_pass http://backend\_mobile; }  
if ($http\_user\_agent ~\* ‘(iPad|playbook|hp-tablet|kindle|Silk)’  
) {  
proxy\_pass http://backend\_tablet; }

```
    root /opt/rh/rh-nginx18/root/usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.html index.htm;
}

```

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Homepage cache and cookies](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265629,265629#msg-265629)**
>
> I am trying to cache the home page to a site. I am only caching the home page. If I put in a condition to check for cookies existing before caching, everything works as expected, but there is a high BYPASS rate due to the client not having the...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/2 "2016-03-24T18:05:31Z")

</div>

The proxy\_cache\_key defines which key differentiate any cache object. By  
using $cookie\_name in the string, the _value_ of the cookie ‘name’ will  
be  
taken as part of the key.  
If multiple clients have the same combination of variables value  
(specifically, for cookie, presence, no presence or same value-s), they  
will grab the same object from the cache. If different content might get  
produced/grabbed with the same value in variables, then you have a  
problem.

## As a sidenote, you are using proxy\_pass\_header Set-Cookie with proxy\_hide\_header Set-Cookie, which conflict one with each other. Remove them altogether.

_B. R._

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 2:14 PM, john\_smith77  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/3 "2016-03-24T21:32:18Z")

</div>

Thanks for the info. I have removed the redundant config. I suppose what  
I  
am really getting at is that I would like Set-Cookie to never be cached  
with  
a cache MISS so that the cached cookie values are then not there for  
subsequent HITS.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: Homepage cache and cookies](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265629,265645#msg-265645)**
>
> I am trying to cache the home page to a site. I am only caching the home page. If I put in a condition to check for cookies existing before caching, everything works as expected, but there is a high BYPASS rate due to the client not having the...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/4 "2016-03-25T14:07:42Z")

</div>

Indeed, but that prevents all cookies from being set. What I am looking  
for  
is to have a cache hit, but have the set-cookie served from the origin  
server. In Apache httpd cache, this can be accomplished with  
CacheIgnoreHeaders Set-Cookie.

The back end server here is Apache and I have tried setting it to send  
back  
this header:

Cache-Control:no-cache=“set-cookie”

There just does not seem to be a combination of options for nginx that  
allows this to work.

I’ve tried this in nginx both with scenarios:

nginx → Apache httpd → wordpress  
nginx-\> Apache httpd → tomcat

In both cases, proxy\_hide\_header will prevent the cookies from ever  
being  
set.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: Homepage cache and cookies](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265629,265652#msg-265652)**
>
> I am trying to cache the home page to a site. I am only caching the home page. If I put in a condition to check for cookies existing before caching, everything works as expected, but there is a high BYPASS rate due to the client not having the...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/5 "2016-03-25T22:34:09Z")

</div>

So I found a solution and it seems like there is unexpected behavior  
from  
nginx. proxy\_hide\_header Set-Cookie does not seem to work when the  
location  
block is set to /

So:

location / {  
#Lots of other proxy stuff here…  
proxy\_hide\_header “Set-Cookie”; }

does not allow a cookie to ever be set, but:

location ~home.html {  
#Lots of other proxy stuff here…  
proxy\_hide\_header “Set-Cookie”; }

will allow cache HITS but won’t cache Set-Cookie headers. Clients are  
still  
able to get the cookies from the back end and will never get another  
users  
session cookies.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: Homepage cache and cookies](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265629,265658#msg-265658)**
>
> I am trying to cache the home page to a site. I am only caching the home page. If I put in a condition to check for cookies existing before caching, everything works as expected, but there is a high BYPASS rate due to the client not having the...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 9:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/6 "2016-03-25T09:39:35Z")

</div>

## That seems to match what the docs for proxy\_hide\_header [http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx\_http\_proxy\_module.html#proxy\_hide\_header](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html#proxy_hide_header) states, just do not use proxy\_pass\_header at the same time… which does the exact opposite.

_B. R._

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 9:31 PM, john\_smith77  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/7 "2016-03-25T23:09:47Z")

</div>

Hello John!

I think you can do this better with sessions in NginX.

I’ve made a script that checks if a client is a bot or not,  
by testing if the Google Analytics cookie is here, or not.

If it is, the client can post a comment or login. If not, the  
server is giving a fake page.

In my PHP script :

* * *

```
$host = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$session_id = session_id();
$session_name = session_name();
[]
    if ( '' == $session_name ) {
      $session_name = '0';
      session_start();
      echo '<html><head></head><body><h1>server busy, come back 

```

later!';  
exit();  
}  
[]

* * *

All pages are cached 😉

Regards,

Ph. Gras  
Le 25 mars 2016 22:33, john\_smith77 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) a  
crit :

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/8 "2016-03-28T15:52:00Z")

</div>

Specifically I was writing that clients could get their cookies, but not  
served form the nginx cache. This has always been about whether or not  
the  
cached page was serving the cookies or not.

With the exact same configuration for the cache, there is a difference  
between:

location /

and

location /~home.html

in regards to whether or not the cached version of the page has the  
Set-Cookie headers in it.

I will try and research some more to see if that would be expected or  
not.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: Homepage cache and cookies](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265629,265686#msg-265686)**
>
> I am trying to cache the home page to a site. I am only caching the home page. If I put in a condition to check for cookies existing before caching, everything works as expected, but there is a high BYPASS rate due to the client not having the...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@john\_smith77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/john_smith77)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/homepage-cache-and-cookies/244345/9 "2016-03-26T11:26:24Z")

</div>

Make sure you test this unexpected behavior with a minimal, reproducible  
configuration.  
If you succeed, please share it or (even better!) fill a bug report  
[https://trac.nginx.org/](https://trac.nginx.org/). Otherwise, that meant you probably did  
something  
Wrong.

## ​You were previously saying proxy\_hise\_headers did not pass cookies to the client. Now yo uare saying clients are able to grab their cookie. I am a bit confused, here…​

_B. R._

On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 10:33 PM, john\_smith77  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)