Amazon S3 and Cloudfront cache, how to clear cache or synchronize their cache

Solution 1:

Use Invalidations to clear the cache, you can put the path to the files you want to clear, or simply use wild cards to clear everything.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/Invalidation.html#invalidating-objects-api

This can also be done using the API! http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/latest/APIReference/API_CreateInvalidation.html

The AWS PHP SDK now has the methods but if you want to use something lighter check out this library: http://www.subchild.com/2010/09/17/amazon-cloudfront-php-invalidator/

user3305600's solution doesn't work as setting it to zero is the equivalent of Using the Origin Cache Headers.

Solution 2:

As to the actual code

get your CloudFront distribution id

aws cloudfront list-distributions

Invalidate all files in the distribution, so CloudFront fetches fresh ones

aws cloudfront create-invalidation --distribution-id=S11A16G5KZMEQD --paths /

My actual full release script is

#!/usr/bin/env bash

BUCKET=mysite.com
SOURCE_DIR=dist/

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=xxxxxxxxxxx
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=xxxxxxxxx
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=eu-west-1


echo "Building production"
if npm run build:prod ; then
   echo "Build Successful"
else
  echo "exiting.."
  exit 1
fi


echo "Removing all files on bucket"
aws s3 rm s3://${BUCKET} --recursive


echo "Attempting to upload site .."
echo "Command:  aws s3  sync $SOURCE_DIR s3://$BUCKET/"
aws s3  sync ${SOURCE_DIR} s3://${BUCKET}/
echo "S3 Upload complete"

echo "Invalidating cloudfrond distribution to get fresh cache"
aws cloudfront create-invalidation --distribution-id=S11A16G5KZMEQD --paths / --profile=myawsprofile

echo "Deployment complete"  

References

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/cloudfront/get-invalidation.html

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/cloudfront/create-invalidation.html

Solution 3:

Here is a manual way to invalidate the cache for all files on CloudFront via AWS

1. Open your CloudFront Distributions list, and click the desired distribution ID (circled in red in screenshot below) you want to clear it's cache.
2. Click 'Invalidations' tab (see selected tab highlighted in blue in the screenshot below).
3. Click 'Create invalidation' button (circled in red in the screenshot below)
4. Insert /* in the object paths input in order to clear cache of all files.
5. Click 'Create invalidation' button.

Solution 4:

S3 is not used for real time development but if you really want to test your freshly deployed website use

http://yourdomain.com/index.html?v=2
http://yourdomain.com/init.js?v=2

Adding a version parameter in the end will stop using the cached version of the file and the browser will get a fresh copy of the file from the server bucket