HTTP Module#

The core HTTP module implements the basic functionality of an HTTP server: this includes defining server blocks, configuring locations for request routing, serving static files and controlling access, configuring redirects, supporting keep-alive connections, and managing request and response headers.

The other modules in this section extend this functionality, allowing you to flexibly configure and optimize the HTTP server for various scenarios and requirements.

Directives#

absolute_redirect#

Syntax

absolute_redirect on | off;

Default

absolute_redirect on;

Context

http, server, location

If disabled, redirects issued by Angie will be relative.

See also server_name_in_redirect and port_in_redirect directives.

aio#

Syntax

aio on | off | threads[=pool];

Default

aio off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables the use of asynchronous file I/O (AIO) on FreeBSD and Linux:

location /video/ {
  aio            on;
  output_buffers 1 64k;
}

On FreeBSD, AIO can be used starting from FreeBSD 4.3. Prior to FreeBSD 11.0, AIO can either be linked statically into a kernel:

options VFS_AIO

or loaded dynamically as a kernel loadable module:

kldload aio

On Linux, AIO can be used starting from kernel version 2.6.22. Also, it is necessary to enable directio, or otherwise reading will be blocking:

location /video/ {
  aio            on;
  directio       512;
  output_buffers 1 128k;
}

On Linux, directio can only be used for reading blocks that are aligned on 512-byte boundaries (or 4K for XFS). File's unaligned end is read in blocking mode. The same holds true for byte range requests and for FLV requests not from the beginning of a file: reading of unaligned data at the beginning and end of a file will be blocking.

When both AIO and sendfile are enabled on Linux, AIO is used for files that are larger than or equal to the size specified in the directio directive, while sendfile is used for files of smaller sizes or when directio is disabled:

location /video/ {
  sendfile       on;
  aio            on;
  directio       8m;
}

Finally, files can be read and send using multi-threading, without blocking a worker process:

location /video/ {
  sendfile       on;
  aio            threads;
}

Read and send file operations are offloaded to threads of the specified pool. If the pool name is omitted, the pool with the name "default" is used. The pool name can also be set with variables:

aio threads=pool$disk;

By default, multi-threading is disabled, it should be enabled with the --with-threads configuration parameter. Currently, multi-threading is compatible only with the epoll, kqueue and eventport methods. Multi-threaded sending of files is only supported on Linux.

See also the sendfile directive.

aio_write#

Syntax

aio_write on | off;

Default

aio_write off;

Context

http, server, location

If aio is enabled, specifies whether it is used for writing files. Currently, this only works when using aio threads and is limited to writing temporary files with data received from proxied servers.

alias#

Syntax

alias path;

Default

Context

location

Defines a replacement for the specified location. For example, with the following configuration:

location /i/ {
  alias /data/w3/images/;
}

on request of /i/top.gif, the file /data/w3/images/top.gif will be sent.

The path value can contain variables, except $document_root and $realpath_root.

If alias is used inside a location defined with a regular expression then such regular expression should contain captures and alias should refer to these captures, for example:

location ~ ^/users/(.+\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png))$ {
  alias /data/w3/images/$1;
}

When location matches the last part of the directive's value:

location /images/ {
  alias /data/w3/images/;
}

it is better to use the root directive instead:

location /images/ {
  root /data/w3;
}

auth_delay#

Syntax

auth_delay time;

Default

auth_delay 0s;

Context

http, server, location

Delays processing of unauthorized requests with 401 response code to prevent timing attacks when access is limited by password or by the result of subrequest.

auto_redirect#

Syntax

auto_redirect [on | off | default];

Default

auto_redirect default;

Context

http, server, location

The directive controls the redirection behavior when a prefix location ends with a slash:

location /prefix/ {
    auto_redirect on;
}

Here, a request for /prefix causes a redirect to /prefix/.

