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VMOD_XKEY(3)		   Library Functions Manual		  VMOD_XKEY(3)

NAME
       vmod_xkey - Surrogate keys support for Varnish Cache

SYNOPSIS
	  import xkey [as name]	[from "path"]

	  INT purge(STRING keys)

	  INT softpurge(STRING keys)

DESCRIPTION
       PLEASE  NOTE  that  this	 VMOD is currently in maintenance mode and has
       known performance issues,  particularly	regarding  scalability,	 which
       will  not  be addressed in this implementation. For a more robust solu-
       tion with proven	scalability, improved syntax support, and proper soft-
       purge functionality, consider using yKey, included  in  Varnish	Enter-
       prise.

       This  vmod  adds	 secondary hashes to objects, allowing fast purging on
       all objects with	this hash key.

       You can use this	to indicate relationships, a bit like  a  "tag".  Then
       clear  out  all	object	that have this tag set.	Two good use cases are
       news sites, where one might add all the stories mentioned on a particu-
       lar page	by article ID, letting each article referenced create an  xkey
       header.

       Similarly  with an e-commerce site, where various SKUs are often	refer-
       enced on	a page.

       Hash keys are specified in the xkey response header. Multiple keys  can
       be  specified  per header line with spaces and/or commas	as separators.
       Alternatively, they can be specified in multiple	xkey response headers.

       Preferably the secondary	hash keys are set from	the  backend  applica-
       tion, but the header can	also be	set from VCL in	vcl_backend_response.

       VCL example:

	  vcl 4.0;
	  import xkey;

	  backend default { .host = "192.0.2.11"; .port	= "8080"; }

	  acl purgers {
	      "203.0.113.0"/24;
	  }

	  sub vcl_recv {
	      if (req.method ==	"PURGE") {
		  if (client.ip	!~ purgers) {
		      return (synth(403, "Forbidden"));
		  }
		  if (req.http.xkey) {
		      set req.http.n-gone = xkey.purge(req.http.xkey);
		      #	or: set	req.http.n-gone	= xkey.softpurge(req.http.xkey)

		      return (synth(200, "Invalidated "+req.http.n-gone+" objects"));
		  } else {
		      return (purge);
		  }
	      }
	  }

   Example
       On  an  e-commerce  site	 we have the backend application issue an xkey
       header for every	product	that is	referenced on that page. So the	header
       for a certain page might	look like this:

	  HTTP/1.1 OK
	  Server: Apache/2.2.15
	  xkey:	8155054
	  xkey:	166412
	  xkey:	234323

       Alternatively you may instead use a single header with space  separated
       values like xkey: 8155054 166412	234323.

       This requires a bit of VCL to be	in place. The VCL can be found above.

       Then,  in order to keep the web in sync with the	database, a trigger is
       set up in the database. When an SKU is updated  this  will  trigger  an
       HTTP request towards the	Varnish	server,	clearing out every object with
       the matching xkey header:

	  PURGE	/ HTTP/1.1
	  Host:	www.example.com
	  xkey:	166412

       Several	xkey-purge headers are also supported like in the response ex-
       ample above, and	you may	also here  use	a  single  header  with	 space
       seperated values	like xkey-purge: 166412	234323.

       Unlike xkey header for responses, purge header is fully configurable by
       means of	adjusting the name of the header in the	VCL example above.

       Note  the  xkey header. It is probably a	good idea to protect this with
       an ACL so random	people from the	Internet cannot	purge your cache.

       Varnish will find the objects and clear them out, responding with:

	  HTTP/1.1 200 Purged
	  Date:	Thu, 24	Apr 2014 17:08:28 GMT
	  X-Varnish: 1990228115
	  Via: 1.1 Varnish

       The objects are now cleared.

   INT purge(STRING keys)
       Description
	      Purges all objects hashed	on any key found in the	keys argument.
	      Returns the number of objects that were purged.

	      The keys may contain a list of space-separated ids.

   INT softpurge(STRING	keys)
       Description
	      Performs a "soft purge" for all objects hashed on	any key	 found
	      in  the  keys argument.  Returns the number of objects that were
	      purged.

	      A	softpurge differs from a regular purge in that	it  resets  an
	      object's	TTL  but  keeps	it available for grace mode and	condi-
	      tional requests for the remainder	of its	configured  grace  and
	      keep time.

   Counters
   #
	  varnish_vsc_begin:: xkey

XKEY  XKEY COUNTERS
	  Metrics from vmod_xkey

       g_keys  gauge - info
	  Number of surrogate keys

	  Number  of surrogate keys in use. Increases after a request that in-
	  cludes a new key in the xkey header. Decreases when a	key is	purged
	  or when all cache objects associated with a key expire.

       g_hashhead_bytes	 gauge - debug
	  Bytes	used by	all xkey_hashhead objects

	  Total	 bytes used by hashhead	objects. Tracks	linearly with the num-
	  ber of surrogate keys	in use.

       g_ochead_bytes  gauge - debug
	  Bytes	used by	all xkey_ochead	objects

	  Total	bytes used by ochead objects.  Increases  when	an  object  is
	  added	 to  a	key or a key is	added to an object. Decreases when the
	  relationship is removed.

       g_oc_bytes  gauge - debug
	  Bytes	used by	all xkey_oc objects

	  Total	bytes used by oc objects. Tracks linearly with the  number  of
	  cached objects that are referenced by	surrogate keys.

       g_bytes	gauge -	info
	  Bytes	used by	xkeys

	  Current  number  of  bytes used by xkeys and their references	to the
	  object cache.

								  VMOD_XKEY(3)

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