Hussein Nasser: HTTP Graceful shutdown | The Backend Engineering Show

HTTP Graceful Shutdown in a Nutshell

In this Backend Engineering Show episode, Hussein walks you through why and how backends should close HTTP connections cleanly—whether to dodge bad actors, free up resources or just wrap up pending work. You’ll learn the ins and outs of using the Connection header in HTTP/1.1 and the GOAWAY frame in HTTP/2, plus a peek at Chromium’s implementation and real-world trade-offs.

Why It Matters

Graceful shutdowns let clients and servers finish what they’re doing without nasty surprises. By the end of the vid, you’ll know when to trigger a shutdown, what costs to watch for in HTTP/2, and how both protocols handle those “please stop after this” signals.

Watch on YouTube