Why won't my web browser reflect changes I made on the server?

Question

This is as simple as it gets. My school provides us with a personal storage that can be used for a webpage. Its the standard http://www.example.com/~studentname type deal. Previously, I would make changes to an index.html file and upload in using the 'Secure File Transfer Client' to my public_html folder. I'd hit refresh, and bingo.

I used ssh to login remotely edited the .html file with pico, and saved it. if I do a cat on the file after closing it, it's still there. But my neither firefox nor google chrome reflect the recent changes. I've even deleted my cache to no avail.

Answer 1

So my school moved to a new web environment, and was no longer using the public_html directory to serve student and faculty webpages.

Answer 2

I've definitely run into cases where even after refreshing my browser cache and any other cache I had control over there was still an external proxy or server-side cache that couldn't be forcibly refreshed. In that case renaming the file should at least get you a current version. If that fixes it, that's the problem.

The only other time I've had this problem was in a situation where files were checked out from their editable location to their final served location via a post-commit hook, and that script broke. But that's pretty much definitely not the case for you. I'm just throwing it out there as another bizarre scenario that I know I wouldn't have thought of if it hadn't happened.

Answer 3

perhaps you are behind a proxy, which is still serving you the cached version?

how long ago did you edit your pages?

Answer 4

Is there http proxy between you and the host where your html files are served from ?

Sometimes also using "force refresh" helps, eg, not just pressing the refresh button. Check the section "Instructions for various browsers" in this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bypass_your_cache

Answer 5

Try to view the page from another computer, just to make sure.

I don't know the infrastructure implemented in your school, but if they have a clustered environment, for instance, maybe you're changing the file in one server and what you're getting in your browser is published in another server.

Answer 6

To deal with cache problems I add version number to file:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="game.css?5">

Every update I just increase number after ?. I won't help directly in your problem, but you can make your index.html always redirecting you to index2.html?random to be sure no cache is used. Also you my want to check no-cache meta tags: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/reference/article.php/3472881

Answer 7

Try renaming the file to index.xxx or something in order to make sure it's the page that's being served. If it's not a cache problem, it's maybe the wrong file that you're modifying Edit: noticed your latest comments. It means the files are not served from your local folder, but from somewhere else ( and that place is not automatically updated when you save your files) or ... maybe there's a configuration problem ( server looking in a different folder)