Will app_offline.htm stop current requests or just new requests?

Question

Like the title says, If I place an app_offline.htm in the application root, will it cut off currently running requests, or just new ones?

Answer 1

Here is my lame experiment; I created an ASPX page with the following code:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Response.BufferOutput = false;
    Response.Write("Step 1
");
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);
    Response.Write("Step 2
");
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);
    Response.Write("Step 3
");
}

This code simply introduces some loooong page loads. I accessed the page and while it was loading, I created an "app_offline.htm" file. I then loaded another web browser and confirmed the application was offline. I then re-visited my "loading" request...it completed all the way to step 3.

This confirms that current requests finish loading and new requests are turned away.