<p>First, this is perfectly normal. :) </p>

<p>Have a look at Brandons explanation <a href="https://craftcms.stackexchange.com/questions/6633/how-does-template-caching-work">here</a> on how the cache tag works.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>If the element was added or modified, it queues up a new “Delete Stale
  Template Caches” task, which cycles through the templatecachecriteria
  table to see if there are any cached element queries which (if not
  cached) would have started showing the just-saved element. If the
  query returns the element, its corresponding cache will be deleted.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So, the number of steps corresponds to the number of rows in the <code>templatecachecriteria</code> table in the database. </p>

<p>Why would this be different between staging and production? Probably because you're getting different kind of traffic on the production site than the staging site. </p>

<p>It's important to understand that the cache is tied to the url, so mydomain.com/news and mydomain.com/news?id=212 will result in two different caches being created in the database, and a number of rows in the <code>templatecachecriteria</code> table being created based on the number of criterias created inside the cached code (which can be alot).</p>

<p>The example given above is an example that we encounter a lot, where when an old site is replaced by a new one, there will still be a lot of links pointing to the new one. If these aren't handled correctly by either rewriting them to new url's, or returning 404's, this could result in many old urls generating new caches for the same page. </p>

<p>The recommended way to avoid this is to use the <code>globally</code> keyword, and using the request path as the key, <a href="https://craftcms.com/docs/templating/cache#using-key" rel="nofollow">see the example in the "using key" section of the docs for <code>{% cache %}</code></a>. </p>

<p>Another common caveat is that there are caches on the 404 page that is not declared as globally, for instance a menu that needs a selected state or something. Then all urls that results in a 404 not found page, will create new caches with new criterias in templatecachecriteria. I've seen examples where this will eventually just kill the server because of the number of criterias that are rerun when an entry is saved.</p>

<p>If I were you I'd have a look in the <code>templatecaches</code> table, and look at the path column to identify the paths of the created caches. This will often reveal groups of urls which generates more caches than they ideally should, and you could work from there to reduce the number.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T20:11:36.000Z
Thanks for the answer, that helps clear a few things up! The difference in traffic makes sense and I'm guessing accounts for some of the discrepancy. I am however using `cache globally using craft.request.path` on any pages that I do have caching set up for, so that's what's weird about the number of steps it has to go through.

Probably the most confusing thing is that it's kicking the task off even for entries that I don't have any caching set up for in the templates, which makes me suspect there's a larger issue at fault here.
user5400
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T20:35:33.640Z
Craft has no idea if you have cached an entry in the your templates or not, so it will run through the templatecachecriterias every time an entry is added or modified no matter what. But, have a look in your templatecaches table. How many rows are there? Do the the caches in it actually have the right keys and paths, or are there some that have an abnormally high number of occurences?
André Elvan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T20:42:21.867Z
I have 129 rows in my templatecaches table - no duplicates since the `cacheKey` is just the URI path and I'm using `cache globally`. I have 5,500 templatecachecriteria rows and 9,200 templatecacheelements rows - is that unusual? Also, it says `NULL` for all of my path columns though - not sure if that's normal or not either. But, for example, I don't have any of my blog posts being cached in the templates, so I don't have any /blog/ cacheKey template caches. However, when I edit or save a blog entry, it kicks off the DSTC task nonetheless.
user5400
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T20:00:24.057Z
2016-07-14T20:00:24.057Z
André Elvan
<p>I've been running into issues where the Delete Stale Template Caches tasks on my Production environment are running up to 20x longer than on my identical Staging environment. The config/environment settings are the same across both (including devMode being disabled on Stage) but they use separate databases. So I imported my Prod database into my Stage environment just to get complete parity across both environments to try and diagnose the problem.</p>

<p>I edited the same entry on Prod/Staging and hit save, both kick off the DSTC task, but I got ~10,000 steps on Production as opposed to ~500 on Staging.</p>

<p>I copied the SQL row on each database and this is what I get:</p>

<p>Stage:</p>

<pre><code>14  14  1   2   0   263 555 running DeleteStaleTemplateCaches   NULL    {"elementId":["3282","3342","3343","3341","3548","3549","3550","3547","3382","3383","3381","9171","9172","3395","3391","14629","14630","14628","3281"]} 2016-07-14 18:38:46 2016-07-14 18:38:52 d39e2b0f-e6d6-446d-9d2b-30d35ecca378
</code></pre>

<p>Production:</p>

<pre><code>16042   16042   1   2   0   439 9864    running DeleteStaleTemplateCaches   NULL    {"elementId":["3282","3342","3343","3341","3548","3549","3550","3547","3382","3383","3381","9171","9172","3395","3391","14629","14630","14628","3281"]} 2016-07-14 18:36:46 2016-07-14 18:37:07 b152c337-2316-45c9-8b29-4716faf41897
</code></pre>

<p>The settings of the tasks are the exact same as far as the ElementIds that it involves, but the Stage task is 555 steps while the Production task is 9864. I'm seeing this pretty consistently across all entries - the number of steps in the Production environment is around 20x the Staging on identical entries.</p>

<p>I'm a bit stumped as to why this is happening -- what determines the number of steps involved in any given DSTC task?</p>

