nginx: auth_basic for everything except a specific location - nginx

Question

How can I enable HTTP Basic Auth for everything except for a certain file?
Here is my current server block configuration for the location:
location / {
auth_basic "The password, you must enter.";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/htpasswd;
}
location /README {
auth_basic off;
}
However, on /README, it is still prompting for a password.
How can we fix this?
Thanks!
Mark

Answer 1

Try to use sign = , that helps you:
location = /README {
auth_basic off;
allow all; # Allow all to see content
}

Answer 2

I am doing something similar using "map" instead of "if" to assign the auth_basic realm variable and htpasswd file:
map $http_host $siteenv {
default dev;
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.dev dev;
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devprofile devprofile;
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devdebug devdebug;
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.test test;
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.demo demo;
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.stage stage;
# Live
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.live live;
~^.*\.(?P<subdomain>.+)\.[a-zA-Z]* live;
}
map $http_host $auth_type {
default "Restricted";
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.dev "Development";
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devprofile "Development";
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devdebug "Development";
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.test "Testing";
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.stage "Stage";
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.demo "Demo";
# Live
~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.live "off";
~^.*\.(?P<subdomain>.+)\.[a-zA-Z]* "off";
}
server {
.. etc ..
auth_basic $auth_type;
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/conf.d/htpasswd-$siteenv;
}

Answer 3

I'm doing the following:
location = /hc.php {
auth_basic "off";
}
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
The narrow match:location = /somefile.txt {} comes first, so location / {} can capture the remaining requests
auth_basic "off" requires the quotes around it as far as I know
I also use the exact (full, if you like) match, in order to stop iteration over the other locations defined in the config (read below quote for more info on what it does)
Probably this would work in different orders, and/or without the double quotes also, but why not try to do things as correct and complete as possible, if possible.
The most important modifiers are:
(none) No modifier at all means that the location is interpreted as a prefix. To determine a match, the location will now be matched against the beginning of the URI.
=: The equal sign can be used if the location needs to match the exact request URI. When this modifier is matched, the search stops right here.
~: Tilde means that this location will be interpreted as a case-sensitive RE match.
~*: Tilde followed by an asterisk modifier means that the location will be processed as a case-insensitive RE match.
^~: Assuming this block is the best non-RE match, a carat followed by a tilde modifier means that RE matching will not take place.
quoted from here: https://www.keycdn.com/support/nginx-location-directive

Answer 4

Only auth_basic off didn't work for me
If we have to skip auth for ALL uri's under our url
location ^~ /some/location/to_skip/ {
auth_basic off;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
}