48727 - incorrect server requests for cached gzip encoded document

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core :: Networking: Cache, defect, P3)

Description

[bht237]

The browser makes unnecessary requests resulting in 304 server return codes even
if the file was first retrieved during the same session and cache preferences
are set as follows:

Edit|Preferences|Advanced|Cache|Compare...Once per session

The HTML is a plain static empty file named "test.htz", gzip encoded.

The Apache server is configured as follows:

.htaccess file in directory of test.htz:

AddType text/html .htz
AddEncoding gzip htz

The URL of the file is coded in a JavaScript window.open(). No further tests
have been made yet to check whether the fault is related to this.

Netscape 4.7 has similar errors with gziped files loaded by JavaScript,
so a comparison is not helpful here.

Anyway, it would be good if Mozilla would continue to improve the
cache performance of Netscape 4.7, which is generally very good,
on average better than Internet Explorer.

The cache is very valuable especially in cases where files are
compressed (need=mother of invention),
although a 304 return code from the server is not nearly as bad
as a reload.

Judging from own experience, top performance can only be achieved
with client<->server tuned in balance where the server logs of individual
user sessions are analysed carefully.

I have noticed that unnecessary 304's made sites appear considerably
slower on Internet Explorer than Netscape 4 even though Internet Explorer
has the faster HTML rendering performance and the connection was fast but
had a long latency time due to geographical distance, in other words real world
sites.

Comment 1

[bht237]

Closed. Cannot produce a failing test case :)
Will re-open when conditions are clear and test case is available.

Comment 2

[Tom Everingham]

verified by reporter