Objective: Turn “6m” into 6*60

set req.http.X-ttl = "60s"
...
call set_ttl
...
#set cached obj.ttl from req.url.X-ttl
sub set_ttl{
  #TODO
}

First version: converting “60s” to 60:

C{
  char *ttl;
  ttl = VRT_GetHdr(sp, HDR_OBJ, "\06X-ttl:"); // 6 == 6 chars
  VRT_l_obj_ttl(sp, atoi(ttl));
}C

Second version: use brute force to covert 60s + 60m + 60h

if( req.http.X-ttl ~ "s$"){ # seconds
  C{
    char *ttl;
    ttl = VRT_GetHdr(sp, HDR_REQ, "\06X-ttl:"); // 6 == 6 chars
    VRT_l_obj_ttl(sp, atoi(ttl));
  }C
} elseif ( req.http.X-ttl ~ "m$") { # minutes
  C{
    char *ttl;
    ttl = VRT_GetHdr(sp, HDR_REQ, "\06X-ttl:"); // 6 == 6 chars
    VRT_l_obj_ttl(sp, atoi(ttl) * 60);
  }C
} elseif ( req.http.X-ttl ~ "h$") { # hours
  C{
    char *ttl;
    ttl = VRT_GetHdr(sp, HDR_REQ, "\06X-ttl:"); // 6 == 6 chars
    VRT_l_obj_ttl(sp, atoi(ttl) * 60 * 60);
  }C
}

Third version: TODO

• use TimeUnit from vcc_parse.c
• build parser myself
• ask for help in #varnish

If all else fails: Study the compiled C code: varnishd -d -f foo.vcl -C