Title: [Plugin: W3 Total Cache] Double "Cache-Control"
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# [Plugin: W3 Total Cache] Double "Cache-Control"

 *  [NanoG5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nanog5/)
 * (@nanog5)
 * [13 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-double-cache-control/)
 * Hi,
 * When I curl my site (ex. $curl -I [http://www.lifebit.me/the-rains-of-castamere-2162/](http://www.lifebit.me/the-rains-of-castamere-2162/))
   
   the result is like this:
 *     ```
       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
       Server: nginx
       Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:05:16 GMT
       Content-Type: text/html
       Content-Length: 38824
       Last-Modified: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:45:20 GMT
       Connection: keep-alive
       Vary: Accept-Encoding
       Expires: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 21:45:20 GMT
       Cache-Control: no-cache
       X-Powered-By: W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.4
       Vary: Accept-Encoding, Cookie
       Pragma: public
       Cache-Control: max-age=3600, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate
       Accept-Ranges: bytes
       ```
   
 * Why are there 2 **Cache-Control** header? One with “no-cache” while the other
   one with “max-age”. Is that normal & OK?
    Many thanks!
 * Regards,
    Andi A.
 * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Thread Starter [NanoG5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nanog5/)
 * (@nanog5)
 * [13 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-double-cache-control/#post-2973956)
 * Now I uncheck “Set W3 Total Cache header” & “Enable HTTP (gzip) compression” 
   in Browser Cache tab, “Cache SSL (https) requests” in Page Cache tab (yes, seems
   irrelevant), and then restart NGINX.
    Curl result:
 *     ```
       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
       Server: nginx
       Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:03:11 GMT
       Content-Type: text/html
       Content-Length: 72853
       Last-Modified: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:03:08 GMT
       Connection: keep-alive
       Vary: Accept-Encoding
       Expires: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:03:08 GMT
       Cache-Control: max-age=3597
       Vary: Cookie
       Pragma: public
       Cache-Control: max-age=3600, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate
       Accept-Ranges: bytes
       ```
   
 * At least now the first Cache-Control header is max-age, not no-cache. But is 
   it normal & OK having two Cache-Control header? I believe the first Cache-Control
   header is from Page Cache.
 *  Plugin Contributor [Frederick Townes](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fredericktownes/)
 * (@fredericktownes)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-double-cache-control/#post-2974087)
 * I can’t reproduce it. There should just be one Cache-control header. If you disable
   Set Cache Control header does it still return Cache Control headers?
 * It should not set any Cache control headers then. There is no code that sets 
   just single cache-control: no-cache or max-age so could be some conflict with
   other nginx conf higher up.
 *  Thread Starter [NanoG5](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nanog5/)
 * (@nanog5)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-double-cache-control/#post-2974088)
 * Hi Frederick,
 * I believe the first Cache-Control is from the Page Cache (Cache home page, Cache
   requests only.., Don’t cache page.. , are checked).
 * If page cache expired (older than 3600 secs) then the header would be like this:
 *     ```
       curl -I www.lifebit.me
       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
       Server: nginx
       Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:18:25 GMT
       Content-Type: text/html
       Content-Length: 71674
       Last-Modified: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:31:34 GMT
       Connection: keep-alive
       Vary: Accept-Encoding
       Expires: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:31:34 GMT
       Cache-Control: no-cache
       Vary: Accept-Encoding, Cookie
       Pragma: public
       Cache-Control: public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate
       Accept-Ranges: bytes
       ```
   
 * If page cache is not expired yet, the http header would be like this:
 *     ```
       curl -I www.lifebit.me
       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
       Server: nginx
       Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:22:37 GMT
       Content-Type: text/html
       Content-Length: 71762
       Last-Modified: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:22:31 GMT
       Connection: keep-alive
       Vary: Accept-Encoding
       Expires: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:22:31 GMT
       Cache-Control: max-age=3594
       Vary: Accept-Encoding, Cookie
       Pragma: public
       Cache-Control: public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate
       Accept-Ranges: bytes
       ```
   
 * If there is no page cache:
 *     ```
       curl -I www.lifebit.me
       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
       Server: nginx
       Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:29:43 GMT
       Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
       Connection: keep-alive
       Vary: Accept-Encoding
       X-Pingback: http://www.lifebit.me/xmlrpc.php
       Last-Modified: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:29:43 GMT
       Vary: Cookie
       Expires: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:29:43 GMT
       Pragma: public
       Cache-Control: public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate
       ```
   
 * If I disable Set cache control header:
 *     ```
       curl -I www.lifebit.me
       HTTP/1.1 200 OK
       Server: nginx
       Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:25:53 GMT
       Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
       Connection: keep-alive
       Vary: Accept-Encoding
       X-Pingback: http://www.lifebit.me/xmlrpc.php
       Last-Modified: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:25:53 GMT
       Vary: Cookie
       Expires: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:25:53 GMT
       ```
   
