Subject: Re: Mandating a default client timeout for HTTP 301

From: Amos Jeffries <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2017 20:52:00 +1300

On 01/12/17 11:52, Barry Tunetheweb wrote:
> 
>             I wasn't aware that browsers cache the 301. (I mean, maybe
>             if you send the right combination of cache headers along
>             with the response...) And even if they do, doesn't "forever"
>             in a browser cache usually mean a couple of months (assuming
>             no further hits)?
> 
> 
> Some of them definitely do, and often they are difficult to reset even 
> if you do have access to the client machines (which of course you won’t 
> for an Internet site).

Middleware such as Squid-3 does so as well. Though we define "forever" 
as a month by default, and a year maximum.

> 
> I’m not sure how long “forever” means but a couple of months is a long 
> time and I personally would prefer this to be much, much smaller, or 
> even zero.

It is a bit hidden but 
<https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7234#section-1.2.1> essentially defines 
'forever' as 68 years since revalidations cannot be performed reliably 
for longer periods.

Amos