Setting this to on and off enables and disables redirection explicitly. When set to default, redirection is enabled only if the location processes requests with api, proxy_pass, fastcgi_pass, uwsgi_pass, scgi_pass, memcached_pass, or grpc_pass.

chunked_transfer_encoding#

Syntax

chunked_transfer_encoding on | off;

Default

chunked_transfer_encoding on;

Context

http, server, location

Allows disabling chunked transfer encoding in HTTP/1.1. It may come in handy when using a software failing to support chunked encoding despite the standard's requirement.

client_body_buffer_size#

Syntax

client_body_buffer_size size;

Default

client_body_buffer_size 8k|16k;

Context

http, server, location

Sets buffer size for reading client request body. In case the request body is larger than the buffer, the whole body or only its part is written to a temporary file. By default, buffer size is equal to two memory pages. This is 8K on x86, other 32-bit platforms, and x86-64. It is usually 16K on other 64-bit platforms.

client_body_in_file_only#

Syntax

client_body_in_file_only on | clean | off;

Default

client_body_in_file_only off;

Context

http, server, location

Determines whether Angie should save the entire client request body into a file. This directive can be used during debugging, or when using the $request_body_file variable, or the $r->request_body_file method of the module Perl.

When set to the value on, temporary files are not removed after request processing.

on

temporary files are not removed after request processing

clean

will cause the temporary files left after request processing to be removed

client_body_in_single_buffer#

Syntax

client_body_in_single_buffer on | off;

Default

client_body_in_single_buffer off;

Context

http, server, location

Determines whether Angie should save the entire client request body in a single buffer. The directive is recommended when using the $request_body variable, to save the number of copy operations involved.

client_body_temp_path#

Syntax

client_body_temp_path path [level1 [level2 [level3]]];

Default

client_body_temp_path client_body_temp;

Context

http, server, location

Defines a directory for storing temporary files holding client request bodies. Up to three-level subdirectory hierarchy can be used under the specified directory. For example, in the following configuration

client_body_temp_path /spool/angie/client_temp 1 2;

a path to a temporary file might look like this:

/spool/angie/client_temp/7/45/00000123457

client_body_timeout#

Syntax

client_body_timeout time;

Default

client_body_timeout 60s;

Context

http, server, location

Defines a timeout for reading client request body. The timeout is set only for a period between two successive read operations, not for the transmission of the whole request body. If a client does not transmit anything within this time, the request is terminated with the 408 (Request Time-out) error.

client_header_buffer_size#

Syntax

client_header_buffer_size size;

Default

client_header_buffer_size 1k;

Context

http, server

Sets buffer size for reading client request header. For most requests, a buffer of 1K bytes is enough. However, if a request includes long cookies, or comes from a WAP client, it may not fit into 1K. If a request line or a request header field does not fit into this buffer then larger buffers, configured by the large_client_header_buffers directive, are allocated.

If the directive is specified on the server level, the value from the default server can be used. Details are provided in the Virtual server selection section.

client_header_timeout#

Syntax

client_header_timeout time;

Default

client_header_timeout 60s;

Context

http, server

Defines a timeout for reading client request header. If a client does not transmit the entire header within this time, the request is terminated with the 408 (Request Time-out) error.

client_max_body_size#

Syntax

client_max_body_size size;

Default

client_max_body_size 1m;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the maximum allowed size of the client request body. If the size in a request exceeds the configured value, the 413 (Request Entity Too Large) error is returned to the client. Please be aware that browsers cannot correctly display this error.

0

disables checking of client request body size

connection_pool_size#

Syntax

connection_pool_size size;

Default

connection_pool_size 256 | 512;

Context

http, server, location

Allows accurate tuning of per-connection memory allocations. This directive has minimal impact on performance and should not generally be used.
By default:

256 bytes

on 32-bit platforms

512 bytes

64-bit platforms

default_type#

Syntax

default_type mime-type;

Default

default_type text/plain;

Context

http, server, location

Defines the default MIME type of a response. Mapping of file name extensions to MIME types can be set with the types directive.

directio#

Syntax

directio size | off;

Default

directio off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables the use of the O_DIRECT flag (FreeBSD, Linux), the F_NOCACHE flag (macOS), or the directio() function (Solaris), when reading files that are larger than or equal to the specified size. The directive automatically disables the use of sendfile for a given request. It can be useful for serving large files:

directio 4m;

or when using aio on Linux.

directio_alignment#

Syntax

directio_alignment size;

Default

directio_alignment 512;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the alignment for directio. In most cases, a 512-byte alignment is enough. However, when using XFS under Linux, it needs to be increased to 4K.

error_page#

Syntax

error_page code ... [=[response]] uri;

Default

Context

http, server, location, if in location

Defines the URI that will be shown for the specified errors. A uri value can contain variables.

