Introduction to fastcgi_no_cache in Nginx
These days, one of the very nice features of the Nginx web server, which relies on the ngx_http_fastcgi_module, helps us in processing FastCGI requests. One of the important configurations of this module is fastcgi_no_cache. By using this directive, you can specify whether the results of FastCGI requests should be cached or not.
Perhaps you're wondering why you should use caching? Well, a fast website depends on response time to requests and using cache can reduce this response time. However, always caching results is not accurate, especially when we have dynamic content that can vary for each user.
For example, consider a news website that is updated every minute. If caching the page content, users who want to see the latest news might find older information. This is where fastcgi_no_cache comes into play, allowing you to set specific conditions under which results should not be cached.
Now, let's take a closer look at how to use fastcgi_no_cache and learn how we can implement this feature into Nginx configurations.
How to use fastcgi_no_cache
location ~ \.php$ {
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_no_cache $arg_nocache; // here we specify not to cache
fastcgi_cache_bypass $arg_nocache; // allows bypass caching
}Line-by-line explanation of the code
location ~ \.php$
This line specifies that all PHP files should be processed under this block.
include fastcgi_params;
This imports FastCGI parameters so Nginx can communicate with FastCGI.
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
This points to the FastCGI server, which here is localhost on port 9000.
fastcgi_index index.php;
We set the default file to index.php.
fastcgi_no_cache $arg_nocache;
We check the value of the variable $arg_nocache to decide whether to cache or not.
fastcgi_cache_bypass $arg_nocache;
This allows bypass caching if the user sends this variable, thus refreshing the data without caching.