​Purge cache by prefix (URL)

Enterprise customers can purge their cache by URL prefix or path separators in their URL. For an example URL like https://www.example.com/foo/bar/baz/qux.jpg, valid purge requests include:

• www.example.com
• www.example.com/foo
• www.example.com/foo/bar
• www.example.com/foo/bar/baz
• www.example.com/foo/bar/baz/qux.jpg

Purging by prefix is useful in different scenarios, such as:

• Purging everything within a directory.
• Increasing control over cached objects in a path.
• Simplifying the number of purge calls sent.

1. Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard ↗, and select your account and domain.
2. Select Caching > Configuration.
3. Under Purge Cache, select Custom Purge. The Custom Purge window appears.
4. Under Purge by, select Prefix.
5. Follow the syntax instructions.
   • One prefix per line.
   • Maximum 30 prefixes per API call.
6. Enter the appropriate value(s) in the text field using the format shown in the example.
7. Select Purge.

API

You can purge prefixes via the Cloudflare API. For more information, refer to the API documentation. You can use up to 30 prefixes per API call and make up to 30,000 purge API calls in a 24-hour period.

Warning

If you have a Transform Rule in place that is modifying part of a URL path, you must use the post-transformed (origin) URL when performing a prefix purge so that purge can take effect.

Resulting cache status

Purging by prefix deletes the resource, causing CF-Cache-Status header to show MISS for the subsequent request.

If tiered cache is used, purging by prefix may return EXPIRED, as the lower tier tries to revalidate with the upper tier to reduce load on the latter. Depending on whether the upper tier has the resource or not, and whether the end user is reaching the lower tier or the upper tier, EXPIRED or MISS are returned.

Limitations

There are several limitations regarding purge by prefix:

• Path separators are limited to 31 for a prefix (example.com/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/i/j/k/l/m…).
• Purge requests are limited to 30 prefixes per request.
• Purge rate-limits apply.
• URI query strings & fragments cannot purge by prefix:
  • www.example.com/foo?a=b (query string)
  • www.example.com/foo#bar (fragment)

Warning

Because purge by prefix purges a directory, any URI for a resource within the purged directory is purged regardless of query string or fragment (though fragments are not generally sent by browsers). Purge by prefix rules do not accept fragments and query strings.

Example: If you purge foo.com/bar, any asset that starts with foo.com/bar will be purged, for example, foo.com/bar/baz, foo.com/bar?good=bad, etc. and purging foo.com/bar?good=bad itself will not work.

Purge by prefix normalization

Using purge by prefix normalization, when a purge by prefix request comes into Cloudflare for a normalized URL path, the purge service respects the URL normalization and purges the normalized URL.

How does URL Normalization work

Take the following website as an example: https://cloudflare.com/انشاء-موقع-الكتروني/img_1.jpg. The table below shows you how Cloudflare’s cache views these paths with normalization on/off.

Request from visitor to EDGE					What Cloudflare cache sees with Normalize Incoming URLs ON					What Cloudflare cache sees with Normalize Incoming URLs OFF
https://cloudflare.com/انشاء-موقع-الكتروني/img_1.jpg ↗					https://cloudflare.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A/img_1.jpg ↗					https://cloudflare.com/انشاء-موقع-الكتروني/img_1.jpg ↗
https://cloudflare.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A/img_1.jpg ↗					https://cloudflare.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A/img_1.jpg ↗					https://cloudflare.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A/img_1.jpg ↗
https://cloudflare.com/hello/img_1.jpg ↗					https://cloudflare.com/hello/img_1.jpg ↗					https://cloudflare.com/hello/img_1.jpg ↗

As shown above, with URL normalization ON, visitors to the two URLs, https://cloudflare.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A/img_1.jpg and https://cloudflare.com/انشاء-موقع-الكتروني/img_1.jpg, will be served the same cached asset. Purging https://cloudflare.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A/img_1.jpg will purge that asset for both visitors.