 * I’m using W3TC generated nginx.conf in my web root, and I don’t have any specific
   nginx conf to handle static files or html.
 *     ```
       # BEGIN W3TC Page Cache cache
       location ~ /wp-content/w3tc/pgcache.*html$ {
           expires modified 3600s;
           add_header Vary "Accept-Encoding, Cookie";
           add_header Pragma "public";
           add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
       }
       location ~ /wp-content/w3tc/pgcache.*gzip$ {
           gzip off;
           types {}
           default_type text/html;
           expires modified 3600s;
           add_header Vary "Accept-Encoding, Cookie";
           add_header Pragma "public";
           add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
           add_header Content-Encoding gzip;
       }
       # END W3TC Page Cache cache
       # BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache
       gzip on;
       gzip_types text/css application/x-javascript text/x-component text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon;
       location ~ \.(css|js|htc)$ {
           expires 31536000s;
           add_header Pragma "public";
           add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
       }
       location ~ \.(html|htm|rtf|rtx|svg|svgz|txt|xsd|xsl|xml)$ {
           expires 3600s;
           add_header Pragma "public";
           add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
       }
       location ~ \.(asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx|avi|bmp|class|divx|doc|docx|eot|exe|gif|gz|gzip|ico|jpg|jpeg|jpe|mdb|mid|midi|mov|qt|mp3|m4a|mp4|m4v|mpeg|mpg|mpe|mpp|otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|png|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|ra|ram|svg|svgz|swf|tar|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|wav|wma|wri|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|zip)$ {
           expires 31536000s;
           add_header Pragma "public";
           add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
       }
       # END W3TC Browser Cache
       # BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core
       rewrite ^(.*\/)?w3tc_rewrite_test$ $1?w3tc_rewrite_test=1 last;
       set $w3tc_rewrite 1;
       if ($request_method = POST) {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       if ($query_string != "") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       if ($http_host != "www.lifebit.me") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       set $w3tc_rewrite2 1;
       if ($request_uri !~ \/$) {
           set $w3tc_rewrite2 0;
       }
       if ($request_uri ~* "(sitemap(_index)?\.xml(\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_\-]+-sitemap([0-9]+)?\.xml(\.gz)?)") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite2 1;
       }
       if ($w3tc_rewrite2 != 1) {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       set $w3tc_rewrite3 1;
       if ($request_uri ~* "(\/wp-admin\/|\/xmlrpc.php|\/wp-(app|cron|login|register|mail)\.php|\/feed\/|wp-.*\.php|index\.php)") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite3 0;
       }
       if ($request_uri ~* "(wp\-comments\-popup\.php|wp\-links\-opml\.php|wp\-locations\.php)") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite3 1;
       }
       if ($w3tc_rewrite3 != 1) {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       if ($http_cookie ~* "(comment_author|wp\-postpass|wordpress_\[a\-f0\-9\]\+|wordpress_logged_in)") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       if ($http_user_agent ~* "(W3\ Total\ Cache/0\.9\.2\.4)") {
           set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       set $w3tc_ua "";
       set $w3tc_ref "";
       set $w3tc_ssl "";
       set $w3tc_enc "";
       if ($http_accept_encoding ~ gzip) {
           set $w3tc_enc _gzip;
       }
       set $w3tc_ext "";
       if (-f "$document_root/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/$request_uri/_index$w3tc_ua$w3tc_ref$w3tc_ssl.html$w3tc_enc") {
           set $w3tc_ext .html;
       }
       if ($w3tc_ext = "") {
         set $w3tc_rewrite 0;
       }
       if ($w3tc_rewrite = 1) {
           rewrite .* "/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/$request_uri/_index$w3tc_ua$w3tc_ref$w3tc_ssl$w3tc_ext$w3tc_enc" last;
       }
       # END W3TC Page Cache core
       ```
   
 * The nginx.conf above is my current active configuration, Page Cache (cache home
   page, cache request only.., don’t cache pages..), Browser Cache (set expires 
   header, set cache control header, enable http gzip, cache control policy: cache
   with validation public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate).
 * Thanks for your reply Frederick, please let me know if you need any info from
   me.
 *  [iiron](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iiron/)
 * (@iiron)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-double-cache-control/#post-2974159)
 * Hi,
 * I’m having the same issue here; W3TC is the latest (stable)…
 * Did you resolve this, NanoG5?
 * Sincerely,
 * Iiro

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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## Tags

 * [no-cache](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/no-cache/)

 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [iiron](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iiron/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-double-cache-control/#post-2974159)
 * Status: not resolved