What requests do browsers' "F5" and "Ctrl + F5" refreshes generate?
Is there a standard for what actions F5 and Ctrl+F5 trigger in web browsers?
I once did experiment in IE6 and Firefox 2.x. The F5 refresh would trigger a HTTP request sent to the server with an If-Modified-Since header, while Ctrl+F5 would not have such a header. In my understanding, F5 will try to utilize cached content as much as possible, while Ctrl+F5 is intended to abandon all cached content and just retrieve all content from the servers again.
But today, I noticed that in some of the latest browsers (Chrome, IE8) it doesn't work in this way anymore. Both F5 and Ctrl+F5 send the If-Modified-Since header.
So how is this supposed to work, or (if there is no standard) how do the major browsers differ in how they implement these refresh features?
Solution 1:
It is up to the browser but they behave in similar ways.
F5 usually updates the page only if it is modified. Modern browsers sends Cache-Control: max-age=0 to tell any cache the maximum amount of time a resource is considered fresh, relative to the time of the request.
CTRL-F5 is used to force an update, disregarding any cache. Modern browsers sends Cache-Control: no-cache and Pragma: No-cache
If I remember correctly it was Netscape which was the first browser to add support for cache-control by adding Pragma: No-cache when you pressed CTRL-F5.
┌───────────┬──────────────┬─────┬─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ Version 4 │ F5 │ R │ CLICK │ Legend: │
│2021 MAY 19├──┬──┬──┬──┬──┼──┬──┼──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┤ C = Cache-Control: no-cache │
│ │ │S │C │A │A │C │C │ │S │C │A │A │C │ I = If-Modified-Since │
│ │ │H │T │L │L │T │T │ │H │T │L │L │T │ M = Cache-Control: max-age=0 │
│ │ │I │R │T │T │R │R │ │I │R │T │T │R │ N = Not tested │
│ │ │F │L │ │G │L │L │ │F │L │ │G │L │ P = Pragma: No-cache │
│ │ │T │ │ │R │ │+ │ │T │ │ │R │+ │ - = ignored │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │S │ │ │ │ │ │S │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │H │ │ │ │ │ │H │ With 'CLICK' I refer to a │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │I │ │ │ │ │ │I │ mouse click on the browsers │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │F │ │ │ │ │ │F │ refresh-icon. │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │T │ │ │ │ │ │T │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1: Version 3.0.6 sends I │
├───────────┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ and C, but 3.1.6 opens │
│Brave 1.24 │M │CP│CP│- │- │M │CP│M │CP│CP│M │CP│CP│ the page in a new tab, │
├───────────┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ making a normal request │
│Chrome 1 │MI│MI│MI│- │- │MI│- │MI│MI│MI│MI│MI│N │ with only I. │
│Chrome 6 │MI│CP│CP│- │- │MI│CP│MI│CP│CP│MI│- │N │ 2: Version 10.62 does │
│Chrome 90 │M │CP│CP│- │- │M │CP│M │CP│CP│M │CP│CP│ nothing. 9.61 might do C │
├───────────┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ unless it was a typo in │
│Edge 90 │M │CP│CP│- │- │M │CP│M │CP│CP│M │CP│CP│ my old table. │
├───────────┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ 3: Opens the currernt tab in │
│Firefox 3.x│MI│- │CP│- │- │MI│CP│MI│CP│1 │M │MI│N │ a new tab, but does not │
│Firefox 89 │M │- │CP│- │M │M │CP│M │CP│3 │M │M │3 │ refresh the page if it is │
├───────────┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ cached in the browser. │
│MSIE 8, 7 │I │- │C │- │I │I │ │I │I │C │I │I │N │ │
├───────────┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ │
│Opera 10, 9│C │- │- │2 │- │C │- │C │C │C │C │- │N │ │
│Opera 76 │M │CP│CP│- │- │M │- │M │CP│CP│M │CP│CP│ │
├───────────┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──────────────────────────────┤
│ https://stackoverflow.com/a/385491/36866 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Note about Chrome 6.0.472: If you do a forced reload (like CTRL-F5) it behaves like the url is internally marked to always do a forced reload. The flag is cleared if you go to the address bar and press enter.
Solution 2:
Generally speaking:
F5 may give you the same page even if the content is changed, because it may load the page from cache. But Ctrl+F5 forces a cache refresh, and will guarantee that if the content is changed, you will get the new content.