301 Redirect with nginx

Question

I moved my website URLs from this form:

https://example.com/category/sub-category/post-url
https://example.com/category/post-url

to this form:

https://example.com/post-url

And I would like to set up nginx redirection so that I don't lose the visitors going through old URLs.

I have found the regex that I need to use, which is simply ([^\/]+$) (Takes all text after the last slash). But how can I set it up to use with nginx?

This is the output of nginx -T:

root@ubuntu:~# nginx -T
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
# configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 1000;
#   multi_accept on;
}

http {
    ##
    # Basic Settings
    ##
client_max_body_size 30M;
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    # server_tokens off;
    # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
    # server_name_in_redirect off;

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;
gzip on;
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.(?!.*SV1)";
gzip_vary on;
gzip_types text/plain text/css text/javascript image/svg+xml image/x-icon application/javascript application/x-javascript;
    ##
    # SSL Settings
    ##

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ##
    # Logging Settings
    ##

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    ##
    # Gzip Settings
    ##

    # gzip_proxied any;
    # gzip_comp_level 6;
    # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    # gzip_http_version 1.1;
    # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Virtual Host Configs
    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

#mail {
#   # See sample authentication script at:
#   # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# 
#   # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#   # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#   # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# 
#   server {
#       listen     localhost:110;
#       protocol   pop3;
#       proxy      on;
#   }
# 
#   server {
#       listen     localhost:143;
#       protocol   imap;
#       proxy      on;
#   }
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types:

types {
    text/html                             html htm shtml;
    text/css                              css;
    text/xml                              xml;
    image/gif                             gif;
    image/jpeg                            jpeg jpg;
    application/javascript                js;
    application/atom+xml                  atom;
    application/rss+xml                   rss;

    text/mathml                           mml;
    text/plain                            txt;
    text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor      jad;
    text/vnd.wap.wml                      wml;
    text/x-component                      htc;

    image/png                             png;
    image/tiff                            tif tiff;
    image/vnd.wap.wbmp                    wbmp;
    image/x-icon                          ico;
    image/x-jng                           jng;
    image/x-ms-bmp                        bmp;
    image/svg+xml                         svg svgz;
    image/webp                            webp;

    application/font-woff                 woff;
    application/java-archive              jar war ear;
    application/json                      json;
    application/mac-binhex40              hqx;
    application/msword                    doc;
    application/pdf                       pdf;
    application/postscript                ps eps ai;
    application/rtf                       rtf;
    application/vnd.apple.mpegurl         m3u8;
    application/vnd.ms-excel              xls;
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject         eot;
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint         ppt;
    application/vnd.wap.wmlc              wmlc;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml  kml;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kmz      kmz;
    application/x-7z-compressed           7z;
    application/x-cocoa                   cco;
    application/x-java-archive-diff       jardiff;
    application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp;
    application/x-makeself                run;
    application/x-perl                    pl pm;
    application/x-pilot                   prc pdb;
    application/x-rar-compressed          rar;
    application/x-redhat-package-manager  rpm;
    application/x-sea                     sea;
    application/x-shockwave-flash         swf;
    application/x-stuffit                 sit;
    application/x-tcl                     tcl tk;
    application/x-x509-ca-cert            der pem crt;
    application/x-xpinstall               xpi;
    application/xhtml+xml                 xhtml;
    application/xspf+xml                  xspf;
    application/zip                       zip;

    application/octet-stream              bin exe dll;
    application/octet-stream              deb;
    application/octet-stream              dmg;
    application/octet-stream              iso img;
    application/octet-stream              msi msp msm;