<p>EDIT: Another odd thing is that it's kicking off the tasks on entries that don't have any <code>cache</code> tags inside the templates. Again this is only happening in Production, it seems that the Staging site seems to recognize that these templates shouldn't be getting cached in the first place.</p>

<cache><tasks>
Delete Stale Template Caches tasks much larger in Production than Staging
# Delete Stale Template Caches tasks much larger in Production than Staging

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-07-14)

I've been running into issues where the Delete Stale Template Caches tasks on my Production environment are running up to 20x longer than on my identical Staging environment. The config/environment settings are the same across both (including devMode being disabled on Stage) but they use separate databases. So I imported my Prod database into my Stage environment just to get complete parity across both environments to try and diagnose the problem.
I edited the same entry on Prod/Staging and hit save, both kick off the DSTC task, but I got ~10,000 steps on Production as opposed to ~500 on Staging.
I copied the SQL row on each database and this is what I get:
Stage:
14  14  1   2   0   263 555 running DeleteStaleTemplateCaches   NULL    {"elementId":["3282","3342","3343","3341","3548","3549","3550","3547","3382","3383","3381","9171","9172","3395","3391","14629","14630","14628","3281"]} 2016-07-14 18:38:46 2016-07-14 18:38:52 d39e2b0f-e6d6-446d-9d2b-30d35ecca378

Production:
16042   16042   1   2   0   439 9864    running DeleteStaleTemplateCaches   NULL    {"elementId":["3282","3342","3343","3341","3548","3549","3550","3547","3382","3383","3381","9171","9172","3395","3391","14629","14630","14628","3281"]} 2016-07-14 18:36:46 2016-07-14 18:37:07 b152c337-2316-45c9-8b29-4716faf41897

The settings of the tasks are the exact same as far as the ElementIds that it involves, but the Stage task is 555 steps while the Production task is 9864. I'm seeing this pretty consistently across all entries - the number of steps in the Production environment is around 20x the Staging on identical entries.
I'm a bit stumped as to why this is happening -- what determines the number of steps involved in any given DSTC task?
EDIT: Another odd thing is that it's kicking off the tasks on entries that don't have any cache tags inside the templates. Again this is only happening in Production, it seems that the Staging site seems to recognize that these templates shouldn't be getting cached in the first place.

**Tags:** cache, tasks


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-07-14. Score: 4

First, this is perfectly normal. :)

Have a look at Brandons explanation [here](https://craftcms.stackexchange.com/questions/6633/how-does-template-caching-work) on how the cache tag works.

> If the element was added or modified, it queues up a new “Delete Stale
> Template Caches” task, which cycles through the templatecachecriteria
> table to see if there are any cached element queries which (if not
> cached) would have started showing the just-saved element. If the
> query returns the element, its corresponding cache will be deleted.

So, the number of steps corresponds to the number of rows in the `templatecachecriteria` table in the database.

Why would this be different between staging and production? Probably because you're getting different kind of traffic on the production site than the staging site.

It's important to understand that the cache is tied to the url, so mydomain.com/news and mydomain.com/news?id=212 will result in two different caches being created in the database, and a number of rows in the `templatecachecriteria` table being created based on the number of criterias created inside the cached code (which can be alot).

The example given above is an example that we encounter a lot, where when an old site is replaced by a new one, there will still be a lot of links pointing to the new one. If these aren't handled correctly by either rewriting them to new url's, or returning 404's, this could result in many old urls generating new caches for the same page.

The recommended way to avoid this is to use the `globally` keyword, and using the request path as the key, [see the example in the "using key" section of the docs for `{% cache %}`](https://craftcms.com/docs/templating/cache#using-key).

Another common caveat is that there are caches on the 404 page that is not declared as globally, for instance a menu that needs a selected state or something. Then all urls that results in a 404 not found page, will create new caches with new criterias in templatecachecriteria. I've seen examples where this will eventually just kill the server because of the number of criterias that are rerun when an entry is saved.

If I were you I'd have a look in the `templatecaches` table, and look at the path column to identify the paths of the created caches. This will often reveal groups of urls which generates more caches than they ideally should, and you could work from there to reduce the number.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for the answer, that helps clear a few things up! The difference in traffic makes sense and I'm guessing accounts for some of the discrepancy. I am however using `cache globally using craft.request.path` on any pages that I do have caching set up for, so that's what's weird about the number of steps it has to go through.  Probably the most confusing thing is that it's kicking the task off even for entries that I don't have any caching set up for in the templates, which makes me suspect there's a larger issue at fault here.  
> **username_1**: Craft has no idea if you have cached an entry in the your templates or not, so it will run through the templatecachecriterias every time an entry is added or modified no matter what. But, have a look in your templatecaches table. How many rows are there? Do the the caches in it actually have the right keys and paths, or are there some that have an abnormally high number of occurences?  
> **username_0**: I have 129 rows in my templatecaches table - no duplicates since the `cacheKey` is just the URI path and I'm using `cache globally`. I have 5,500 templatecachecriteria rows and 9,200 templatecacheelements rows - is that unusual? Also, it says `NULL` for all of my path columns though - not sure if that's normal or not either. But, for example, I don't have any of my blog posts being cached in the templates, so I don't have any /blog/ cacheKey template caches. However, when I edit or save a blog entry, it kicks off the DSTC task nonetheless.  

---

