nginx server_name wildcard or catch-all - nginx

Question

I have an instance of nginx running which serves several websites. The first is a status message on the server's IP address. The second is an admin console on admin.domain.com. These work great. Now I'd like all other domain requests to go to a single index.php - I have loads of domains and subdomains and it's impractical to list them all in an nginx config.
So far I've tried setting server_name to * but that failed as an invalid wildcard. *.* works until I add the other server blocks, then I guess it conflicts with them.
Is there a way to run a catch-all server block in nginx after other sites have been defined?
N.B. I'm not a spammer, these are genuine sites with useful content, they're just powered by the same CMS from a database!

Answer 1

Change listen option to this in your catch-all server block. (Add default_server) this will take all your non-defined connections (on the specified port).
listen 80 default_server;
if you want to push everything to index.php if the file or folder does not exist;
try_files $uri /$uri /index.php;
Per the docs, It can also be set explicitly which server should be default, with the **default_server** parameter in the listen directive

Answer 2

As a convention, the underscore is used as a server name for default servers.
From http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html
In catch-all server examples the strange name “_” can be seen:
server {
listen 80 default_server;
server_name _;
return 444;
}
There is nothing special about this name, it is just one of a myriad of >invalid domain names which never intersect with any real name. Other >invalid names like “--” and “!##” may equally be used.
Note that server_name _; alone is not enough. The above example only works because of default_server in the listen directive.

Answer 3

This will work:
server_name ~^(.+)$

Answer 4

Now you can use mask:
server {
listen 80;
server_name *.example.org;
...
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name mail.*;
...
}
Look more here: http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html

Answer 5

Only 1 server directive
From Nginx listen Docs
The default_server parameter, if present, will cause the server to
become the default server for the specified address:port pair. If none
of the directives have the default_server parameter then the first
server with the address:port pair will be the default server for this
pair.
If you only have 1 server directive, that will handle all request, you don't need to set anything.
Multiple server directive
If you want to match all request with specified server directive, just add default_server parameter to listen, Nginx will use this server directive as default.
server {
listen 80 default_server;
}
About server_name _;
From Nginx Docs
In catch-all server examples the strange name “_” can be seen:
server {
listen 80 default_server;
server_name _;
return 444;
}
There is nothing special about this name, it is just one of a myriad
of invalid domain names which never intersect with any real name.
Other invalid names like “--” and “!##” may equally be used.
It doesn't matter what server_name you set, it is just an invalid domain name.

Answer 6

For me somehow define default_server was not working. I solved it by
server_name ~^.*$
using regular expression of all.

Answer 7

If you also want to catch requests with empty Host header (which is allowed in HTTP/1.0) you can use both regex and empty server_name:
server {
listen 80;
server_name ~. "";
}

Answer 8

Try $http_host
server {
server_name $http_host;
}