I see unusual amount of 408 errors from access log

[Maxim Dounin]

Hello!

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 08:21:47AM -0400, xiaowl wrote:

> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:01:20 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:10:57 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:16:55 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:18:31 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:21:54 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:25:57 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:33:43 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:36:02 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:36:21 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:49:05 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [10/Jun/2013:09:55:31 +0000]
> "-" 408 0 "-" "-"
> 
> As you can see, the log doesn't contain any information about request, like
> request method and request uri. A normal access log should like this:
> 
> /var/log/nginx/nost_access.log.1:x.x.x.x - - [09/Jun/2013:22:49:58 +0000]
> "POST /some/resource/3984/upload/ HTTP/1.1" 408 0 "-"
> "APIClient-Android-16#v0.8.6"
> 
> My question is, why some access log entries have no request method/uri? I
> guess the 408 occurs in a early phase when the request entry is not
> processed yet. Since I'm enable HTTPS, is that can be a reason about this
> error?
> 
> My Nginx version is 1.2.1.

These are https connections without anything sent (closed due to 
timeout).  In 1.3.15+, such connections are no longer result in 
access_log entries.

-- 
Maxim Dounin
http://nginx.org/en/donation.html