Prefix match in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Prefix Match in Nginx Configuration

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a simple web server using Nginx. You want to serve different content based on the URL path prefix.For example, requests starting with /images should serve image files, and requests starting with /videos should serve video files.

🎯 Goal: Configure Nginx to use prefix matching in location blocks to serve different content based on URL path prefixes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Nginx configuration file with a server block

Add a location block that matches the prefix /images

Add a location block that matches the prefix /videos

Set the root directory for each prefix to /var/www/images and /var/www/videos respectively

Print the final Nginx configuration

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web servers often serve different types of content from different folders. Using prefix matching in Nginx helps route requests to the right content folder.

💼 Career

Understanding Nginx configuration and prefix matching is essential for DevOps roles managing web servers and deploying web applications.

1

Create the basic Nginx server block

Create a variable called nginx_config and assign it a string containing the basic Nginx server block with listen 80; and an empty body for server.

Nginx

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Start with a string that contains server { and listen 80; lines.

2

Add a location block for the /images prefix

Add a location /images/ block inside the server block in nginx_config string. Set its alias to /var/www/images/. Use string concatenation or multiline string to add this block.

Nginx

nginx_config = "server {\n    listen 80;\n}\n"
# Add location block for /images prefix here

Need a hint?

Inside the server block, add location /images/ { alias /var/www/images/; }.

3

Add a location block for the /videos prefix

Add a location /videos/ block inside the server block in nginx_config string. Set its alias to /var/www/videos/. Append this block after the /images block.

Nginx

nginx_config = "server {\n    listen 80;\n    location /images/ {\n        alias /var/www/images/;\n    }\n}\n"
# Add location block for /videos prefix here

Need a hint?

Append location /videos/ { alias /var/www/videos/; } inside the server block.

4

Print the final Nginx configuration

Write a print statement to display the content of nginx_config.

Nginx

nginx_config = "server {\n    listen 80;\n    location /images/ {\n        alias /var/www/images/;\n    }\n    location /videos/ {\n        alias /var/www/videos/;\n    }\n}\n"
# Print the nginx_config variable below

Need a hint?

Use print(nginx_config) to show the full configuration.