Question on Empty GIF module

[Maxim Dounin]

Hello!

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:52:35AM +0700, Denis F. Latypoff wrote:

>Hello Rt,
>
>Thursday, April 24, 2008, 11:37:51 AM, you wrote:
>
>> Is it possible to use the empty GIF module to return the 1x1 pixel to the
>> client, BUT then to also pass the request along to an upsteam server so that
>> the query string data on the request can be processed?  
>
>> Here is the quick background on what I am trying to do...
>
>> I have a tiny web app that listens for web requests for a certain .gif file.
>> Requests hit the web app like this
>> "http://webappurl.com/dummy.gif?data1=xyz&data2=abc". 
>> My web app then immediately returns a dummy gif of its own and closes the
>> connection. Then it proceeds to do (non-web) operations in the background
>> based on the query string data. 
>
>> For performance reasons it would be FAR more efficient (at least from the
>> browser's perspective) if nginx could return the 1x1 pixel instead of my app,
>> but then still pass the request onto my app server so it can process the query
>> string data.  I guess another way of asking is whether nginx would work as I
>> would like if I used it like this:    
>
>> location / {
>>    empty_gif;
>>    proxy_pass http://my_upstream_servers;
>> }
>
>> So in the above case, would it still pass the request on to my upstream
>> servers? Or would the empty_gif statement essentially end the nginx processing
>> at that point?  
>
>> If the above would work as I hope it would, then I could even modify my app so
>> that instead of returning a gif it just closed the connection. This is because
>> empty_gif would already have satisfied the browser request, so there would be
>> no point in bothering to return a gif from my app as well because it would
>> just get dropped on the floor.  But I'm not sure if just closing the
>> connection from my app like that would then cause nginx to think the upstream
>> was down or broken and take it off line, so maybe I still have to return the
>> gif?       
>
>> Thanks in advance!
>
>
>location = /dummy.gif {
>    proxy_pass http://backend;
>}
>
>location = /empty.gif {
>    internal;
>    empty_gif;
>}
>
>in the backend app just add 'X-Accel-Redirect: /empty.gif' to the header set and
>then close connection and then "proceed to do (non-web) operations in the
>background based on the query string data."

IMHO, post_action will be much better here. Something like:

location / {
     empty_gif;
     post_action /post;
}

location = /post {
     internal;
     proxy_pass http://my_upstream_servers;
}

Maxim Dounin