Retry idempotent requests once on stale keep-alive connection reuse

httputil.ReverseProxy pools backend connections via sharedTransport but
has no built-in retry when it picks a pooled connection the backend has
just closed - an inherent HTTP/1.1 keep-alive race. Reproduced this
100% of the time against the LMS backend (lms.noroutes.net) right after
its OIDC login callback: the client got a 502 on the very next request,
with zero trace of that request in LMS's own logs. LMS's side showed
"wthttp/async: handleReadBody(): while waiting for disconnect, received
unexpected data, closing" at the same moment - Wt's lightweight built-in
httpd closing idle connections more eagerly than Go's pool expects.

Retry once, only for idempotent bodyless requests (GET/HEAD/OPTIONS),
directly against sharedTransport from within ErrorHandler - standard
practice for reverse proxies (nginx's proxy_next_upstream, Traefik's
retry middleware). Safe because ReverseProxy hasn't written any response
bytes yet when ErrorHandler runs.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-20 11:20:19 -05:00
parent db91c24d7f
commit d52714c9d6
+43
View File
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
"context" "context"
"crypto/tls" "crypto/tls"
"fmt" "fmt"
"io"
"log/slog" "log/slog"
"net" "net"
"net/http" "net/http"
@@ -93,6 +94,35 @@ func buildReverseProxy(rt *runtime.ProxyHostRuntime, backend *loadbalancer.Backe
} }
errorHandler := func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, err error) { errorHandler := func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, err error) {
// sharedTransport pools keep-alive connections to the backend. There's
// an inherent race in any HTTP/1.1 keep-alive client: the backend can
// decide to close an idle connection at (almost) the same moment we
// pick it back out of the pool to send the next request, so the
// request lands on a connection that's already gone. Go's transport
// already retries this automatically in the common case, but not
// always (e.g. lightweight backends like Wt's built-in wthttpd, which
// can close more eagerly than Go expects - visible in LMS's own logs
// as "handleReadBody(): while waiting for disconnect, received
// unexpected data, closing"). For idempotent requests with no body,
// retrying once here is safe and is standard practice for reverse
// proxies (nginx's proxy_next_upstream, Traefik's retry middleware).
if isRetryable(r) {
log.Warn("backend request failed, retrying once", "proxy_host", rt.Model.Name, "backend", targetAddr, "err", err)
retryReq := r.Clone(r.Context())
if resp, rerr := sharedTransport.RoundTrip(retryReq); rerr == nil {
defer resp.Body.Close()
for k, vv := range resp.Header {
for _, v := range vv {
w.Header().Add(k, v)
}
}
applyCustomHeaders(w.Header(), rt.Model.CustomHeaders, models.HeaderDirectionResponse)
w.WriteHeader(resp.StatusCode)
io.Copy(w, resp.Body)
return
}
}
log.Warn("backend request failed", "proxy_host", rt.Model.Name, "backend", targetAddr, "err", err) log.Warn("backend request failed", "proxy_host", rt.Model.Name, "backend", targetAddr, "err", err)
metrics.HTTPRequestsTotal.WithLabelValues(rt.Model.Name, r.Method, "502").Inc() metrics.HTTPRequestsTotal.WithLabelValues(rt.Model.Name, r.Method, "502").Inc()
http.Error(w, "Bad Gateway", http.StatusBadGateway) http.Error(w, "Bad Gateway", http.StatusBadGateway)
@@ -107,6 +137,19 @@ func buildReverseProxy(rt *runtime.ProxyHostRuntime, backend *loadbalancer.Backe
} }
} }
// isRetryable reports whether it's safe to silently retry a failed backend
// round trip. Only idempotent, bodyless requests qualify: retrying anything
// with a request body risks double-submitting it (the body reader may
// already be partially or fully consumed by the failed attempt).
func isRetryable(r *http.Request) bool {
switch r.Method {
case http.MethodGet, http.MethodHead, http.MethodOptions:
default:
return false
}
return r.Body == nil || r.Body == http.NoBody || r.ContentLength == 0
}
func applyCustomHeaders(h http.Header, headers []models.CustomHeader, direction models.CustomHeaderDirection) { func applyCustomHeaders(h http.Header, headers []models.CustomHeader, direction models.CustomHeaderDirection) {
for _, c := range headers { for _, c := range headers {
if c.Direction != direction { if c.Direction != direction {