Nginx rewrite using $args to create a shorter url with parameters

Niska

3/11/24, 8:39 AM

My scenario is this:

For 20+ years I've used the following URL for search result on a old website:

https://www.example.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?type=search_result&query=examplequery
https://www.example.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?type=search_result&query=examplequery&page=72

I would like to start using a new, shorter url for search results, like this:

https://www.example.com/?q=examplequery
https://www.example.com/?q=examplequery&p=72

I would also like the old URLs to permanent redirect to the new URL, if possible.

This is what I have tried, after searching for a solution (this is in the location block in nginx.conf).

if ($args ~ "^/?q=val1&p=val2") {
   rewrite ^ /cgi-bin/website.cgi?type=search_result&query=$arg_q&page=$arg_p? last;
}
if ($args ~ "^/?q=val1") {
   rewrite ^ /cgi-bin/website.cgi?type=search_result&query=$arg_q? last;
}

For some reason, this is not working. I don't get any error.

In order to redirect old urls to the new format, I will use:

if ($args ~ "type=search_result&query=$val1&page=$val2") {
   rewrite ^ /&q=$arg_query&p=$arg_page? permanent;
}
if ($args ~ "type=search_result&query=$val1") {
   rewrite ^ /&q=$arg_query? permanent;
}

Not sure if this is working or not, since it depends on the above statements, I have not been able to test. But I don't get any errors.

I'm not sure that I'm doing wrong. If someone could have a look I would be very greatful.

674

1 + 4

nginx

Richard Smith

3/11/24, 11:34 AM

`$args` will not match `^/?q=val1&p=val2`. It might match `^q=.*&p=`

Richard Smith

3/11/24, 11:36 AM

You may need to add the `location` block that handles the `/cgi-bin/website.cgi` URL so that we can understand how the argument list is passed to the script.

Niska

3/13/24, 11:53 AM

@RichardSmith I don't understand your comment. What am I doing wrong?

Pothi Kalimuthu

3/14/24, 6:10 AM

Welcome to ServerFault. It is better to handle one issue at a time. You'd want to take consider 301 redirects as a separate question once the issue with shorter URLs are resolved!

Score:0

Server

Niska

3/14/24, 2:47 PM

I got it working!

if ($args ~ "^q=([^&]+)$") {
  set $q $1;
  rewrite ^ /cgi-bin/website.cgi?type=search_result&query=$1 last;
}

if ($args ~ "^q=([^&]+)&p=(\d+)") {
  set $q $1;
  set $p $2;
  rewrite ^ /cgi-bin/website.cgi?type=search_result&query=$1&page=$2 last;
}

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EN: Nginx rewrite using $args to create a shorter url with parameters

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