nginx path based routing

Question

I would like to to route requests based on a path to two different Angular applications. So when i request http://example.com/admin is routes to one app http://example.com/client routes to the second app. I have the following config but all requests are always sent to the nginx default page. Configuration is as follows:

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;

        server_name _;

        location /admin {
                root /home/ubuntu/apps/admin/;
                index index.html;
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html?$args;
        }

        location /client {
                root /home/ubuntu/apps/client;
                index index.html;
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html?$args;
        }
}

No other confs are in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled and nginx.conf is default post install on Ubuntu. Any help is appreciated.

Where are your files located? `/home/ubuntu/apps/admin/index.html` and `/home/ubuntu/apps/client/index.html`? — Richard Smith, Oct 22 '22 at 13:17
Have you tried `alias` instead of `root` ? Also, you don't need `$uri/` with a trailing slash. Perhaps you don't need routing at all - simply set the `root` outside of any `location` block and then use a single `location /` block with just `try_files` — IVO GELOV, Oct 22 '22 at 13:19
@RichardSmith correct. two separate angular apps deployed to those folders. — Mensur, Oct 22 '22 at 17:28
@IVOGELOV I did that and it helped partially. I am not sure why taking off `$args` is the only thing that worked. Thanks for the help. — Mensur, Oct 22 '22 at 17:29

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 22 '22 at 18:43

You were using the wrong value for the root directive. In both locations the correct value for the root directive is /home/ubuntu/apps, which means you can simplify the configuration by using just one root directive by moving it into the server block.

Of course you can use the alias directive - but as the manual states :

When location matches the last part of the directive’s value ... it is better to use the root directive instead.

The other problem is that your try_files statements are pointing to the wrong index.html file.

For example:

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    root /home/ubuntu/apps;

    location /admin {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /admin/index.html;
    }

    location /client {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /client/index.html;
    }
}

Note that server_name _; is not necessary - see the Server Names document.

Also, index index.html; is not necessary being the default value for the index directive.

Thank you! This does simplify things. Removing `$args` is still required and that is what was killing me. — Mensur, Oct 22 '22 at 22:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 22 '22 at 17:28

It appears that you cannot use multiple root directives but instead need to use alias (Configure nginx with multiple locations with different root folders on subdomain). With that, I would still get 404s until I took off $args from the index.html. After that everything worked fine (don't ask how long it took to figure that out). Working config:

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;

        server_name _;
        index index.html;

        location /admin {
                alias /home/ubuntu/apps/admin;
                try_files $uri /index.html =404;
        }

        location /client {
                alias /home/ubuntu/apps/client;
                try_files $uri /index.html =404;
        }
}

nginx path based routing

2 Answers2