Named locations (@) in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using Named Locations (@) in Nginx Configuration

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a simple Nginx web server. You want to handle requests differently based on the URL path. Sometimes, you want to redirect users to a special internal page without exposing the URL change.

🎯 Goal: Build an Nginx configuration that uses named locations (starting with @) to internally redirect requests to a custom error page.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a server block listening on port 80

Define a location / that checks if a file exists

If the file does not exist, internally redirect to a named location @custom_404

Define the named location @custom_404 to serve a custom 404 error page

Print the final Nginx configuration

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Named locations in Nginx help redirect requests internally without changing the URL seen by users. This is useful for custom error handling, maintenance pages, or complex routing.

💼 Career

Understanding named locations is important for DevOps roles managing web servers, enabling better control over request handling and improving user experience with custom error pages.

1

Create the basic server block

Create an Nginx server block listening on port 80 with a root directory set to /var/www/html.

Nginx

server {
    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use listen 80; to listen on port 80 and root /var/www/html; to set the root directory.

2

Add location / with try_files and named location redirect

Inside the server block, add a location / block that uses try_files $uri $uri/ @custom_404; to check if the requested file or directory exists, and if not, redirect internally to the named location @custom_404.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html;

    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

The try_files directive tries the listed files or directories, and if none exist, it redirects internally to the named location.

3

Define the named location @custom_404

Add a named location @custom_404 inside the server block that returns a 404 status and serves the file /var/www/html/custom_404.html using internal and root directives.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ @custom_404;
    }

    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

The internal directive makes the named location accessible only by internal redirects, not by direct client requests.

4

Print the complete Nginx configuration

Print the entire Nginx configuration you have created so far.

Nginx

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a print statement to output the full configuration text exactly as written.