Nginx locations configuration

Vv.

6/21/23, 4:40 PM

I have config

location ~ \.(pdf)$ {
    expires 2h;
}

location / {
    ...backend rules...
}

Now I want the first block to be executed only for really existing pdfs, otherwise the request would be passed to the backend. I suppose I should add in the first location block try_files $uri @backend:

location ~ \.(pdf)$ {
    try_files $uri @backend;
    expires 2h;
}

location / {
    ...backend rules...
}

location @backend {
    ...same backend rules...
}

But it turns out that both locations / and @backend will be absolutely identical, is there any way to combine them or should I just make two identical blocks?

0 + 0

configuration

nginx

Alexey Ten

6/21/23, 4:46 PM

Put backend rules to separate file and use `include`.

Vv.

6/21/23, 4:50 PM

A separate file is an idea, but I don't want to add complexity with an additional file. Is there a more elegant way?

Score:0

Server

Ivan Shatsky

6/21/23, 5:39 PM

As a workaround, you can shorten your location to

location / {
    try_files "" @backend;
}

This will produce an extra system stat call for every request, but since it is your web root directory that will be stat'ed, those calls should be some kind of cached by the kernel and it should not be a serious performance impact.

You don't need a capture group for your regex location, just location ~ \.pdf$ { ... } will be enough (yet slightly more performant).

Update

One more suggestion that would allow to reduce the number of locations:

map $uri $try {
    ~\.pdf$                                 $uri;
    <some_other_mask_to_try_locally_first>  $uri;
    # default value will be an empty string
}
server {
    ...
    location / {
        try_files $try @backend;
    }
    location @backend {
        ...
    }
}

0 + 0

Vv.

6/21/23, 8:19 PM

Thanks for the ideas here and on SO. On the brackets - of course, while simplifying the config for the question I forgot to remove them)

Ivan Shatsky

6/21/23, 8:37 PM

Check the answer update.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Nginx locations configuration

TH: การกำหนดค่าตำแหน่ง Nginx

RO: Configurarea locațiilor Nginx

RU: Конфигурация локаций Nginx

VI: Cấu hình vị trí Nginx

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