I'm a relative novice with Apache, Linux, and virtualization in general, but I should be able to keep pace with any suggestions anyone might have.
Running Apache2 on Ubuntu Desktop 9.04 in VirtualBox 3.04 on XP sp3. The htdocs folder for Apache2 is at /var/www, at which is mounted the VirtualBox shared folder (on a NTFS volume) containing the website's files. All editing takes place on the XP host, usually via Notepad++.
My issue is as follows:
Apache2 will not serve updated versions of CSS files. Behavior is normal for changes to PHP and HTML files, with immediate availability of changes.
One solution I have found is to unmount and remount the VirtualBox shared folder, but this is a pain to do every time I update a CSS layout I'm working on.
Recent updates within Ubuntu may have broken my fragile chain, but I can't say for sure.
Commit Log for Tue Aug 25 11:27:44 2009
Upgraded the following packages:
libapache2-mod-php5 (5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.1) to 5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.2
libvorbis0a (1.2.0.dfsg-3.1) to 1.2.0.dfsg-3.1ubuntu0.9.04
libvorbisenc2 (1.2.0.dfsg-3.1) to 1.2.0.dfsg-3.1ubuntu0.9.04
libvorbisfile3 (1.2.0.dfsg-3.1) to 1.2.0.dfsg-3.1ubuntu0.9.04
php5 (5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.1) to 5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.2
php5-common (5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.1) to 5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.2
php5-gd (5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.1) to 5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.2
php5-mysql (5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.1) to 5.2.6.dfsg.1-3ubuntu4.2
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
As an additional note to arober11's suggestions, the Firebug add-on for Firefox will show you how the request for the CSS file is made. On the "Net" tab, if the CSS is rendered from local cache, you'll see a response of "304 Not Modified" instead of "200 OK". If that's the case, clearing local cache will force your browser to collect a new copy.
That's the weird thing about all of this - I thought it was a cache issue at first, but opening this site for the first time in a new browser pulls the old css.
Ctrl+F5 doesn't work - Firebug shows 200 OK after code is modified, with 304 Not Modified thereafter, but the changes are not reflected in the page.
This issue is affecting every site I'm hosting (using name-based virtual hosting in Apache2), but none of them are mission critical or anything, so for right now it's just an annoyance.
Seems to be any CSS file - my sites are pretty small, so I usually keep CSS files in the root of the site's directory. This is happening to all of my sites.
I just reinstalled everything Apache2 related that was listed in Synaptic -
apache2.2-common
apache2
libapache2-mod-php5
libapr1
libaprutil1
apache2-mpm-prefork
apache2-utils
libapache2-mod-auth-mysql
wwwconfig-common
libssl0.9.8
librpc-xml-perl
javascript-common
Upon restarting the virtual machine, I pulled up the site in question. The first time I edited the file, I got the correct/normal/expected behavior - the browser reflected the changes. After another edit, no change. Tried another of my sites - worked on the first edit of the CSS, fails on subsequent edits.
Well, I seem to have narrowed it down to not being a problem with Apache2, at least not in the way it serves files. I copied the site's files into the virtual machine's environment and pointed Apache to the new, native directory, and everything works the way it ought to. I think therefore it is probably an issue with the way VirtualBox shares its shared folders with its virtual machines. I'll keep plugging at it - I would rather keep my htdocs on my host's NTFS volume if at all possible.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: arober11Posted on 2009-08-26 at 14:39:49ID: 25192547
Have you checked that it's not your local browser cache. do a <CTRL>+<F5> to force a reload of the page. If you get a revised CSS it's a caching issue.
If it's a caching issue enable Etag's in your httpd.conf, and restart Apache e.g.
<Directory />
FileETag MTime Size
...
</Directory>
Etags are a good idea on frequently updated objects, as they will override cache values, basically if the file size + time has changes the browser will force a re-load, even if the object hasn't expired.
If you use Firefox download the Firebug and Yslow plug-ins, will show any Expire / Etag values, an if the component has come from a Cache or the server. Browse a page, click the Yslow Icon, bottom right, click Components., the see what Cache / Etag values the page has.
Also worth getting the users to check their Browsers e.g. IE : Tools -> Internet Options-> Browser History: <Settings>, and make sure the "Check for newer versions of Stored pages" is set to everytime.