I am currently running a LEMP stack for my WordPress project. The domain I am using serves over HTTPS+WWW (https://www.example.com), which means all of the following requests are redirected to it:
- HTTP + NON-WWW (http://example.com)
- HTTP + WWW (http://www.example.com)
- HTTPS + NON-WWWW (https://example.com)
Right now, all of these requests are being redirected to HTTPS+WWW as part of the redirect rules created by certbot during the setup. Below is my current server configuration.
server {
root /var/www/html;
index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
client_max_body_size 64m;
location / {
#try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
}
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
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 ~* ^/xmlrpc.php$ {
return 403;
}
# WordPress: deny general stuff
location ~* ^/(?:xmlrpc\.php|wp-links-opml\.php|wp-config\.php|wp-config-sample\.php|wp-comments-post\.php$
deny all;
}
listen 443 ssl http2; # managed by Certbot
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
}
server {
if ($host = www.example.com) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
if ($host = example.com) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
return 404; # managed by Certbot
expires $expires;
}
Generally, a user would input HTTP + NON-WWW requests in the browser (like just example.com). When I checked via Varvy Redirect Mapper, I could see that the HTTP + NON-WWW request has two redirects. Here is a screenshot.
https://i.imgur.com/BEE9RQo.png
I want to resolve all the requests in just a single redirect to HTTPS-WWW (https://www.example.com). I have tried a couple of logics and also looked over to several other examples online but couldn’t find a proper solution.
Could someone please help?
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In the second server block, you should replace https://$host$request_uri; with https://www.example.com$request_uri; like this:
server {
if ($host = www.example.com) {
return 301 https://www.example.com$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
if ($host = example.com) {
return 301 https://www.example.com$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
...
}
To achieve a single redirect for all non-https and non-www requests to https://www.example.com in Nginx, you can use a combination of a non-ssl server block to handle all http requests and a ssl server block to handle all non-www https requests. Here’s how you can modify your Nginx configuration:
1. Redirect All HTTP Requests
First, you’ll want to create a server block that listens on port 80 (HTTP) and redirects all requests to the https-www version. This covers both HTTP + NON-WWW and HTTP + WWW scenarios.
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
return 301 https://www.example.com$request_uri;
}
2. Redirect HTTPS non-www to HTTPS-www
Next, handle the HTTPS + NON-WWW scenario. You will need to set up a server block that listens on port 443 (HTTPS) for example.com and redirects to the www version.
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;
return 301 https://www.example.com$request_uri;
}
3. Main Server Block for HTTPS-www
Finally, have your main server block handle the www and HTTPS version of your site. This is where your actual site configuration will be.
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name www.example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;
root /var/www/html;
index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
# The rest of your configuration...
}
Summary
With this setup, you achieve the following:
- All HTTP (port 80) requests, whether www or non-www, get redirected to https://www.example.com.
- All HTTPS (port 443) non-www requests get redirected to https://www.example.com.
- Only requests to https://www.example.com will be served by your main server block.
Additional Notes
- Ensure you reload or restart Nginx after making these changes (
sudo systemctl reload nginx). - Test your configuration for syntax errors using
sudo nginx -t. - After implementing these changes, use a redirect checker to confirm that all redirects work as expected with a single redirect.
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