    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document    docx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet          xlsx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation  pptx;

    audio/midi                            mid midi kar;
    audio/mpeg                            mp3;
    audio/ogg                             ogg;
    audio/x-m4a                           m4a;
    audio/x-realaudio                     ra;

    video/3gpp                            3gpp 3gp;
    video/mp2t                            ts;
    video/mp4                             mp4;
    video/mpeg                            mpeg mpg;
    video/quicktime                       mov;
    video/webm                            webm;
    video/x-flv                           flv;
    video/x-m4v                           m4v;
    video/x-mng                           mng;
    video/x-ms-asf                        asx asf;
    video/x-ms-wmv                        wmv;
    video/x-msvideo                       avi;
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:
server {

        root /var/www/example.com;

        index index.php;

        server_name example.com;

        location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args; 
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        }

location ~ ^/(?:[^/]+)(?:/[^/]+)?/(?<posturl>.*)$ {
    return 301 https://example.com/$posturl$is_args$args;
}

}


# configuration file /etc/nginx/snippets/fastcgi-php.conf:
# regex to split $uri to $fastcgi_script_name and $fastcgi_path
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;

# Check that the PHP script exists before passing it
try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;

# Bypass the fact that try_files resets $fastcgi_path_info
# see: http://trac.nginx.org/nginx/ticket/321
set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;

fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi.conf;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf:

fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME    $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param  QUERY_STRING       $query_string;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_TYPE       $content_type;
fastcgi_param  CONTENT_LENGTH     $content_length;

fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_NAME        $fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_URI        $request_uri;
fastcgi_param  DOCUMENT_URI       $document_uri;
fastcgi_param  DOCUMENT_ROOT      $document_root;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;
fastcgi_param  REQUEST_SCHEME     $scheme;
fastcgi_param  HTTPS              $https if_not_empty;

fastcgi_param  GATEWAY_INTERFACE  CGI/1.1;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_SOFTWARE    nginx/$nginx_version;

fastcgi_param  REMOTE_ADDR        $remote_addr;
fastcgi_param  REMOTE_PORT        $remote_port;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_ADDR        $server_addr;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
fastcgi_param  SERVER_NAME        $server_name;

# PHP only, required if PHP was built with --enable-force-cgi-redirect
fastcgi_param  REDIRECT_STATUS    200;

# configuration file /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf:
# This file contains important security parameters. If you modify this file
# manually, Certbot will be unable to automatically provide future security
# updates. Instead, Certbot will print and log an error message with a path to
# the up-to-date file that you will need to refer to when manually updating
# this file.

ssl_session_cache shared:le_nginx_SSL:10m;
ssl_session_timeout 1440m;
ssl_session_tickets off;

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA";

# configuration file /var/www/outpost.example.com/.nginx.conf:
# Pass requests that don't refer directly to files in the filesystem to index.php
location / {
  try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}

# The following directives are based on best practices from H5BP Nginx Server Configs
# https://github.com/h5bp/server-configs-nginx

# Expire rules for static content
location ~* \.(?:manifest|appcache|html?|xml|json)$ {
  add_header Cache-Control "max-age=0";
}

location ~* \.(?:rss|atom)$ {
  add_header Cache-Control "max-age=3600";
}

location ~* \.(?:jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|cur|gz|svg|mp4|ogg|ogv|webm|htc)$ {
  add_header Cache-Control "max-age=2592000";
  access_log off;
}

location ~* \.(?:css|js)$ {
  add_header Cache-Control "max-age=31536000";
  access_log off;
}

location ~* \.(?:ttf|ttc|otf|eot|woff|woff2)$ {
  add_header Cache-Control "max-age=2592000";
  access_log off;
}

# Gzip compression
gzip on;
gzip_comp_level 5;
gzip_min_length 256;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_types
    application/atom+xml
    application/javascript
    application/json
    application/ld+json
    application/manifest+json
    application/rss+xml
    application/vnd.geo+json
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject
    application/x-font-ttf
    application/x-web-app-manifest+json
    application/xhtml+xml
    application/xml
    font/opentype
    image/bmp
    image/svg+xml
    image/x-icon
    text/cache-manifest
    text/css
    text/plain
    text/vcard
    text/vnd.rim.location.xloc
    text/vtt
    text/x-component
    text/x-cross-domain-policy;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/uwsgi_params:

