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Artwork for The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser
The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser · Oct 17, 2025 · 25 min

Graceful shutdown in HTTP

There are cases where the backend may need to close the connection to prevent unexpected situations, prevent bad actors or simply just free up resources. Closing a connection gracefully allows clients and backends to clean up and finish any pending requests. In this episode of the backend engineering show I discuss graceful connections in both HTTP/1.1 via the connection header and HTTP/2 via the GOAWAY frame. 0:00 Intro 4:58 Why shutdown connection? 6:46 HTTP/1.1 Graceful shutdown 12:26 Cost of HTTP/2 17:40 HTTP/2 GoAWAY frame 23:40 Summary Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVKPrDrEwTI&t=1s https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/net/%2B/master/socket/client_socket_pool_manager.cc#76 https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40555364 https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40501721

0:00-25:49

transcript

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show notes


There are cases where the backend may need to close the connection to prevent unexpected situations, prevent bad actors or simply just free up resources. Closing a connection gracefully allows clients and backends to clean up and finish any pending requests. 


In this episode of the backend engineering show I discuss graceful connections in both HTTP/1.1 via the connection header and HTTP/2 via the GOAWAY frame. 


  • 0:00 Intro
  • 4:58 Why shutdown connection? 
  • 6:46 HTTP/1.1 Graceful shutdown
  • 12:26 Cost of HTTP/2 
  • 17:40 HTTP/2 GoAWAY frame
  • 23:40 Summary


Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVKPrDrEwTI&t=1s 

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/net/%2B/master/socket/client_socket_pool_manager.cc#76

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40555364

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40501721


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