[ryancoulter]

Hello. I am stumped by a problem I'm having with Apache 2 and IHS 2 on AIX 5.3. I have tried this scenario with both a custom compiled Apache 2.2.4 as well as IHS 2.0.47. In both cases, the behavior is identical. Using Apache 1.3, I don't have the problem. The problem is as follows:

I request index.html from the webserver and receive it properly in my browser. I then log onto the server, edit the file with vi, save it and exit. Then I return to my browser and request index.html again and it appears as though nothing has changed. My edit does not show up. Sometimes, after making an edit, I try to open the page in my browser and receive a message that the browser couldn't reach the server.

In trying to track down the problem, I have discovered that, first, the web server is not crashing. It is also receiving and logging the GET request for the page. When it logs the request, it logs a 200 OK and the correct *new* file size. I then performed an experiment using wget to request index.html. On the first request, I receive the correct version. After editing index.html on the server and adding a large number of characters, I submit the request with wget again and receive an error saying "No data received." After a few minutes, the requests begin to work again and I receive the correct, new version. After editing the file again and removing any number of characters, I make the request again and receive a file of the correct, new size. However, the contents of the file when opened still contain the removed characters, and the file itself is truncated by the same number of characters I had removed.

My initial thoughts were that the problem had to do with memory caching or disk caching in Apache, but I have confirmed that those modules are not loaded. No caching is enabled. Also, no errors are logged. Stopping and starting Apache makes no difference. I can even completely remove and reinstall the Apache files, including the document root, and upon starting up Apache, it will continue for several minutes with this behavior. In every case, eventually, after several minutes, the correct, new file will be delivered properly.

This is happening on more than one server. Has anyone run into something like this?

[jrigler]

I have seen the same thing with php on linux. Sometimes I have to rename the page and then refresh my browser to get a page not found and then put it back. I think there is some caching happening somewhere. Also, I wonder if akamai might be part of this. I don't entirely understand what they do, but I do know that they cache pages for people and sometimes when you request something it is actually coming from them.

[ryancoulter]

Thank you for your reply. To clarify on the problem, these servers are on an internal network, so Akamai is definitely not part of the problem. It's not just that I'm getting a cached page. I am receiving the correct number of bytes that the new file is, but I receive them from the old file. It's as though Apache sees that the file is a certain length and goes to read that length from the file handle it has, but that file handle has been cached. To my knowledge, in the configuration I'm using, there's no way for Apache to perform caching of any kind, though.

Also, I have attempted the same configuration and experiments on non-AIX systems over the weekend (Linux and OS X), and I did not have any of the described problem.

Thanks again for any assistance anyone can provide.
~Ryan