The regex_invalidate API doesn't work when I added cache rules in cache.config

[VanillaHeaven]

Hello.
I tried to use the regex_invalidate API in cache inspector utility to set a document invalid, but it seems doesn't work when I added the cache rule in cache.config.

Is the priority of the cache rule in cache.config the highest? How can I make the regex_invalidate API take effect while I configure the caching rules in cache.config.

The ATS version is 9.0.0, and the operating system I use is centos. The following is my test process：

I added cache rules in cache.config as follows：

dest_domain=test.source.com   scheme=http  revalidate=2d

The default expiration time is two days for the documents whose host name is test.source.com.

I initiated a request and got the response:

curl "http://test.source.com/1M/2" -x 127.0.0.1:8089 -vo /dev/null
...
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Server: ATS/9.0.0
< Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 10:26:49 GMT
< Content-Type: application/octet-stream
< Content-Length: 1048576
< Last-Modified: Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:11:12 GMT
< ETag: "60798cf0-100000"
< Accept-Ranges: bytes
< Age: 0
< Proxy-Connection: keep-alive

And I get the hit status which is hit-fresh from the log and the response header X-Cache.

curl "http://test.source.com/1M/2" -x 127.0.0.1:8089 -vo /dev/null -H "X-Debug: X-Cache"
...
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Server: ATS/9.0.0
< Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 10:53:39 GMT
< Content-Type: application/octet-stream
< Content-Length: 1048576
< Last-Modified: Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:11:12 GMT
< ETag: "60798cf0-100000"
< Accept-Ranges: bytes
< Age: 4
< Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
< X-Cache: hit-fresh
<
{ [data not shown]
100 1024k  100 1024k    0     0   169M      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  200M

According to the official documentation, I tried to use the regex_invalidate API in cache inspector utility to set the document invalid, and the result of the web page response shows that the operation has been successful.

But when I made the request again, the response result shows that the cache is still hit.

curl "http://test.source.com/1M/2" -x 127.0.0.1:8089 -vo /dev/null -H "X-Debug: X-Cache"
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Server: ATS/9.0.0
< Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 10:26:49 GMT
< Content-Type: application/octet-stream
< Content-Length: 1048576
< Last-Modified: Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:11:12 GMT
< ETag: "60798cf0-100000"
< Accept-Ranges: bytes
< Age: 172
< Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
< X-Cache: hit-fresh
<
{ [data not shown]
100 1024k  100 1024k    0     0   138M      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  166M

I checked the debug log, and it showed that the expiration time of the document is based on the caching rules configured in cache.config, so that the regex_invalidate API doesn't work.

[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransactHeaders.cc:438 (calculate_document_age)> (http_age) [calculate_document_age] age_value:              0
...
[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransact.cc:7514 (what_is_document_freshness)> (http_seq) [10] document_freshness --- current_age = 172
[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransact.cc:7515 (what_is_document_freshness)> (http_seq) [10] document_freshness --- age_limit   = 172800
[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransact.cc:7516 (what_is_document_freshness)> (http_seq) [10] document_freshness --- fresh_limit = 86400
[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransact.cc:7535 (what_is_document_freshness)> (http_match) [10] [..._document_freshness] document is fresh; returning FRESHNESS_FRESH
[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransact.cc:2557 (HandleCacheOpenReadHitFreshness)> (http_seq) [10] [HttpTransact::HandleCacheOpenReadHitFreshness] Fresh copy
[Jun 29 18:29:41.104] [ET_NET 23] DEBUG: <HttpTransact.cc:2653 (need_to_revalidate)> (http_seq) [10] [HttpTransact::HandleCacheOpenReadHit] Authentication not needed

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. Marking it stale to flag it for further consideration by the community.

[bryancall]

The behavior described here depends on the cache inspector utility's "Regex invalidate" function, which has since been removed from Apache Traffic Server. The cache inspector pages, including the regex invalidate handlers (invalidate_regex_form and invalidate_regex) and the corresponding page, were removed in #10710, with the remaining references cleaned up in #11656. Both shipped first in the 10.0.0 release, and the removal is noted in the upgrade guide (#12945). Since the feature this issue is about no longer exists in 10.0.0 and later, I am closing this as obsolete. If you need to invalidate cached objects in a current release, please use the cache.config revalidate and action directives, or open a new issue or discussion describing your invalidation use case so we can suggest a supported approach.