Question

I have a varnish 3.xx server which currently works.
Varnish is caching the login page of my site.

http://www.mysite.com/staff

but it may have different urls depending on the staff members link, for example

http://www.mysite.com/staff/index.php?/Tickets/Ticket/View/222200

My varnish config file is set as follows to exclude caching the staff page, but it is not working, as it is caching the login page and it is will not login untill i restart varnish to clear it’s cache.

sub vcl_recv {
    # Allow purge only from internal users
    if (req.request == "PURGE") {
        if (!client.ip ~ internal_net) {
            error 405 "Not allowed.";
        }
        return (lookup);

    # Exclude the following
    if (req.url ~ "^/login\.php" ||
      req.url ~ "^/search\.php" ||
      req.url ~ "^/admin(.*)" ||
      req.url ~ "^/admin(.*)" ||
      req.url ~ "^/search(.*)" ||
      req.url ~ "^/visitor(.*)" ||
      req.url ~ "^/staff(.*)" ||
      req.url ~ "^/staff\.php"
    )  {
        return(pass);

    }

    if (req.http.cookie ~ "vb(.*)" ||
        req.http.cookie ~ "bb(.*)" ||
        req.http.cookie ~ "SWIFT_(.*)" ||
        req.url ~ "\?(.*\&)?s=[a-fA-F0-9]{32}(\&|$)" ||
        req.http.cookie ~ "bb_password") {

        return(pass);
    } else {
        unset req.http.cookie;
    }
}

Do you perhaps have another method to exclude and entire directory from being cached?
IE: everything from /staff no matter what the suffix is after that must not be cached

Answer 1

The exclusion should work perfectly the way you have implemented it. However if the code you pasted is your actual VCL you have an open if() statement in the PURGE section.

    sub vcl_recv {
        # Allow purge only from internal users
        if (req.request == "PURGE") {
                if (!client.ip ~ internal_net) {
                        error 405 "Not allowed.";
                }
                return (lookup);

# Exclude the following

should read

    sub vcl_recv {
        # Allow purge only from internal users
        if (req.request == "PURGE") {
                if (!client.ip ~ internal_net) {
                        error 405 "Not allowed.";
                }
                return (lookup);
        }

# Exclude the following

Varnish should not accept invalid VCL though, so if the error does not exist in your actual VCL, please update the question with your entire VCL.