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Nico avatar Server

Nginx redirect to different domain based on subdirectory

br flag
Nico

I'm not an expert on nginx but I have been using it for a while. I'm serving multiple web application servers through nginx as reverse proxy.

The problem: I'm serving in a subdirectory a Spring Boot application, nginx is redirecting the user to a totally different domain (server_name) when visiting the subdirectory directly. Let's say that the subdirectory is "/subdir", I'm also serving a wordpress application in the root, lets say is "https://example.com".

  1. If for example, a user enters "https://example.com/subdir/countries" it will proxy to the Spring Boot application correctly and it will retrieve the countries list.
  2. But if the user enters "https://example.com/subdir" it will show another different application that is in another domain name (let's say is https://another_example.com). But the URL still the same, the user stays in "https://example.com/subdir" but the application is a different one, and it will see the index.html of that application.

The nginx config for the wordpress and Spring Boot application is the following:

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com www.example.com;
        return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
        listen 443 ssl;

    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    root /root/wordpress_example;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot

    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

    location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
    location = /robots.txt { log_not_found off; access_log off; allow all; }
    location ~* \.(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$ {
            expires max;
            log_not_found off;
    }

    location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
            include fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

    location /subdir/ {
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
            proxy_redirect off;
            proxy_buffer_size 128k;
            proxy_buffers 4 256k;
            proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k;
    }
}

And the nginx config for the application where the user is redirected is:

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name another_example.com www.another_example.com;
        return 301 https://another_example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    underscores_in_headers on;
        listen 443 ssl;

        server_name another_example.com www.another_example.com;

        ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/another_example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/another_example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot

        include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
        ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

    error_page 404 /404.html;
    location = /404.html {
        root /root/public/;
        internal;
    }

        location / {
                root /root/public/;
                index index.html;
        }

    location ~* ^/(?:favicon|apple-touch-icon|android-chrome-|mstile-|safari-pinned-tab.svg|browserconfig.xml|mainfest.json) {
        alias /root/public/icons/icon-48x48.png;
    }

    location ^~ /images {
        alias /root/alimentacion;
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location /ranking {
                proxy_pass http://ranking;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port $server_port;
                proxy_buffer_size 128k;
                proxy_buffers 4 256k;
                proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k;
        }
}

Why is redirecting the user to another_example.com when visiting directly the "/subdir" path?

The Spring Boot application does not have anything in the root, in local when you request the root of the Spring Boot application returns 404, it could be this the issue?

EDIT nginx -T output:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
# configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
user root;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 768;
    # multi_accept on;
}

http {

    ##
    # Basic Settings
    ##

    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    server_tokens off;
    client_max_body_size 180M; # allow the client to upload files of 180 MBs

    # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
    # server_name_in_redirect off;

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    ##
    # SSL Settings
    ##

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ##
    # Logging Settings
    ##

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    ##
    # Gzip Settings
    ##

    gzip on;

    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    gzip_http_version 1.1;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Load Balance
    ##
    upstream uv {
        server localhost:8081;
    }

    upstream test {
        server localhost:8087;
    }

    upstream backend {
        server localhost:8085;
    }

    upstream ranking {
        server localhost:4000;
    }

    ##
    # Virtual Host Configs
    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-geoip.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-image-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_image_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-xslt-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_xslt_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-mail.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_mail_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-stream.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_stream_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types:

types {
    text/html                             html htm shtml;
    text/css                              css;
    text/xml                              xml;
    image/gif                             gif;
    image/jpeg                            jpeg jpg;
    application/javascript                js;
    application/atom+xml                  atom;
    application/rss+xml                   rss;

    text/mathml                           mml;
    text/plain                            txt;
    text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor      jad;
    text/vnd.wap.wml                      wml;
    text/x-component                      htc;

    image/png                             png;
    image/tiff                            tif tiff;
    image/vnd.wap.wbmp                    wbmp;
    image/x-icon                          ico;
    image/x-jng                           jng;
    image/x-ms-bmp                        bmp;
    image/svg+xml                         svg svgz;
    image/webp                            webp;

    application/font-woff                 woff;
    application/java-archive              jar war ear;
    application/json                      json;
    application/mac-binhex40              hqx;
    application/msword                    doc;
    application/pdf                       pdf;
    application/postscript                ps eps ai;
    application/rtf                       rtf;
    application/vnd.apple.mpegurl         m3u8;
    application/vnd.ms-excel              xls;
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject         eot;
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint         ppt;
    application/vnd.wap.wmlc              wmlc;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml  kml;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kmz      kmz;
    application/x-7z-compressed           7z;
    application/x-cocoa                   cco;
    application/x-java-archive-diff       jardiff;
    application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp;
    application/x-makeself                run;
    application/x-perl                    pl pm;
    application/x-pilot                   prc pdb;
    application/x-rar-compressed          rar;
    application/x-redhat-package-manager  rpm;
    application/x-sea                     sea;
    application/x-shockwave-flash         swf;
    application/x-stuffit                 sit;
    application/x-tcl                     tcl tk;
    application/x-x509-ca-cert            der pem crt;
    application/x-xpinstall               xpi;
    application/xhtml+xml                 xhtml;
    application/xspf+xml                  xspf;
    application/zip                       zip;

    application/octet-stream              bin exe dll;
    application/octet-stream              deb;
    application/octet-stream              dmg;
    application/octet-stream              iso img;
    application/octet-stream              msi msp msm;

