Feb, 2016
Why are cache files not being cleared after the expiration time?
An expiration time does not determine when the cache files are cleared from the filesystem. The expiration time simply determines the maximum age a cache file can have before a request for that cache file will result in the cache file being regenerated.
Comet Cache only checks the cache file expiration time when it is about to serve the cache file to a visitor. If Comet Cache determines the cache file is past its expiration time (i.e., it has lived past the maximum age configured in WordPress Dashboard → Comet Cache → Plugin Options → Directory / Expiration Time), it will regenerate the cache file and serve the new version to the visitor.
A Quick Example
Let's say you've set your Comet Cache Expiration Time to 15 minutes and you have a page at http://example.com/my-page/.
The first time someone visits http://example.com/my-page/, a cache file will be generated with a timestamp indicating when that cache file was generated. Now let's say 20 minutes goes by (5 minutes past the expiration time) and nobody else has visited the page again.
That now expired cache file will still exist on the filesystem. However, since it has expired (i.e., it's older than the expiration time of 15 minutes) it will never be served to a visitor.
Instead, the next time someone visits http://example.com/my-page/, Comet Cache will detect that the cache file for that page has expired and it will regenerate the cache file, creating a new one and replacing the old one.
