Re: LYNX-DEV Lynx is caching CGI script output. Why?

[Klaus Weide]

On Fri, 17 Oct 1997 address@hidden wrote:

> I am building an intranet app that makes extensive use of dynamic HTML 
> generated by CGI scripts.  Lynx seems to be caching the output and not
> requesting a new version when the same tag is repeatedly selected.  This
> seems to be true in spite of Pragme: no-cache and Expires: [current time].
> Netscape seems to flush cache on any URL beginning with /cgi-bin.
> 
> I am not a GUI fan, and want to make my application Lynx-friendly.  But I 
> have to be able to bypass cache here.  What am I missing?

You need to give some concrete examples, and say what version or code set
you are using.

You may want to try whether what you experience is also happening with the
development code from <URL:http://sol.slcc.edu/lynx/current/>.  There may
be differences; but from the little information you give it's impossible
to tell.

As a rule, Lynx refetches documents, except when going back in history,
which have a "Pragma: no-cache" (but not when it is misspelt as "Pragme"!)
Details may depend on several factors.

> Unrelated (I think) question.  Assume the following menu sequence:
> MENU OF CHOICES --> CHOICE1 FORM --> CHOICE1 CGI OUTPUT 
> Is there any way to display the thanks screen, and upon dismissal, pop the
> URL stack back to the original menu, as though the user had pressed [Back]
> twice?  If you have a lot of screens to work through, the URL stack can get 
> very deep.

There is no way to control the history stack from the server side in Lynx.
My personal preferece is that I *like* it that the user is in control and
and is not too exposed to what some service authors think is a good idea
to do to the user's (i.e. my) environment.  You may disagree... but it
doesn't matter anyway since nobody has implemented it AFAIK.  If/when
there is HTTP based standart for this, or maybe a Lynx script
implementation, maybe it will change..

   Klaus

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