HACKER Q&A
📣 johnnyApplePRNG

Is it bad practice in 2023 to force GZIP compression?


I have setup an nginx reverse proxy to only ever call for and cache gzipped responses from the upstream server.

I have seen some older posts about forcing gzip on all requests but unzipping the pre-compressed content if the client specifically requests non-gzipped content.

I am considering not implementing the above sentence for performance reasons.

How impactful will essentially ignoring browser gzip preferences affect my user's experience?

I am under the impression that only computers running 20+ year old browsers will be affected by the inability to decompress gzipped content.

Is there anything else I am not thinking of? Do any clients not enable gzip for a good reason I am not thinking of? Thank you!


  👤 josephcsible Accepted Answer ✓
Forget about compatibility for a minute. Aren't you opening yourself up to attacks like CRIME and BREACH by ignoring clients' requests to not use compression?