Example:

error_page 404             /404.html;
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;

This causes an internal redirect to the specified uri with the client request method changed to "GET" (for all methods other than "GET" and "HEAD").

Furthermore, it is possible to change the response code to another using the =response syntax, for example:

error_page 404 =200 /empty.gif;

If an error response is processed by a proxied server or a FastCGI/uwsgi/SCGI/gRPC server, and the server may return different response codes (e.g., 200, 302, 401 or 404), it is possible to respond with the code it returns:

error_page 404 = /404.php;

If there is no need to change URI and method during internal redirection it is possible to pass error processing into a named location:

location / {
  error_page 404 = @fallback;
}

location @fallback {
  proxy_pass http://backend;
}

Note

If uri processing leads to an error, the status code of the last occurred error is returned to the client.

It is also possible to use URL redirects for error processing:

error_page 403      http://example.com/forbidden.html;
error_page 404 =301 http://example.com/notfound.html;

In this case, by default, the response code 302 is returned to the client. It can only be changed to one of the redirect status codes (301, 302, 303, 307, and 308).

etag#

Syntax

etag on | off;

Default

etag on;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables automatic generation of the "ETag" response header field for static resources.

http#

Syntax

http { ... }

Default

Context

main

Provides the configuration file context in which the HTTP server directives are specified.

if_modified_since#

Syntax

if_modified_since off | exact | before;

Default

if_modified_since exact;

Context

http, server, location

Specifies how to compare modification time of a response with the time in the If-Modified-Since request header field:

off

the response is always considered modified

exact

exact match

before

modification time of the response is less than or equal to the time in the If-Modified-Since request header field.

ignore_invalid_headers#

Syntax

ignore_invalid_headers on | off;

Default

ignore_invalid_headers on;

Context

http, server

Controls whether header fields with invalid names should be ignored. Valid names are composed of English letters, digits, hyphens, and possibly underscores (as controlled by the ref:underscores_in_headers directive).

If the directive is specified on the server level, the value from the default server can be used.

internal#

Syntax

internal;

Default

Context

location

Specifies that a given location can only be used for internal requests. For external requests, the client error 404 (Not Found) is returned. Internal requests are the following:

Example:

error_page 404 /404.html;

location = /404.html {
  internal;
}

Note

There is a limit of 10 internal redirects per request to prevent request processing cycles that can occur in incorrect configurations. If this limit is reached, the error 500 (Internal Server Error) is returned. In such cases, the rewrite or internal redirection cycle message can be seen in the error log.

keepalive_disable#

Syntax

keepalive_disable none | browser ...;

Default

keepalive_disable msie6;

Context

http, server, location

Disables keep-alive connections with misbehaving browsers. The browser parameters specify which browsers will be affected.

none

enables keep-alive connections with all browsers

msie6

disables keep-alive connections with old versions of MSIE, once a POST request is received

safari

disables keep-alive connections with Safari and Safari-like browsers on macOS and macOS-like operating systems

keepalive_requests#

Syntax

keepalive_requests number;

Default

keepalive_requests 1000;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the maximum number of requests that can be served through one keep-alive connection. After the maximum number of requests are made, the connection is closed.

Closing connections periodically is necessary to free per-connection memory allocations. Therefore, using too high maximum number of requests could result in excessive memory usage and not recommended.

keepalive_time#

Syntax

keepalive_time time;

Default

keepalive_time 1h;

Context

http, server, location

Limits the maximum time during which requests can be processed through one keep-alive connection. After this time is reached, the connection is closed following the subsequent request processing.

keepalive_timeout#

Syntax

keepalive_timeout timeout [header_timeout];

Default

keepalive_timeout 75s;

Context

http, server, location

timeout

sets a timeout during which a keep-alive client connection will stay open on the server side

0

disables keep-alive client connections

The optional second parameter sets a value in the "Keep-Alive: timeout=time" response header field. Two parameters may differ.

