Metadata refresh downloads every time even though source not changing

[Tom Scavo]

On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 8:04 AM,  <shibboleth655 at lewenberg.com> wrote:
>
> In the case of the InCommon metadata, the backing file only changes when the
> data at the other end of the InCommon URL changes.

This is because the InCommon metadata server supports HTTP Conditional
GET. Under normal circumstances, you end up downloading new metadata
just once every business day. Most of the requests issued by your
client result in HTTP 304.

> In the case of the local
> metadata, however, the backing file is changing *every* time the IdP is
> scheduled to check for new metadata, even the if the data at the other end
> of the URL has *not* changed.
>
> This is unexpected and worrisome.

Does the server support HTTP Conditional GET? If not, that explains
the behavior you are seeing.

Tom