[OSM-dev] Cache settings for OSM Mailing List monthly index pages

[Robert Whittaker (OSM lists)]

I'm not sure if this is the right list to post this to, but I've
noticed recently that I have to refresh the index pages of OSM mailing
list posts e.g.
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2014-September/date.html
in order to get new posts to show up. This seems to happen to me with
multiple browsers on different computers.

Looking at the HTTP headers sent with that page, I see the following:

Cache-Control: max-age=15552000
Expires: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 11:49:55 GMT

I think this is instructing my browser, and any web caches along the
way, that the version of the page I fetched before can still be
considered up to date for the next six months. Such a setting may be
appropriate for the index listing for previous months, as these pages
generally shouldn't change. (The setting would be beneficial there to
help reduce unnecessary traffic.) But surely these settings shouldn't
be used on the current month's page, where new posts are expected
daily.

I tend to check the OSM mailing lists by viewing those index pages, so
it's annoying to have to manually press refresh every time. I'm
guessing that this may well be a mailman issue rather than an OSM one,
but I thought it best to ask here first.

Robert.

-- 
Robert Whittaker