[HTTPCLIENT-1920] Cached HEAD requests without response body

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 4.4.1, 4.5
• Fix Version/s: 5.4-alpha1
• Component/s: HttpClient (classic)
• Labels: pull-request-available
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/httpcomponents-client/pull/101
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Tobias Gesellchen
• Created: 29/Apr/18 13:11
• Updated: 21/Aug/23 08:54
• Resolved: 27/Apr/23 17:36

Description

Since httpclient-cache 4.4 HEAD requests can be cached with a null response body. Subsequent GET requests to the same target then use the headers "If-None-Match" and "If-Modified-Since" to leverage caching via HTTP protocol. In that case a server can respond with status code 304 and an empty response body, which leads to an invalid cache entry.

The GitHub PR #101 proposes a fix, which I have tested locally. The PR is based on httpclient-cache 4.5, but should easily be backported to 4.4. I haven't looked into the upcoming 5.x sources, yet.

 

Issue Links

• is duplicated by: HTTPCLIENT-2229 Http cache key is not unique across http methods.
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #101