Thank you everyone for your thoughts and help. :-)
Geoffrey Young wrote: > $r->no_cache(1) ... That's the kind of answer I was hoping for. RTFM "perldoc Apache" looks encouraging. Implement it (see CVS diff below). Nope -- IE still displays the same image every time. :-( Let's do some trouble shooting with wget, to see if we can isolate it to the server or the client: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ wget http://192.168.254.3/random/picture --16:13:43-- http://192.168.254.3/random/picture => `picture' Connecting to 192.168.254.3:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 26,720 [image/jpeg] 100%[====================================>] 26,720 --.--K/s 16:13:43 (6.37 MB/s) - `picture' saved [26720/26720] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ wget http://192.168.254.3/random/picture --16:14:20-- http://192.168.254.3/random/picture => `picture.1' Connecting to 192.168.254.3:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 20,831 [image/jpeg] 100%[====================================>] 20,831 --.--K/s 16:14:21 (6.62 MB/s) - `picture.1' saved [20831/20831] Looking at the Apache log on the server: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# tail -n 15 /var/log/apache-perl/error.log | grep redirect [Fri Jul 1 16:13:16 2005] [error] Apache::RandomPicture::handler (/home/dpchrist/eagle-book/lib/perl/Apache/RandomPicture.pm 117): redirecting to '/images/2075_2.jpg' [Fri Jul 1 16:13:53 2005] [error] Apache::RandomPicture::handler (/home/dpchrist/eagle-book/lib/perl/Apache/RandomPicture.pm 117): redirecting to '/images/2075_4.jpg' Apache should have sent 2075_2.jpg and 2075_4.jpg. Check their sizes: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# ll /home/dpchrist/eagle-book/images/2075_[24]* -rw-r--r-- 1 dpchrist dpchrist 26720 Jun 3 2003 /home/dpchrist/eagle-book/ima ges/2075_2.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 dpchrist dpchrist 20831 Jun 3 2003 /home/dpchrist/eagle-book/ima ges/2075_4.jpg Sent files have identical sizes as disk files Apache said it sent. Do some more digging -- use wget's -s (save-headers) option to see the headers: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ wget -s http://192.168.254.3/random/picture --16:37:21-- http://192.168.254.3/random/picture => `picture.2' Connecting to 192.168.254.3:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 20,831 [image/jpeg] 100%[====================================>] 20,831 --.--K/s 16:37:21 (9.93 MB/s) - `picture.2' saved [20831/20831] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ head -n 12 picture.2 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 23:36:53 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Debian GNU/Linux) mod_perl/1.29 Last-Modified: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 06:53:10 GMT ETag: "1064b-515f-3edd9756;42c4b3fd" Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 20831 Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100 Connection: Keep-Alive Content-Type: image/jpeg Expires: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 23:36:53 GMT The "Expires" field seems to be set to the time the document was fetched (matches the "Date" field). Try again: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ wget -s -nv http://192.168.254.3/random/picture 16:41:15 URL:http://192.168.254.3/random/picture [20831/20831] -> "picture.3" [1] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ head -n 12 picture.3 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 23:40:47 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Debian GNU/Linux) mod_perl/1.29 Last-Modified: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 06:53:10 GMT ETag: "1064b-515f-3edd9756;42c4b3fd" Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 20831 Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100 Connection: Keep-Alive Content-Type: image/jpeg Expires: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 23:40:47 GMT Apache is setting the "Expires" header to the current time each time. Is IE ignoring it, or does not understand GMT (?). Add ".jpg" extensions to the first two files and look at them -- yes, they're 2075_2.jpg and 2075_4.jpg. Double-check IE settings via Tools -> Internet Options: 1. Security -> Medium. 2. Privacy -> Medium. 3. Advanced -> Restore Defaults. Shut down client computer. Gracefully restart server. Boot client. Try again. Same problem. Fetch /random/picture a couple of times (same image). Gracefully restart server. Try again. Same problem. Put the subr->run() implementation back in place. Gracefully restart server. Try again. Now it works. I think I've given this dead horse a thorough beating -- I think IE 6.0 is the problem. The Apache work-around would seem to be $subr->run(). David -- <CVSENV>[EMAIL PROTECTED]:~/eagle-book/lib/perl/Apache$ cvs -q diff -r 1.3 RandomPicture.pm Index: RandomPicture.pm =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/dpchrist/eagle-book/lib/perl/Apache/RandomPicture.pm,v retrieving revision 1.3 retrieving revision 1.5 diff -r1.3 -r1.5 2c2 < # $Id: RandomPicture.pm,v 1.3 2005/06/30 03:52:18 dpchrist Exp $ --- > # $Id: RandomPicture.pm,v 1.5 2005/07/01 23:03:27 dpchrist Exp $ 114a115,118 > $r->no_cache(1); > $r->log_error(sprintf("%s (%s %s): ", > (caller(0))[3], __FILE__, __LINE__), > "redirecting to '$lucky_one'");
