HTTP Graceful Shutdown TL;DR

In this Backend Engineering Show episode, Hussein Nasser dives into why and how to close HTTP connections cleanly—preventing resource leaks or bad actors—by using the Connection header in HTTP/1.1 and the GOAWAY frame in HTTP/2. Along the way he covers performance costs, real-world Chromium links and code examples for a smooth shutdown process.

Key timestamps: 0:00 Intro · 4:58 Why shutdown? · 6:46 HTTP/1.1 Graceful shutdown · 12:26 HTTP/2 cost · 17:40 GOAWAY frame · 23:40 Summary

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