Hi, I'd like to understand how `keepalive_timeout` works. The description in the documentation isn't very clear and I couldn't get an answer to my satisfaction on #nginx IRC.
People seem to have their own understanding of how `keepalive_timeout` works and they are very different. 1. For e.g. <https://github.com/roots/trellis/blob/master/roles/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.j2> describes the directive like this: # How long to allow each connection to stay idle; longer values are better # for each individual client, particularly for SSL, but means that worker # connections are tied up longer. (Default: 65) So according to the statement `keepalive_timeout` is to be used to tell how long a server needs to keep the connection alive AFTER serving all the requests. And this commenter seems to agree: <http://serverfault.com/q/331762#comment665957_331764> > [It's] only a timeout during which server waits for another request > up to [the limit set by] `keepalive_requests`. So it is not important > how much time it takes for the full page to load [...] BTW the max. > time connection is kept open is almost: > > keepalive_timeout * keepalive_requests 2. Then there are people understand the function of `keepalive_timeout` like so: http://stackoverflow.com/a/10202959 > HTTP Keep-Alive is a feature of HTTP protocol. The web-server, > implementing Keep-Alive Feature, has to check the connection/socket > periodically (for incoming HTTP request) for the time span since it > sent the last HTTP response (in case there was corresponding HTTP > Request). If no HTTP request is received by the time of the configured > keep-alive time (seconds) the web server closes the connection. Similar opinion from another: http://serverfault.com/a/331764 > There isn't a good one-size-fits-all answer; if most client browsers > are able to load all the resources on a page in 5 seconds then 5 > seconds is just fine [...] So according to these people the directive is to be calculated in such a way that in that given time (on an average) a web page on your site and its contents (HTML, CSS, JS, images) are completely loaded on most clients. THE QUESTION: So which one is it? (1) or (2)? Who's right? _______________________________________________ nginx mailing list nginx@nginx.org http://mailman.nginx.org/mailman/listinfo/nginx
