GitHub is aggressively caching raw.github, breaking many use cases

Feb 8, 2023

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23 answers
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Hi,

I updated some files in my repository, and I need to get this updated data with the raw option.

But the data there still shows the old data, even few hours later.

What can be the reason for that?

How can I force it to be updated according the repo files?

Thanks for your question @burekasKodi

I want to avoid repeating a step you’ve already tried. Before I proceed, please share the steps you’ve taken thus far.

1 reply

Thanks for sharing more information @burekasKodi.

I wonder if the old data is still due to caching issues.

Can you use a unique query parameter to bypass the cache? As an example: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/burekasKodi/repository.burekasKodi/main/addons.xml?v=1

By bypassing the cache, the client will be forced to retrieve the new version rather than the cached version.

Please let me know what your thoughts are.

4 replies

@2MuchC0ff33

Still the same.

I don’t think that this time it is a cache issue since I have already tried with different browsers etc.

@2MuchC0ff33

Update:

I have just checked this from another laptop I have and there it’s ok. But on my other laptop and mobile (with different browsers) I’m still getting the old data.

Unfortunately, I have the same thing, but if you use vipien, everything is kind of normal(

0 replies

I’m having the same issue with this file:

https://github.com/grantwinney/hide-comments-everywhere/blob/master/sites/version.json

I’ve updated it several times, going back and forth between a couple values.

The “raw” version of the file remains unchanged after 14 hours. I’ve checked on two separate devices, tried ctrl+shift+r to bypass any local cache, loaded the page in an incognito window, etc.

What’s weirder is that the other json file I updated in the first commit is showing an updated raw file. It’s just this one that won’t change.

0 replies

Also happening with one (at least) of my repos.

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Mine finally updated about an hour ago. I haven’t made any more changes to it though, to see if subsequent changes show up after a few minutes as they normally do.

Edit: I made changes to the same files this evening, and after an hour only one of them has updated.

0 replies

4 replies

I have the same problem. The raw.githubusercontent.com links show content from 48 hours ago. I reported a bug about 34 hours ago. However, the ticket for it is probably not visible to everyone. There are no results yet.

Any response from github to that ticket?

Quite annoying, if anything, there seems to be a RAW cache update only every 24 hours in some regions.

Any response from github to that ticket?

For me, the Github “Cache” problems seem to be fixed.

0 replies

@hagezi @2MuchC0ff33

Yes, it does seems like it works again, but I don’t know for sure if it was because I pushed a new commit to the repo or not.

2 replies

I am glad it is working again for you @burekasKodi

I am facing the same issue now. Raw is pointing to older version.

How to fix it

We hit the same issue

it looks was pause in invalidation caches inside some of CDN regions

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For me, the Github “Cache” problem is back …

2 replies

I am facing the same issue now. Raw is pointing to older version.

This is first time I am using raw file link for my project. The client code downloads config file stored with this raw link. This is really frustrating to wait for fix of the issue.

Same Issue here, The problem start from 7 FEB 2023

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This varies from repositories the default of “Cache-Control” is “max-age=300” repositories with a delay of up to 24h show 86400=24 hours, I don’t know if this was a change in Github policy or if it is really a bug in the server.

2 replies

debug options/network/Refresh the page and click on the request/headers/response headers/cache-control

I am facing the same issue now. Raw is pointing to older version.

How to fix it

0 replies

It’s just a matter of time, just wait to the cache re updates the data

3 replies

Not really, some times it take 15 plus hours and in my case the updates are time sensitive and need to be done on time.

Not really, some times it take 15 plus hours and in my case the updates are time sensitive and need to be done on time.

Then you should consider redistributing your assets on an external VPS and not relying on githubs content delivery network.

I sure should have, painful but now i know

Help!!!!

Anyone report this issue to GitHub admin?

Now the cache max age become 86400 (24hours)

I think is a bug not policy, because the date and expire is still 5min difference and 24hours is not logic.

0 replies

I used a VPN to change my IP to a different country. This way sometimes it work sometimes it does not. Even when you find a country that works the next time it may not work.

the raw file link also show different data version depending on the IP address.

for example a Canadian ip may show old data but an Indian ip will show the new data.

4 replies

I tested it as well and I can confirm that the raw file is IP dependant, but for some reasons I still get the old version when reading it through a script, even if I’m using a “working” IP address.

For me, it is enough to change the DNS. NextDNS delivers an old RAW version, Umbrella delivers the current version via the RAW link. It probably has to do with which server you land on. The RAW cache seems to have a different status on the servers.

Can you describe how to change the DNS!

@umwrya16 You can simply change the DNS of the system you are retrieving from. However, it varies even then, had a few times the current version, later again the old version. It seems to be related to which server you end up on after resolving raw.githubusercontent.com.

I have problems with the raw files as well. As far as I know it should take exactly 5 minutes to cache them, but why is it taking so long recently? Is it a Github issue or what?

EDIT

After the first push the RAW file has been updated immediately (even before than 5 minutes); however after the 2nd push the cache-control has changed to 86400 (24 hours). I hope it’s not a policy change…

0 replies

I have the same issue with a gist, cache-control is 24 hours instead of 5 minutes.

0 replies

Raw gist files have always been cached hard, but a workaround is to add ? and a random number to the end of the query.

I have used this to allow me to auto update computer craft scripts.

"/raw/?" .. tostring(math.random(0, 9999999)) (lua) is all i needed to do to work around the harsh cache limits.

Example:

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Vam-Jam/e3da791dd81637dbc2b52e0034e358b7/raw Cached

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Vam-Jam/e3da791dd81637dbc2b52e0034e358b7/raw?12367 Uncached unless you get the same random number twice

1 reply

👋 Hi folks, GitHub engineer here. This was a bug with our caching in some cases – sorry about this! We’re working on resolving this and the cache should be back to normal soon.

3 replies

@antn Thank you very much for the feedback.

as someone who’s dealt with similar problems…I totally understand

This should be fixed now, thank you for reporting it. I’ve purged the cache so your raw files should be back to using max-age=300. Please let me know if you’re still seeing a longer expiry, and I can take a look.

3 replies