Time To First Byte and proxy_buffering

[Jonathan Matthews]

On 24 October 2011 23:53, Maxim Dounin <mdounin at mdounin.ru> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 11:17:05PM +0100, Jonathan Matthews wrote:
>
>> Does "proxy_buffering on" (especially when it'll definitely buffer to
>> disk) imply that the client will *not* be sent the first part of the
>> response until nginx has received and buffered the entire response
>> from the upstream server?
>
> No.
>
>> Or does/can the upstream response buffering
>> happen in parallel with the client-side response being sent?
>
> Yes.
>
> There is a caveat though: individual buffers (see proxy_buffers
> directive) will be sent to client only once they are fully filled.
> And that's why "proxy_buffering off" exists: it allows pass all
> data without any delay even if buffer isn't yet filled, as this
> may be critical in some use cases (streaming, some server push
> cases).

Many thanks for the clarification, Maxim.

I submit that this would a useful addition to the documentation,
especially as the current (English) documentation's wording /could/
suggest the opposite, if only by inference:

http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpProxyModule#proxy_buffering: "If buffering
is switched off, then the response is synchronously transferred to
client immediately" ... perhaps implying that if switched /on/, the
response is *not* "transferred to client immediately".

Cheers,
Jonathan
-- 
Jonathan Matthews
London, UK
http://www.jpluscplusm.com/contact.html