    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document    docx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet          xlsx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation  pptx;

    audio/midi                            mid midi kar;
    audio/mpeg                            mp3;
    audio/ogg                             ogg;
    audio/x-m4a                           m4a;
    audio/x-realaudio                     ra;

    video/3gpp                            3gpp 3gp;
    video/mp2t                            ts;
    video/mp4                             mp4;
    video/mpeg                            mpeg mpg;
    video/quicktime                       mov;
    video/webm                            webm;
    video/x-flv                           flv;
    video/x-m4v                           m4v;
    video/x-mng                           mng;
    video/x-ms-asf                        asx asf;
    video/x-ms-wmv                        wmv;
    video/x-msvideo                       avi;
}

# configuration file /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf:
# This file contains important security parameters. If you modify this file
# manually, Certbot will be unable to automatically provide future security
# updates. Instead, Certbot will print and log an error message with a path to
# the up-to-date file that you will need to refer to when manually updating
# this file.

ssl_session_cache shared:le_nginx_SSL:1m;
ssl_session_timeout 1440m;

ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!DSS";

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example:
server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com www.example.com;
        return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
        listen 443 ssl;

        server_name example.com www.example.com;

        root /root/wordpress_example;
        index index.php;

        ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot

        include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
        ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

        location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
        location = /robots.txt { log_not_found off; access_log off; allow all; }
        location ~* \.(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$ {
                expires max;
                log_not_found off;
        }

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
                include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock;
                fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        }

        location /subdir/ {
                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_buffer_size 128k;
                proxy_buffers 4 256k;
                proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k;
        }

        location = /subdir {
                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_buffer_size 128k;
                proxy_buffers 4 256k;
                proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k;
        }
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params:

fastcgi_param  QUERY_STRING       $query_string;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_TYPE       $content_type;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_LENGTH     $content_length;

fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_NAME        $fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_URI        $request_uri;
fastcgi_param  DOCUMENT_URI       $document_uri;
fastcgi_param  DOCUMENT_ROOT      $document_root;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_SCHEME     $scheme;
fastcgi_param  HTTPS              $https if_not_empty;

fastcgi_param  GATEWAY_INTERFACE  CGI/1.1;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_SOFTWARE    nginx/$nginx_version;

fastcgi_param  REMOTE_ADDR        $remote_addr;
fastcgi_param  REMOTE_PORT        $remote_port;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_ADDR        $server_addr;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_NAME        $server_name;

# PHP only, required if PHP was built with --enable-force-cgi-redirect
fastcgi_param  REDIRECT_STATUS    200;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/another_example:
server {
        listen 80;
        server_name another_example.com www.another_example.com;
        return 301 https://another_example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    underscores_in_headers on;
        listen 443 ssl;

        server_name another_example.com www.another_example.com;

        ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/another_example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/another_example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot

        include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
        ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

    error_page 404 /404.html;
    location = /404.html {
        root /root/public/;
        internal;
    }

        location / {
                root /root/public/;
                index index.html;
        }

    location ~* ^/(?:favicon|apple-touch-icon|android-chrome-|mstile-|safari-pinned-tab.svg|browserconfig.xml|mainfest.json) {
        alias /root/public/icons/icon-48x48.png;
    }

    location ^~ /images {
        alias /root/alimentacion;
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location /ranking {
                proxy_pass http://ranking;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port $server_port;
                proxy_buffer_size 128k;
                proxy_buffers 4 256k;
                proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k;
        }
}

EDIT WITH THE SOLUTION:

With the help of @Tero Kilkanen and trial and error I have found the solution:

    location /subdir/ {
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
            proxy_redirect off;
    }

    location = /subdir {
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
            proxy_redirect off;
    }

    location = /subdir/ {
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
            proxy_redirect off;
    }
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Score:2
avatar Server
us flag
Tero Kilkanen

location /subdir/ matches requests where URI is /subdir/.

In your example request, URI is /subdir. Therefore that location block is not used.

The request is then processed by location /, and then the index.php of that application does something.

To make /subdir to go to the same location, you need to add another location block:

location = /subdir {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_buffer_size 128k;
        proxy_buffers 4 256k;
        proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k;
}

The = attribute makes this an exact match, and it is processed first by nginx.

0 + 0
Nico avatar
br flag
Nico
I tried this but is not working, when I visit https://example.com/subdir it automatically adds a '/' at the end. Don't know why
0
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us flag
Tero Kilkanen
Did you try with a browser that you used earlier to test? If yes, then the browser could have cached the 301 redirect nginx sends when it finds a directory with same name as the URI. Please test with `curl -v`.
0
Reply
Nico avatar
br flag
Nico
I have tested with `curl -v` and still happening, it's returning the index.html content of the "another_example.com" domain instead of proxying to `http://127.0.0.1:8080/`
0
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us flag
Tero Kilkanen
And you have restarted nginx properly?
0
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Nico avatar
br flag
Nico
yes I have, reloaded first and now when you asked I restarted and the same thing, but now (with the browser in incognito) the additional '/' is not added in the end but is still returning the index.html of the other configuration and also with `curl -v`
0
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us flag
Tero Kilkanen
Please add output of `nginx -T` to the original question.
0
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Nico avatar
br flag
Nico
Done, I have edited the original question with the output of the `nginx -T` command
0
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Nico avatar
br flag
Nico
Ok I have fixed the issue removing the backlash in the proxy pass: `proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;` to `proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;` this way I'm not redirected to the other web server, but if in the browser I put the URL with the "/subdir/" I'm redirected to the another app
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