Regex match (~, ~*) in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using Regex Match (~, ~*) in Nginx Configuration

📖 Scenario: You are setting up an Nginx web server. You want to control access to certain URLs using regular expressions.Specifically, you want to allow access only to URLs that start with /images/ and end with .jpg or .png.

🎯 Goal: Build an Nginx configuration snippet that uses regex match operators ~ and ~* to match URLs case-sensitively and case-insensitively.You will create a location block that matches URLs ending with .jpg or .png case-sensitively, and another location block that matches URLs ending with .JPG or .PNG case-insensitively.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a location block using ~ for case-sensitive regex matching

Create a location block using ~* for case-insensitive regex matching

Use regex to match URLs starting with /images/ and ending with .jpg or .png

Add a simple return 200 directive inside each location block to confirm matching

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web servers often need to route or restrict access based on URL patterns. Regex matching in Nginx helps achieve flexible and powerful URL control.

💼 Career

Understanding regex matching in Nginx is essential for DevOps engineers and system administrators managing web servers and application deployments.

1

Create the base Nginx server block

Write an Nginx server block with listen 80; and an empty body. Name the server block server {}.

Nginx

# Write the Nginx server block with listen 80
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Start by writing server { and inside it add listen 80;.

2

Add a case-sensitive regex location block

Inside the server block, add a location block using the ~ operator to match URLs starting with /images/ and ending with .jpg or .png (case-sensitive). Inside it, add return 200;.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    # Add a location block with ~ regex match for .jpg or .png files
    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use location ~ ^/images/.*\.(jpg|png)$ to match URLs case-sensitively.

3

Add a case-insensitive regex location block

Below the previous location block, add another location block using the ~* operator to match URLs starting with /images/ and ending with .JPG or .PNG (case-insensitive). Inside it, add return 200;.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    location ~ ^/images/.*\.(jpg|png)$ {
        return 200;
    }
    # Add a location block with ~* regex match for .JPG or .PNG files
    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use location ~* ^/images/.*\.(jpg|png)$ for case-insensitive matching.

4

Test and output the final Nginx configuration

Print the entire Nginx configuration code you wrote so far.

Nginx

# Print the full Nginx configuration
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Print the full configuration exactly as written.