#27572 closed Cleanup/optimization (wontfix)
Static files served in development should prevent caching
Reported by: | Kevin Christopher Henry | Owned by: | nobody |
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Component: | contrib.staticfiles | Version: | 1.10 |
Severity: | Normal | Keywords: | |
Cc: | Triage Stage: | Unreviewed | |
Has patch: | no | Needs documentation: | no |
Needs tests: | no | Patch needs improvement: | no |
Easy pickings: | no | UI/UX: | no |
Description (last modified by )
Currently, when Django serves static files in development with runserver
and django.contrib.staticfiles
it doesn't provide any cache headers. In their absence, user agents are free to cache the resources however they like. That means that when the developer updates a static resource they can't predict whether or not they will see the new version or the older cached version.
Dealing with this on the user agent side isn't always easy. For example, if you're using an embedded browser in a native app you'll probably have to create a remote debugging connection to the app and use platform-specific development tools to manipulate or disable the cache.
Since caching is a performance optimization that makes development more difficult and less predictable, I think it makes sense to disable it (via the appropriate HTTP headers) for static resources served in development.
Change History (7)
comment:2 by , 8 years ago
I haven't used whitenoise
before, but based on the documentation it looks like it's already doing what I proposed above:
WHITENOISE_MAX_AGE Default: 60 if not settings.DEBUG else 0 Time (in seconds) for which browsers and proxies should cache non-versioned files.
So, yes, a switch to whitenoise
should solve this problem! I don't know how imminent that is, so I'll leave it up to you whether this is worth fixing in the meantime.
comment:3 by , 8 years ago
Resolution: | → wontfix |
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Status: | new → closed |
Great, I don't see much value in duplicating work then.
comment:4 by , 21 months ago
Description: | modified (diff) |
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For future reference here is a monkey patch that works for me in development:
from functools import wraps import django.http import django.views.static def no_cache_static(f): @wraps(f) def static(*a, **kw): response: django.http.response.HttpResponse = f(*a, **kw) response.headers["Cache-Control"] = "no-cache" return response return static django.views.static.serve = no_cache_static(django.views.static.serve)
comment:5 by , 21 months ago
Description: | modified (diff) |
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(I added the description back in since it was wiped out by the last edit.)
It looks like the idea of integrating whitenoise hasn't gone anywhere since it was last mentioned in 2017, so I'm not sure the resolution makes sense anymnore.
comment:6 by , 21 months ago
This was raised again in #32891.
Closed as wontfix with ≈: 1) We want to see the caching correctly set, and 2) "Disable caching on the client" if you don't want it. 2 there is in contrast to "Dealing with this on the user agent side isn't always easy" — but I think these latter days it pretty much is... 🤷♀️ (Either way, the wrapper around static.serve
seems pretty lightweight.)
We've been thinking about replacing our own staticfile serving code with something like whitenoise (#27572). Do you know if it has a suitable option?