Getting page from a parent instead of the local cache

Apologies if this is a FAQ but I couldn't find a clear answer in the FAQ,
and I'm also fairly new to the details of how the caching mechanism should
work.

We are running Squid v1.1.20 and we have two parent caches at other sites
running Squid (the JANET National Cache)

I have been accessing http;//wwwcache.ja.net/ through my local cache.
After the first attempt to the get the page (TCP_MISS:DIRECT) it then
appeared to be in our local cache as I was getting TCP_HITs for new
requests for the page.

After a while a few days the page must have become stale, as the speed
of access to the page decreased and in my access.log I got a
TCP_REFESH_MISS:PARENT_HIT

Ok fair enough I thought - the page should now be in my local cache.
However from the messages in my access.log for further requests for the
page it appeared to be still getting the page from one of my parents. I
was still getting TCP_REFRESH_MISS:PARENT_HITs.

After a few hours when I tied to access the page again I got a
TCP_REFRESH_HIT:TIMEOUT_FIRST_PARENT_MISS. Now the page seems to be in my
cache again as subsequent requests get TCP_HITs.

Is this the way it should work? I would have thought that when a requested
item is found in a parent cache it would be cached in the local cache when
the request was dealt with.

        Nick.

# Nick O'Brien, Computer Officer "It gives me a headache just to #
# Canterbury Christ Church College think down to your level", Marvin #
# Phone: +44 1227 782468 the Paranoid Android, HHGTTG #
# Email:nick@cant.ac.uk Web:http://www.cant.ac.uk/staff/nick/home.html #
Received on Fri Mar 27 1998 - 04:25:14 MST