uwsgi_param  QUERY_STRING       $query_string;
uwsgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
uwsgi_param  CONTENT_TYPE       $content_type;
uwsgi_param  CONTENT_LENGTH     $content_length;

uwsgi_param  REQUEST_URI        $request_uri;
uwsgi_param  PATH_INFO          $document_uri;
uwsgi_param  DOCUMENT_ROOT      $document_root;
uwsgi_param  SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;
uwsgi_param  REQUEST_SCHEME     $scheme;
uwsgi_param  HTTPS              $https if_not_empty;

uwsgi_param  REMOTE_ADDR        $remote_addr;
uwsgi_param  REMOTE_PORT        $remote_port;
uwsgi_param  SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
uwsgi_param  SERVER_NAME        $server_name;

If my answer below does not work, please add the output of `nginx -T` into your question. — Tero Kilkanen, Aug 16 '20 at 19:47
Where is your `server` block? You have only the default `server` block. — Michael Hampton, Aug 17 '20 at 18:39
Yes, I changed my domain name to example.com as I don't want to expose myself. But this is the same configuration, I changed nothing else in it. — Madno, Aug 17 '20 at 18:39
Then where is the `location` that @TeroKilkanen asked you to add? — Michael Hampton, Aug 17 '20 at 18:40
As I said, it caused my website to break so I removed it. Normally I would add it just inside the server block. But as I said, the JS/CSS/Images weren't loading. — Madno, Aug 17 '20 at 18:41
It is a WordPress site so they are located at `example.com/`, `example.com/somefolder/` and even at a third level and forth like `example.com/folder/anotherfolder/some.css` — Madno, Aug 17 '20 at 18:57

Tero Kilkanen · Answer 1 · 2020-08-17T18:59:25.433

0

The following configuration should work, it should be the last location block in your server block:

location ~ \.(?:js|css|gif|jpg|png)$ {
    try_files $uri =404;
}

location ~ ^/(?:[^/]+)(?:/[^/]+)?/(?<posturl>.*)$ {
    return 301 https://example.com/$posturl$is_args$args;
}

The location block matches both one and two levels of directory prefixes, and captures the rest of the URL into $posturl variable.

The variable is then used to generate the 301 redirect.

edited Aug 17 '20 at 18:59

answered Aug 16 '20 at 19:47

Tero Kilkanen

36,796
3
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63

Thank you. But by "category" and "sub-category" I meant them as demo name, not literally. I mean my posts could have a URL like https://example.com/news/tech/post-title-here. So this doesn't work I think here. And some of the other posts just have https://example.com/news/post-title-here – Madno Aug 16 '20 at 20:41
I updated the answer, sorry for the mistake. – Tero Kilkanen Aug 17 '20 at 06:19
I think this does not account for CSS/JS/Image files, right? It broke my site after I applied it. Is there a way to exclude these files? – Madno Aug 17 '20 at 07:52
Please add the output of `nginx -T` to your question. – Tero Kilkanen Aug 17 '20 at 18:23
I have added the output. – Madno Aug 17 '20 at 18:38
I added a requirement for the block location in the config file. – Tero Kilkanen Aug 17 '20 at 18:52
Making it the last location block didn't help, it still breaks images/CSS/JS. And I think it is logical because if I have these files at `example.com/test/test.js` for example, wouldn't the code you suggested redirect it to `example.com/test.js`? – Madno Aug 17 '20 at 18:56
I added a another block for handling static resources. More extensions can be added if needed. nginx uses the first matching regex block, so in case of static files with extensions in the regex, first block is used and nginx tries to serve the files. – Tero Kilkanen Aug 17 '20 at 19:00
Now the CSS/JS/Image files are loading currently, but the redirection is always redirecting me to the homepage of the website. If i browse anything under `example.com`, it always loads me to `example.com` – Madno Aug 17 '20 at 19:22

301 Redirect with nginx

1 Answers1