[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #38537: Swap out md5 for base32 in feed ETag generation

[WordPress Trac]

#38537: Swap out md5 for base32 in feed ETag generation
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 Reporter:  geekysoft    |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Feeds        |    Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal       |   Keywords:
  Focuses:               |
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 All feed ETags are currently a MD5 of the last modified timestamp. This
 ETag is non-reversible, meaning the ETag is entirely useless as anything
 but a unique identifier.

 Swapping this for a base32 of the same timestamp means the ETag can be
 reversed back to a timestamp (if needed for plugins or whatever). Mean
 processing time to generate a feed with 10 entries drops by 10–15 ms on a
 fast PC and 15–30 on a slow VPS with this base32 patch versus the current
 md5 solution.

 The ETag length drops from 32 to 7–9 characters so the response and
 subsequent validation requests are made slightly smaller as well.

 Potential problems: Every client that has stored a ETag in their cache
 will get one cache-miss when WordPress is updated. Considering that every
 subsequent request will be faster, I find that totally acceptable.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38537>
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