How do I change nginx routing on the rails/nginx preconfigured droplet on Ubuntu?

Question

I just installed the nginx/rails configuration with Ubuntu 14.10 and I’m trying to have nginx point to various folders that are separate from rails, but I can’t find any sites-available information, and it seems that /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf is also empty.

How can I add a simple route from “domain/stuff” to /var/www/stuff with this premade install?

Answer 1

kamaln7 November 4, 2014

Edit your server block (it should be in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled) and add the following location block:

location /stuff {
    alias /var/www/stuff; # map /stuff to /var/www/stuff
    index index.html; # assuming /var/www/stuff contain static files only
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404; # requests under /stuff shouldn't be passed to rails
}

Then restart nginx:

sudo service nginx restart

Reply Report

nickhall November 5, 2014

This does work for some files, thank you. But I’m having an issue where if I try to access an image from that folder, it will still try to go to the rails target.

This is what it looks like:

server {
        listen   80;
        root /home/rails/public;
        server_name _;
        index index.htm index.html;

        location / {
                try_files $uri/index.html $uri.html $uri @app;
        }

        location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|p$
                        try_files $uri @app;
                }

        location /stuff {
                alias /var/www/stuff;
                index index.html;
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                autoindex on;
        }

location @app {
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_pass http://app_server;
        }
}

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kamaln7 November 5, 2014
Hmm, I wasn’t able to replicate that. Can you post the exact contents of your server block? It looks like it was cut off. Run the following command to print it:

cat /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/filename
Reply Report

nickhall November 5, 2014

Those are the exact contents. This is /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

server {
        listen   80;
        root /home/rails/public;
        server_name _;
        index index.htm index.html;

        location / {
                try_files $uri/index.html $uri.html $uri @app;
        }

       location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|pdf|ppt|txt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf|mp3|flv|mpeg|avi)$ {
                        try_files $uri @app;
                }

        location /stuff {
                alias /var/www/stuff;
                index index.html;
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                autoindex on;
        }


         location @app {
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_pass http://app_server;
        }

}

I’ll also note that if I comment out that file handling section, I can access the file as expected. I’m just not sure why the try_files $uri part wouldn’t catch it in the /var/www/stuff folder?

Reply Report

Answer 2

nickhall November 5, 2014

This does work for some files, thank you. But I’m having an issue where if I try to access an image from that folder, it will still try to go to the rails target.

This is what it looks like:

server {
        listen   80;
        root /home/rails/public;
        server_name _;
        index index.htm index.html;

        location / {
                try_files $uri/index.html $uri.html $uri @app;
        }

        location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|p$
                        try_files $uri @app;
                }

        location /stuff {
                alias /var/www/stuff;
                index index.html;
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                autoindex on;
        }

location @app {
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_pass http://app_server;
        }
}

Reply Report

kamaln7 November 5, 2014
Hmm, I wasn’t able to replicate that. Can you post the exact contents of your server block? It looks like it was cut off. Run the following command to print it:

cat /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/filename
Reply Report

nickhall November 5, 2014

Those are the exact contents. This is /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

server {
        listen   80;
        root /home/rails/public;
        server_name _;
        index index.htm index.html;

        location / {
                try_files $uri/index.html $uri.html $uri @app;
        }

       location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|doc|xls|exe|pdf|ppt|txt|tar|mid|midi|wav|bmp|rtf|mp3|flv|mpeg|avi)$ {
                        try_files $uri @app;
                }

        location /stuff {
                alias /var/www/stuff;
                index index.html;
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                autoindex on;
        }


         location @app {
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_pass http://app_server;
        }

}

I’ll also note that if I comment out that file handling section, I can access the file as expected. I’m just not sure why the try_files $uri part wouldn’t catch it in the /var/www/stuff folder?

Reply Report

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How do I change nginx routing on the rails/nginx preconfigured droplet on Ubuntu?

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How do I change nginx routing on the rails/nginx preconfigured droplet on Ubuntu?

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