What are caching headers in Nginx and how do I configure them?

What are caching headers in Nginx and how do I configure them?

Caching headers in Nginx control how browsers and proxies cache your content. You can configure them using the add_header directive.

Can you give me an example of how to set caching headers for static files?

Sure! You can add the following lines in your server block:

location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|css|js)$ {
    expires 30d;
    add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=2592000";
}

What does the expires directive do?

The expires directive sets the expiration time for cached content. In the example, it tells the browser to cache the files for 30 days.

How can I check if my caching headers are working?

You can use browser developer tools or tools like curl to inspect the response headers and verify the caching settings.