Location - Nginx

Priority / Flow

• Test the URI against all prefix strings.
• If the exact match = is found, the search stops.
• If the ^~ (caret-tilde) modifier prepends the longest matching prefix string, the regular expressions are not checked.
• Store the longest matching prefix string.
• Test the URI against regular expressions.
• Stop processing when the first matching regular expression is found and use the corresponding location.
• If no regular expression matches, use the location corresponding to the stored prefix string.

Ref: Nginx Location Priority

Named location

• Named locations preserve $uri as it was
• Can be reached only via error_page, try_files

location @named_location {
    # ...
}

Ref: Nginx FAQ

Ref: ngx_http_core_module

internal location

location ... {
    internal;
}

• internal only can be accessed from internal requests
• return error status 404 if that is external requests

Internal request / Internal redirect

Internal requests are requests by:

• rewrite directive
• error_page, index, random_index, and try_files directives
• X-Accel-Redirect response header field from an upstream server
• “include virtual” command of the ngx_http_ssi_module module, by the ngx_http_addition_module module directives, and by auth_request and mirror directives;