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How do I exclude files from EA-NGINX caching?

Steven Sublett
  • Updated

Question

How do I exclude files or URLs from being cached when using EA-NGINX?

Answer

Requests for dynamic content to your website should include cache control headers to ensure that they are not cached by EA-NGINX. If you do not, the server may return cached responses that do not apply to the current user.

In most cases, the website software you are using will set headers that disables the NGINX cache where required; such as when accessing the admin area. However, it may also be required to have other files or URLs where NGINX caching does not occur. This can be configured at the server-level via an NGINX include file, or managed locally via the .htaccess.

.htaccess file
  1. Open the .htaccess file for the website.

  2. Add the appropriate configuration for the for the files/URL to exclude.

    CONFIG_TEXT: <If "%{REQUEST_URI} =~ m#/my-url/#">
       <IfModule mod_headers.c>
           Header set Pragma "no-cache"
           Header set Cache-Control "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"
           Header set Expires "Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT"
       </IfModule>
    </If>

    Note: In the above example, requests to this website's /my-url will not be cached by NGINX.

EA-NGINX Include
  1. Access the server's command line as the root user via SSH or Terminal in WHM.

  2. Create the include file for the domain.

    # touch /etc/nginx/conf.d/users/$cpuser/$domain.tld/include.conf

    Note: $cpuser and domain.tld must be replaced with the cPanel user's username and the website's domain name, respectively.

  3. Open the newly created include file in your preferred text editor.

  4. Add the appropriate configuration for the files/URL to exclude. For example:

    CONFIG_TEXT: location ^~ /my-url {
        expires -1;
        add_header 'Cache-Control' 'no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate, max-age=0';
    }

    Note: In the above example, requests to this website's /my-url will not be cached by NGINX.

  5. Save the changes and exit the text editor.

  6. Rebuild the NGINX configuration for the cPanel user.

    # /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/ea-nginx config $cpuser

    Note: $cpuser must be replaced with the cPanel user's username.

Additional resources

How to customize a site's NGINX Server Block?

The ea-nginx Script

Caching with NGINX® with Reverse Proxy

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