caching of request with cookies

[Tollef Fog Heen]

]] Harm Verhagen 

Hi,

| This seems a bit too conservative to me.
| According to the http specs the mere existence of a cookie should not
| influence cachebility.  In the content of the response depends on the
| cookie, the server should tell in the response that the contents are not
| cacheble.
| The Vary: Cookie header  exists for that reason, no ?

In an ideal world, you are right.  Unfortunately, the world is not ideal
and it's far between systems in the wild that does Vary: cookie.  If
your system does, great, just change the VCL. :-)

[...]

| What are the thoughts on this list about moving the default varnish
| configuration closer to the http specification, regarding caching of request
| where the client sends a cookie (and probably leading to problems on
| websites that do _not_ use http headers correctly)

I think changing the current behaviour would be a terribly bad idea.
We've seen people mess this up before, causing significant financial
losses.

Regards,
-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
Varnish Software
t: +47 21 54 41 73