htaccess - How to force the client's browser to clear the cache?

Question

For my site I have the following htaccess rules:

# BEGIN Gzip

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/text text/html text/plain tex         


        

Answer 1

Use the mod rewrite with R=301 - where you use a incremental version number:

To achieve > css/ver/file.css => css/file.css?v=ver

RewriteRule ^css/([0-9]+)/file.css$ css/file.css?v=$1 [R=301,L,QSA]

so example, css/10/file.css => css/file.css?v=10

Same can be applied to js/ files. Increment ver to force update, 301 forces re-cache

I have tested this across Chrome, Firefox, Opera etc

PS: the ?v=ver is just for readability, this does not cause the refresh