Hi ,

I need to fully exclude a custom RSS endpoint from Page Cache (Disk: Enhanced), but the response still shows the W3TC footer and appears cached.

Goal
Serve a custom RSS feed (1 item per period) that must never be cached.

Endpoints

Query-string version (legacy):
https://voyance-channel.com/?vc_horo_feed=1&sign=belier&freq=jour

Pretty URL (preferred):
https://voyance-channel.com/vc-horo-feed/belier/jour/

Symptom
Even after exclusions, the XML still contains the footer:
“Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache — Disk: Enhanced (Requested URI contains query)”.

Environment

W3TC Page Cache: Disk: Enhanced (latest stable)

CDN: Cloudflare (Cache Rule “Bypass” for vc_horo_feed and /vc-horo-feed/)

WordPress timezone configured; plugin sends proper Cache-Control: no-store, Pragma: no-cache, and defines DONOTCACHEPAGE.

What we’ve already configured in W3TC → Page Cache

Never cache the following pages (regex):

.*\?vc_horo_feed=.*
.*[&?]vc_horo_feed=.*
^/vc-horo-feed/.*

Rejected query strings (one per line):

vc_horo_feed
sign
freq
_cb

“Cache URIs with query string variables”: left disabled (when visible).

Purged all caches (W3TC) after each change.

Result

Query-string endpoint still served by Disk: Enhanced (footer present).

Pretty URL endpoint is more reliable, but we want a definitive W3TC-side exclusion.

Questions

“Never cache the following pages” field

Does this field accept full PCRE regex? Are the examples below valid for Disk: Enhanced?

.*\?vc_horo_feed=.*
.*[&?]vc_horo_feed=.*
^/vc-horo-feed/.*

Do you recommend anchors/delimiters for matching query strings specifically under Disk: Enhanced?

Disk: Enhanced behavior with query strings

If a URL with query has already been written to the static cache, can DONOTCACHEPAGE and/or “Never cache…” be bypassed because Apache/Nginx serves the static file directly via .htaccess before PHP runs?

In that case, is “Purge All Caches” always sufficient, or should the specific cached file be removed manually?

Is there a recommended .htaccess directive from W3TC to force bypass of Disk: Enhanced based on a path/param pattern (e.g., vc_horo_feed), ensuring PHP is executed and the page is never served statically?

“Cache URIs with query string variables” option

In recent builds the checkbox may not be visible depending on UI mode. What is its default state, and is disabling it alone enough to prevent caching of query-string URLs under Disk: Enhanced?

Best-practice recommendation

For a custom RSS endpoint we control, is your best practice to use a pretty URL path (e.g., /vc-horo-feed/…) and exclude via
^/vc-horo-feed/.* in “Never cache the following pages”, plus a CDN bypass rule?

Any additional W3TC setting you recommend specifically for feeds/endpoints that must always be fresh?

If you need any diagnostics (W3TC version, .htaccess snippet from Page Cache, or headers), I can provide them.

Thanks a lot!