[squid-users] Clearing the Squid cache or disabling caching during certain periods

We're using Squid as a Web accelerator and need to clear the cache every
morning (the store goes into maintenance mode at 4 a.m. and all pages
have a message saying so; we don't want those pages cached).

Based on FAQ 7.3 (http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/FAQ/FAQ-7.html#ss7.3),
I wrote this script to clear my Squid cache:

/usr/local/squid2/sbin/squid -k shutdown
echo "" > /cache/swap.state
/etc/init.d/squid start

This works but it sometimes has problems. Most of the times I've run it,
it works great. However, sometimes when I run it, it says there are no
running instances of Squid, and then subsequently Squid doesn't start
up. Any ideas on why this might be? I have been running the script a
few times in a row, which might be part of the problem ... could it just
be that I'm not giving it enough time before running it again, or could
something else be at work?

Also, does anyone have suggestions on causing a certain set of URLs to
not be cached during a certain time of night? My idea right now is to
have two squid.conf files -- one that includes the URLs affected by
maintenance mode and one that doesn't include them -- and setting up
cron jobs to switch between config files before and after the
maintenance period.

Thanks!

Jen
Received on Mon Feb 07 2005 - 15:31:34 MST