node http-server not serving updated html files

Question

I am building out a front-end web app with angular (mostly ui-router) and doing local development by serving the html files through node http-server. I have noticed that http-server isn't serving my static html files when I make updates, which is challenging to my local development.

I have http-server installed globally with npm install http-server -g and start it up by going to the root project folder and running http-server. It defaults to localhost:8080- the two ways that seem to work is changing the port number after each update or going through chrome incognito mode.

Is there a way to use http-server normally without having to change the port or using incognito mode?

If it is relevant, I am using MBP v. 10.11.3

Thank you!

Leffen

Answer 1

the two ways that seem to work is changing the port number after each update or going through chrome incognito mode.

Your problem is client-side caching. Incognito mode has its own data directory, independent from your normal browsing.

Fortunately, http-server provides a way for you to set the cache control headers.

-c Set cache time (in seconds) for cache-control max-age header, e.g. -c10 for 10 seconds (defaults to '3600'). To disable caching, use -c-1 (and possibly -p 8080 to force the server to clear the cache for that port; can be removed on subsequent runs).

It's listed in the documentation here: https://github.com/indexzero/http-server

You can read up on HTTP caching directives here: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/http-caching?hl=en

Bargainbasement

It's not a client-side problem. Disabling cache or "factory restart" doesn't help. Only server restart. Also, HTML tags specify to cancel caching and it also does nothing. – Unaffected

@Slav HTML tags of course will not cancel out caching... wrong layer. If using Incognito Mode resolves the issue, the problem is absolutely client-side, as my answer explains. You're probably having a different issue than the original question. Also note that cache control directives in response headers also affect server-side caches (for well-behaved proxies). You might also consider disabling sendfile on your HTTP proxy if you're using one. Nginx for example uses sendfile and it can cause a lot of issues on VMs. – Bargainbasement

probably different issues, yes. Seems like I also face the bug described here: github.com/indexzero/http-server/issues/149 Incognito mode doesn't help. – Unaffected

Good find @Slav . To fix this, http-server should be started with -c-1 and -p X where X is the port. This will ensure that the server wipes the cache for the associated port. The -p argument can be removed on subsequent starts of the server. – Curst

-c-1 works BUT if you previously started the server without -c-1 then the change will NOT kick in until the previous cache expires (which by default is 3600 secs AKA 1 hour) ... so you have to wait 1 hour until the change takes effect!!! if you open the browser developer tools and then do a HARD RELOAD the change should take effect right away – Marquee

Seems like a combo of @danday74's comment, this answer itself and clearing the chrome cache did it for me! – Saury

Answer 2

Try opening developer tools and checking "disable cache" checkbock in Network tab in Chrome.

Euphoria

Works for me, but the option is reset when restarting the browser :( . Would have been nice if they would have remembered it per URL. – Curst