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The 60 second strong Last-Modified window #510

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@mnot-fastly

7.9.2.2. Comparison:

A Last-Modified time, when used as a validator in a request, is implicitly weak unless it is possible to deduce that it is strong, using the following rules:

...

  • The validator is about to be used by a client in an If-Modified-Since, If-Unmodified-Since, or If-Range header field, because the client has a cache entry for the associated representation, and
  • That cache entry includes a Date value, which gives the time when the origin server sent the original response, and
  • The presented Last-Modified time is at least 60 seconds before the Date value.

I'm hearing that this 60-second window is problematic for videos, where clients often request a partial video segment within a minute of it being published (thanks to e.g., CMAF). Since those requests use If-Range, they require a strong validator.

Should we revisit this, given that it is an arbitrarily chosen value by our own admission? I agree that some caution is necessary here, but a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't seem viable.

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