Add context path for an app on nginx

Question

Nginx servers all the static content from the root directory to the root URL. For example if the root content location is configured as /usr/share/nginx/html which contains a file /usr/share/nginx/html/foo.html, then the url http://localhost/foo.html will serve that html file. I want to prefix a context path in the URL such that http://localhost/myapp/foo.html should serve /usr/share/nginx/html/foo.html file.

I tried changing the location and adding an alias but that gives a 404.

  location / {
    root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index  index.html index.htm;
  }

  location /myapp/ {
    alias   /usr/share/nginx/html/;
  }

I also want that http://localhost/myapp should serve /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html

I'm using nginx's 1.12.1-alpine docker image

Solution

Try this

  index  index.html index.htm;
  location / {
    root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
  }

  location /myapp/ {
    alias   /usr/share/nginx/html/;
  }

If that doesn't work then try below

  index  index.html index.htm;
  location / {
    root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
  }

  location /myapp/ {
    alias   /usr/share/nginx/html/;
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
  }

Edit-1

If you want it to work without trailing / then you should use below

location ~ /app(/.*)?$ {
   alias   /usr/share/nginx/html/;
   try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}

Comments

[ares]

Thanks for your response - I'm trying with a trailing slash as I've written it in the question as well.

[Tarun Lalwani]

The config is 100% correct. I have tested it locally. I guess you have some other default config also lying around in your nginx config which may be the issue. Add the output of find . -name "*.conf" in the folder where your nginx.conf folder is present

[ares]

That worked after some trying. The only thing that root url without a trailing slash (http://localhost/myapp) returns 404 where http://localhost/myapp/ returns index.html

[Elouan Keryell-Even]

Would you mind explaining why the OP's conf was returning 404? I fail to understand what the problem was

[Tarun Lalwani]

I think index index.html was not outside that is why.