This is something I am keen to sort out in the v2.0 mod_proxy - handling of dodgy or unreliable backend servers in a useful way. To do this though means doing some things that break HTTP/1.1, so they'll have to be special configuration options, and not the default.
Are you sure they would break http/1.1?
Doesn't this section (13.1.1) possibly cover the dodgy backend server situation?
"If a stored response is not "fresh enough" by the most restrictive freshness requirement of both the client and the origin server, in carefully considered circumstances the cache MAY still return the response with the appropriate Warning header (see section 13.1.5 and 14.46), unless such a response is prohibited (e.g., by a "no-store" cache-directive, or by a "no-cache" cache-request-directive; see section 14.9)."
I'm not saying that there shouldn't be "special configuration options" for these things, but I'm just not totally convinced that it would be breaking http/1.1
- Gabriel
