try_files

Rewrites the request URI path to the first of the listed files which exists in the site root. If no files match, no rewrite is performed.

Syntax

try_files <files...> {
	policy first_exist|smallest_size|largest_size|most_recently_modified
}

• <files...> is the list of files to try. The URI path will be rewritten to the first one that exists.

  To match directories, append a trailing forward slash / to the path. All file paths are relative to the site root, and glob patterns will be expanded.

  Each argument may also contain a query string, in which case the query string will also be changed if it matches that particular file.

  If the try_policy is first_exist (the default), then the last item in the list may be a number prefixed by = (e.g. =404), which as a fallback, will emit an error with that code; the error can be caught and handled with handle_errors.

• policy is the policy for choosing the file among the list of files.

  Default: first_exist

Expanded form

The try_files directive is basically a shortcut for:

@try_files file <files...>
rewrite @try_files {file_match.relative}

Note that this directive does not accept a matcher token. If you need more complex matching logic, then use the expanded form above as a basis.

See the file matcher for more details.

Examples

If the request does not match any static files, rewrite to your PHP index/router entrypoint:

try_files {path} /index.php

Same, but adding the original path to the query string (required by some legacy PHP apps):

try_files {path} /index.php?{query}&p={path}

Same, but also match directories:

try_files {path} {path}/ /index.php?{query}&p={path}

Attempt to rewrite to a file or directory if it exists, otherwise emit a 404 error (which can be caught and handled with handle_errors):

try_files {path} {path}/ =404

Choose the most recently deployed version of a static file (e.g. serve index.be331df.html when index.html is requested):

try_files {file.base}.*.{file.ext} {
	policy most_recently_modified
}