First Request is never cached

[thampe]

Hi,

every new request without a frontend cookie can be not cached.

Relevant snippet from version-3.vcl:

# no frontend cookie was sent to us AND this is not an ESI or AJAX call
if (req.http.Cookie !~ "frontend=" && !req.http.X-Varnish-Esi-Method) {
    if (client.ip ~ crawler_acl ||
            req.http.User-Agent ~ "^(?:{{crawler_user_agent_regex}})$") {
        # it's a crawler, give it a fake cookie
        set req.http.Cookie = "frontend=crawler-session";
    } else {
        # it's a real user, make up a new session for them
        {{generate_session}}# call generate_session;
        return (pipe);
    }
}

Since the last two versions (0.6.5 and 0.6.6) when no frontend-cookie is present the request goes straight to the backend server (return (pipe)). This a bit of a problem for our shop, since most first requests go to a page where a vaild form_key and CSFR protection is not really necessary, but a fast page load is.

As always thanks for your help.

[csdougliss]

@thampe Was going to look into this. I've noticed a jump in first page load time too

[addison74]

I confirm this issue. Even the cache is warmed by other visitors, always the first time page visit takes a lot of time to load.

[csdougliss]

I think this is because return pipe should only be the case if session generation is turned off in varnish

[csdougliss]

#959

[miguelbalparda]

Have you seen #924 @thampe @craigcarnell @addison74?

[thampe]

Yes I have seen the issue, I think @craigcarnell solution (#959) is smarter and fits better for certain setups. Most pages have a seo-freindly url and can not be matched reliably with a reg-ex.

[miguelbalparda]

Merged into devel, feel free to try this and please let us know if you find any issues.