Nginx configuration location - nginx

Question

I have the following Nginx configuration file...
server {
listen 80;
server_name 127.0.0.1 localhost;
location = /index.html {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location / {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location /common/ {
root /etc/nginx/html/common;
}
}
And the folder structure is like so...
html\app1
html\common
When I try to browse...
http://localhost/ > Works
http://localhsot/index.html > Works
http://localhost/common/somefile.txt > Doesn't work
What am I missing?

Answer 1

You should use alias instead of root:
server {
listen 80;
server_name 127.0.0.1 localhost;
location / {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location /common {
alias /etc/nginx/html/common;
}
}
If you use root in common the 127.0.0.1/common/somefile.txt will try /etc/nginx/html/common/common/somefile.txt (notice the two common). If you check nginx's logs you can see it.

Answer 2

I am adding my own answer since I finally got it working. Posting it here, so it might help others...
server {
listen 80;
server_name 127.0.0.1 localhost;
location = /index.html {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location / {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location ^~ /common/ {
root /etc/nginx/html;
}
}
Basically, the way Nginx was trying was /etc/nginx/html/common/common. Removing the common from root worked. Also found that http://localhost:8888/common/ needed to have a trailing /.

Answer 3

Because it firstly match the location /. You can do it like this:
server {
listen 80;
server_name 127.0.0.1 localhost;
location = /index.html {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location / {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location ^~ /common/ {
root /etc/nginx/html/common;
}
}
EDIT：
Yeah. It seems some complicated. You can do it like this:
First, you need create a new server:
server {
listen 80;
server_name common.com; # A virtual host
root /etc/nginx/html/common;
}
Then, you need modify the config above like this:
server {
listen 80;
server_name 127.0.0.1 localhost;
location = /index.html {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location / {
root /etc/nginx/html/app1;
index index.html;
}
location ^~ /common/ {
rewrite ^/common(/.*)$ $1 break; # rewrite the /common/
proxy_set_header Host common.com; # it will requests common.com which the server of 127.0.0.1. then will match the above server.
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1;
}
}