How to Enable expire headers in Apache

Browser caching is used to save files on end user browser cache and re use on recurring requests. It significantly improve the page load times. Apache web server provides module mod_expire. Which controls the setting of the HTTP header and for expires and max-age directive of the Cache-Control HTTP header in the server responses.

Setup Expire headers on Apache

Before using this, you must have mod expires module enabled on Apache server. On the Debian based systems (Ubuntu, Debian and Linuxmint) expires module is disabled by default. You can enable this by running the following command:

sudo a2enmod expires

After enabling modules, restart Apache server to load new settings.

Now, Add the below settings to Apache virtual host configuration file, or add this in .htaccess file under your application.

<IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType text/css A31536000 ExpiresByType text/x-component A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-javascript A31536000 ExpiresByType application/javascript A31536000 ExpiresByType text/javascript A31536000 ExpiresByType text/x-js A31536000 ExpiresByType text/html A3600 ExpiresByType text/richtext A3600 ExpiresByType text/plain A3600 ExpiresByType text/xsd A3600 ExpiresByType text/xsl A3600 ExpiresByType text/xml A3600 ExpiresByType video/asf A31536000 ExpiresByType video/avi A31536000 ExpiresByType image/bmp A31536000 ExpiresByType application/java A31536000 ExpiresByType video/divx A31536000 ExpiresByType application/msword A31536000 ExpiresByType image/gif A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-gzip A31536000 ExpiresByType image/x-icon A31536000 ExpiresByType image/jpeg A31536000 ExpiresByType image/webp A31536000 ExpiresByType application/json A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/midi A31536000 ExpiresByType video/quicktime A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/mpeg A31536000 ExpiresByType video/mp4 A31536000 ExpiresByType video/mpeg A31536000 ExpiresByType video/webm A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-font-otf A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/ogg A31536000 ExpiresByType application/pdf A31536000 ExpiresByType image/png A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/x-realaudio A31536000 ExpiresByType image/svg+xml A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-tar A31536000 ExpiresByType image/tiff A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/wav A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/wma A31536000 ExpiresByType application/font-woff A31536000 ExpiresByType application/font-woff2 A31536000 ExpiresByType application/zip A31536000 </IfModule>123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748<IfModule mod_expires.c>    ExpiresActive On    ExpiresByType text/css A31536000    ExpiresByType text/x-component A31536000    ExpiresByType application/x-javascript A31536000    ExpiresByType application/javascript A31536000    ExpiresByType text/javascript A31536000    ExpiresByType text/x-js A31536000    ExpiresByType text/html A3600    ExpiresByType text/richtext A3600    ExpiresByType text/plain A3600    ExpiresByType text/xsd A3600    ExpiresByType text/xsl A3600    ExpiresByType text/xml A3600    ExpiresByType video/asf A31536000    ExpiresByType video/avi A31536000    ExpiresByType image/bmp A31536000    ExpiresByType application/java A31536000    ExpiresByType video/divx A31536000    ExpiresByType application/msword A31536000    ExpiresByType image/gif A31536000    ExpiresByType application/x-gzip A31536000    ExpiresByType image/x-icon A31536000    ExpiresByType image/jpeg A31536000    ExpiresByType image/webp A31536000    ExpiresByType application/json A31536000    ExpiresByType audio/midi A31536000    ExpiresByType video/quicktime A31536000    ExpiresByType audio/mpeg A31536000    ExpiresByType video/mp4 A31536000    ExpiresByType video/mpeg A31536000    ExpiresByType video/webm A31536000    ExpiresByType application/x-font-otf A31536000    ExpiresByType audio/ogg A31536000    ExpiresByType application/pdf A31536000    ExpiresByType image/png A31536000    ExpiresByType audio/x-realaudio A31536000    ExpiresByType image/svg+xml A31536000    ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash A31536000    ExpiresByType application/x-tar A31536000    ExpiresByType image/tiff A31536000    ExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf A31536000    ExpiresByType audio/wav A31536000    ExpiresByType audio/wma A31536000    ExpiresByType application/font-woff A31536000    ExpiresByType application/font-woff2 A31536000    ExpiresByType application/zip A31536000</IfModule>

Making changes in .htaccess will will be effective immediately, But if you add above settings in Apache virtual host configuration file, you need to reload Apache server.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned to enable Apache modules and configure Apache HTTP headers to save files on users browser.