The "Keep-Alive: timeout=time" header field is recognized by Mozilla and Konqueror. MSIE closes keep-alive connections by itself in about 60 seconds.

large_client_header_buffers#

Syntax

large_client_header_buffers number size;

Default

large_client_header_buffers 4 8k;

Context

http, server

Sets the maximum number and size of buffers used for reading large client request header. A request line cannot exceed the size of one buffer, or the 414 (Request-URI Too Large) error is returned to the client. A request header field cannot exceed the size of one buffer as well, or the 400 (Bad Request) error is returned to the client. Buffers are allocated only on demand. By default, the buffer size is equal to 8K bytes. If after the end of request processing a connection is transitioned into the keep-alive state, these buffers are released.

If the directive is specified on the server level, the value from the default server can be used.

limit_except#

Syntax

limit_except method1 [method2...] { ... };

Default

Context

location

Limits allowed HTTP methods inside a location. The method parameter can be one of the following: GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, MKCOL, COPY, MOVE, OPTIONS, PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, LOCK, UNLOCK or PATCH. Allowing the GET method makes the HEAD method also allowed. Access to other methods can be limited using the Access and Auth Basic directives:

limit_except GET {
  allow 192.168.1.0/32;
  deny  all;
}

Note

This example will limit access to all methods except GET and HEAD.

limit_rate#

Syntax

limit_rate rate;

Default

limit_rate 0;

Context

http, server, location, if in location

Limits the rate of response transmission to a client. The rate is specified in bytes per second. The zero value disables rate limiting. The limit is set per a request, and so if a client simultaneously opens two connections, the overall rate will be twice as much as the specified limit.

Parameter value can contain variables. It may be useful in cases where rate should be limited depending on a certain condition:

map $slow $rate {
  1     4k;
  2     8k;
}

limit_rate $rate;

Rate limit can also be set in the $limit_rate variable, however, this method is not recommended:

server {

  if ($slow) {
    set $limit_rate 4k;
  }

}

Rate limit can also be set in the "X-Accel-Limit-Rate" header field of a proxied server response. This capability can be disabled using the proxy_ignore_headers, fastcgi_ignore_headers, uwsgi_ignore_headers and scgi_ignore_headers directives.

limit_rate_after#

Syntax

limit_rate_after size;

Default

limit_rate_after 0;

Context

http, server, location, if in location

Sets the initial amount after which the further transmission of a response to a client will be rate limited. Parameter value can contain variables.

Example:

location /flv/ {
 flv;
 limit_rate_after 500k;
 limit_rate       50k;
}

lingering_close#

Syntax

lingering_close on | always | off;

Default

lingering_close on;

Context

http, server, location

Controls how Angie closes client connections.

on

instructs Angie to wait for and process additional data from a client before fully closing a connection, but only if heuristics suggests that a client may be sending more data.

always

will cause Angie to unconditionally wait for and process additional client data.

off

tells Angie to never wait for more data and close the connection immediately. This behavior breaks the protocol and should not be used under normal circumstances.

To control closing HTTP/2 connections, the directive must be specified on the server level.

lingering_time#

Syntax

lingering_time time;

Default

lingering_time 30s;

Context

http, server, location

When lingering_close is in effect, this directive specifies the maximum time during which Angie will process (read and ignore) additional data coming from a client. After that, the connection will be closed, even if there will be more data.

lingering_timeout#

Syntax

lingering_timeout time;

Default

lingering_timeout 5s;

Context

http, server, location

When lingering_close is in effect, this directive specifies the maximum waiting time for more client data to arrive. If data are not received during this time, the connection is closed. Otherwise, the data are read and ignored, and Angie starts waiting for more data again. The "wait-read-ignore" cycle is repeated, but no longer than specified by the lingering_time directive.

