Forcing nginx to return cached page on timeout

Question

I need to set up nginx so that when a timeout occurs attempting to reach the upstream proxy, that it will just return the cached version on disk.

Can someone tell me how, as the docs are a little sparse on information.

Answer 1

proxy_cache_use_stale timeout;

to serve stale objects in case the upstream goes timeout and

proxy_connect_timeout 40;

to control the timeout...