monline

It seems the memory cache cannot be cleared without a restart of Safari. I've tested this: running the "Empty Cache" functionality clears the disk cache (that is at $HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db) immediately, but loading pages (eg. by clicking on links on webpages) that I've visited before I cleared the cache does not result in new downloads of the various content (eg. images). I used the Charles Debugging Proxy, but any other proxy can do. Please, leave a comment if you know a method for clearing the memory cache without restarting Safari. (In case you'd suggest: the "Reset Safari" functionality is no better than "Empty Cache" ... at least regaring the memory cache).

The point of clearing the memory cache without a restart is that one might have a couple of open tabs (eg. being a developer) and it's pretty much annoying that you've to close all your work if you want to refresh a specific page (and image, an swf, etc.). You can force a full cache clear only by executing "Empty Cache" and restarting Safari.

(Note: all this was observed with Safari v5.0 (6533.16), the 64-bit build.)