listen#

Syntax

listen address[:port] [default_server] [ssl] [http2 | quic] [proxy_protocol] [setfib=number] [fastopen=number] [backlog=number] [rcvbuf=size] [sndbuf=size] [accept_filter=filter] [deferred] [bind] [ipv6only=on|off] [reuseport] [so_keepalive=on|off|[keepidle]:[keepintvl]:[keepcnt]];

listen port [default_server] [ssl] [http2 | quic] [proxy_protocol] [setfib=number] [fastopen=number] [backlog=number] [rcvbuf=size] [sndbuf=size] [accept_filter=filter] [deferred] [bind] [ipv6only=on|off] [reuseport] [so_keepalive=on|off|[keepidle]:[keepintvl]:[keepcnt]];

listen unix:path [default_server] [ssl] [http2 | quic] [proxy_protocol] [backlog=number] [rcvbuf=size] [sndbuf=size] [accept_filter=filter] [deferred] [bind] [so_keepalive=on|off|[keepidle]:[keepintvl]:[keepcnt]];

Default

listen *:80 | *:8000;

Context

server

Sets the address and port for listen socket, or the path for a UNIX domain socket on which the server will accept requests. Both address and port, or only address or only port can be specified. An address may also be a hostname, for example:

listen 127.0.0.1:8000;
listen 127.0.0.1;
listen 8000;
listen *:8000;
listen localhost:8000;

IPv6 addresses are specified in square brackets:

  listen [::]:8000;
  listen [::1];

UNIX domain sockets are specified with the :samp:`unix:` prefix:
listen unix:/var/run/angie.sock;

If only address is given, the port 80 is used.

If the directive is not present then either *:80 is used if Angie runs with the superuser privileges, or *:8000 otherwise.

default_server

cause the server to become the default server for the specified address:port pair. If none of the directives have the default_server parameter then the first server with the address:port pair will be the default server for this pair.

ssl

allows specifying that all connections accepted on this port should work in SSL mode. This allows for a more compact configuration for the server that handles both HTTP and HTTPS requests.

http2

configures the port to accept HTTP/2 connections. Normally, for this to work the ssl parameter should be specified as well, but Angie can also be configured to accept HTTP/2 connections without SSL.

Deprecated since version 1.2.0.

Use the http2 directive instead.

quic

configures the port to accept QUIC connections. To use this option, Angie must have the HTTP3 module enabled and configured. With quic set, you can also specify reuseport so multiple worker processes can be used.

proxy_protocol

allows specifying that all connections accepted on this port should use the PROXY protocol.

The listen directive can have several additional parameters specific to socket-related system calls. These parameters can be specified in any listen directive, but only once for a given address:port pair.

setfib=number

this parameter sets the associated routing table, FIB (the SO_SETFIB option) for the listening socket. This currently works only on FreeBSD.

fastopen=number

enables "TCP Fast Open" for the listening socket and limits the maximum length for the queue of connections that have not yet completed the three-way handshake.

Caution

Do not enable this feature unless the server can handle receiving the same SYN packet with data more than once.

backlog=number

sets the backlog parameter in the listen() call that limits the maximum length for the queue of pending connections. By default, backlog is set to -1 on FreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, and macOS, and to 511 on other platforms.

rcvbuf=size

sets the receive buffer size (the SO_RCVBUF option) for the listening socket.

sndbuf=size

sets the send buffer size (the SO_SNDBUF option) for the listening socket.

accept_filter=filter

sets the name of accept filter (the SO_ACCEPTFILTER option) for the listening socket that filters incoming connections before passing them to accept(). This works only on FreeBSD and NetBSD 5.0+. Possible values are dataready and httpready.

deferred

instructs to use a deferred accept() (the TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT socket option) on Linux.

bind

instructs to make a separate bind() call for a given address:port pair. This is useful because if there are several listen directives with the same port but different addresses, and one of the listen directives listens on all addresses for the given port (*:port), Angie will bind() only to *:port. It should be noted that the getsockname() system call will be made in this case to determine the address that accepted the connection. If the setfib, fastopen, backlog, rcvbuf, sndbuf, accept_filter, deferred, ipv6only, reuseport or so_keepalive parameters are used then for a given address:port pair a separate bind() call will always be made.

ipv6only=on | off

this parameter determines (via the IPV6_V6ONLY socket option) whether an IPv6 socket listening on a wildcard address [::] will accept only IPv6 connections or both IPv6 and IPv4 connections. This parameter is turned on by default. It can only be set once on start.

reuseport

this parameter instructs to create an individual listening socket for each worker process (using the SO_REUSEPORT socket option on Linux 3.9+ and DragonFly BSD, or SO_REUSEPORT_LB on FreeBSD 12+), allowing a kernel to distribute incoming connections between worker processes. This currently works only on Linux 3.9+, DragonFly BSD, and FreeBSD 12+.

