NGINX: NGINX config webserver

http {

    # simple web static files server 
    server {
        listen 8080;
        # location of main index.html file
        root /Users/HusseinNasser/nginxcourse;
       
        # serving an entirely different directory than root
        location /images {
           
            root /Users/HusseinNasser/;
        }
       
        # excluding any file having an extension/occurence of the letters jpg at the end
        location ~ .jpg$ {

             return 403;
        }
   
    }

   # web server proxy for our server above 
   server {
           listen 8888;
            
            
           location / {
              
                proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/;
           }
            

           location /img {

                proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/images/;
           }

    }

}

# due to some reasons, NGINX requires this block!
events { }

This Nginx configuration sets up two different web servers, one serving static files on port 8080, and the other acting as a reverse proxy on port 8888. Let’s go through it step-by-step:

1. HTTP Block

http {
    ...
}

As before, this is the outer block that contains all the HTTP server configurations. It encompasses the entire configuration for web serving and proxying.

---

2. First Server Block (Static Files Server)

server {
    listen 8080;
    root /Users/HusseinNasser/nginxcourse;
    ...
}

This defines a web server listening on port 8080. The root directive specifies the directory from which Nginx will serve static files, in this case, /Users/HusseinNasser/nginxcourse.

Location for /images Directory

location /images {
    root /Users/HusseinNasser/;
}

• This location block defines how Nginx will handle requests to /images. Instead of serving files from the root directory (/Users/HusseinNasser/nginxcourse), it will serve them from /Users/HusseinNasser/.
• For example, a request to http://yourdomain.com/images/pic.jpg will map to the physical path /Users/HusseinNasser/images/pic.jpg.

Location to Block .jpg Files

location ~ .jpg$ {
    return 403;
}

• This location block uses a regular expression (~ .jpg$) to match any request that ends with .jpg (i.e., any JPG image file).
• Instead of serving the file, it returns a 403 Forbidden error for any .jpg request. For example, requests like http://yourdomain.com/pic.jpg would be blocked with a 403 Forbidden error.

---

3. Second Server Block (Reverse Proxy Server)

server {
    listen 8888;
    ...
}

This defines a second server that listens on port 8888. This server acts as a reverse proxy that forwards requests to the first server (which is running on port 8080).

Location /

location / {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/;
}

• Any requests to http://yourdomain.com/ on port 8888 will be forwarded to http://localhost:8080/ (the first server we defined above).
• This means the content from /Users/HusseinNasser/nginxcourse will be served when accessing the root URL (from port 8888).

Location /img

location /img {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/images/;
}

• This forwards requests to http://yourdomain.com/img to the /images/ directory on the first server running on port 8080.
• A request like http://yourdomain.com/img/someimage.jpg will be forwarded to http://localhost:8080/images/someimage.jpg for file serving.

---

4. Events Block

events { }

As previously mentioned, this block is empty but required by Nginx. It manages worker processes and event handling.

---

Summary of How it Works:

• First Server (Port 8080):
  • Serves static files from /Users/HusseinNasser/nginxcourse by default.
  • Requests to /images are served from /Users/HusseinNasser/ instead.
  • Any requests ending with .jpg will result in a 403 Forbidden error.
• Second Server (Port 8888):
  • Acts as a reverse proxy to the first server running on port 8080.
  • For requests to /, it forwards them to the root (/) of the first server.
  • For requests to /img, it forwards them to the /images directory of the first server.

This configuration allows you to have two distinct Nginx servers:

1. A static file server (on port 8080) for serving files directly.
2. A reverse proxy server (on port 8888) that proxies requests to the first server with different rules.

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