htaccess / mod_expires - caching specific files

Question

Ok, I checked a lot of websites about how to manage the browser's cache memory with a .htaccess file, but it is still very not clear to me.

I want to cache specific files for one month. For the rest, I want it to be refreshed every time. So I tried:

<IfModule mod_headers.c> 
    Header unset Cookie
    Header unset Set-Cookie
    Header unset Cache-Control
    Header unset ETag
    FileETag none 
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_expires.c>  
    ExpiresActive On
    ExpiresDefault "now"
    <Files "/css/jquery-ui.css">
      ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
    </Files>
    <Files "/js/jquery-1.10.2.min.js">
      ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
    </Files>
    <Files "/js/jquery-ui.js">
      ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
    </Files>
    <Files "/js/analytics.js">
      ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
    </Files>
    <Files "/matheos/img/*">
      ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
    </Files>
    <Files "/img/*">
      ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"
    </Files>
</IfModule>

But it doesn't work exactly as expected...

The HTML is correctly not cached, but the specific files like jquery-ui.css, which should be cached for 1 month, are also not cached.

Anyway, does this .htaccess seem ok for you ?

Rene

Answer 1

Ok, got it ! To target a specific file, the correct syntax is :

# to not cache css except jquery-ui.css
ExpiresByType text/css "now"
<FilesMatch "jquery-ui\\.css$">
    ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
</FilesMatch>

This is the only way that worked for me, at least in the case of an ovh shared host. I also tried all possible combinations with ExpiresDefault but it didn't work...

Rene

Why add two backslashes in the middle of the css file's path? Is that an escape character unique to htaccess files? – Passerine

Yes, because the dot is a special character in regex – Rene

you don't need the double escape httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/core.html#filesmatch – Roughage