V4 VCL roadmappery...

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

> But wouldn't you want to know what the backend thinks before you return stale?
> IE, would return stale make more sense in fetch or error?

Mostly returning stale will be for the same reason we have grace:
get a backend fetch/refresh going, without piling up clients on
the waiting list.

You have two places where you can do something of the sort you ask for.

In vcl_backend_response{} you decide if you want to use the
backends response or not.  (I'm pondring if "restart" should have
its own closed circuit on the backend side, so that restart fom
vcl_backend_response{} sends you back to vcl_backend_fetch{}. Input ?)

In vcl_deliver{} you decide if you want to deliver whatever
object you have at that time to the client.  Your alternatives is
to go ahead with it, restart or synthetic.


(One of the overall goals of decoupling client/backend more, is to
make things like parallel ESI possible)

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.