Caution

Inappropriate use of this option may have its security implications.

so_keepalive=on | off | [keepidle]:[keepintvl]:[keepcnt]
configures the "TCP keepalive" behavior for the listening socket.

''

if this parameter is omitted then the operating system's settings will be in effect for the socket

on

the SO_KEEPALIVE option is turned on for the socket

off

the SO_KEEPALIVE option is turned off for the socket

Some operating systems support setting of TCP keepalive parameters on a per-socket basis using the TCP_KEEPIDLE, TCP_KEEPINTVL, and TCP_KEEPCNT socket options. On such systems (currently, Linux 2.4+, NetBSD 5+, and FreeBSD 9.0-STABLE), they can be configured using the keepidle, keepintvl, and keepcnt parameters. One or two parameters may be omitted, in which case the system default setting for the corresponding socket option will be in effect. For example,

so_keepalive=30m::10

will set the idle timeout (TCP_KEEPIDLE) to 30 minutes, leave the probe interval (TCP_KEEPINTVL) at its system default, and set the probes count (TCP_KEEPCNT) to 10 probes.

Example:

listen 127.0.0.1 default_server accept_filter=dataready backlog=1024;

location#

Syntax

location ([ = | ~ | ~* | ^~ ] uri | @name)+ { ... }

Default

Context

server, location

Sets the configuration depending on whether the request URI matches any of the matching expressions.

The matching is performed against a normalized URI, after decoding the text encoded in the "%XX" form, resolving references to relative path components "." and "..", and possible compression of two or more adjacent slashes into a single slash.

A location can either be defined by a prefix string, or by a regular expression.

Regular expressions are specified with the preceding modifier:

~*

Case-insensitive matching

~

Case-sensitive matching

To find a location that matches a request, Angie first checks the locations defined with prefix strings (known as prefix locations). Among them, the location with the longest matching prefix is selected and tentatively stored.

Note

For case-insensitive operating systems such as macOS, prefix string matching is case insensitive. However, matching is limited to single-byte locales.

Then, regex-based locations are evaluated in order of their appearance in the configuration file. Their evaluation stops at the first match, and the corresponding configuration is used. If no matching regex location is found, Angie uses the configuration of the tentatively stored prefix location.

With some exceptions mentioned below, location blocks can be nested.

Regex locations may define capture groups that can later be used with other directives.

If the matching prefix location uses the ^~ modifier, regex locations aren't checked.

Also, the = modifier enables exact URI matching mode for a location; if an exact match is found, the lookup stops. For example, if / requests are frequent, defining location =/ speeds up their processing because the lookup stops at the exact match. Obviously, such locations can't contain nested locations.

Example:

location =/ {
   #configuration A
}

location / {
   #configuration B
}

location /documents/ {
   #configuration C
}

location ^~/images/ {
   #configuration D
}

location ~*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg)$ {
   #configuration E
}

A / request matches configuration A,
an /index.html request matches configuration B,
a /documents/document.html request matches configuration C,
an /images/1.gif request matches configuration D,
and a /documents/1.jpg request matches configuration E.

Note

If a prefix location ends with a slash character and auto_redirect is enabled, the following occurs: When a request arrives with the URI that has no trailing slash but otherwise matches the prefix exactly, a permanent 301 code redirect is returned, pointing to the requested URI with the slash appended.

With an exact URI-matching location, redirection isn't applied:

location /user/ {
  proxy_pass http://user.example.com;
}

location =/user {
  proxy_pass http://login.example.com;
}

The @ prefix defines a named location. Such locations aren't used for regular request processing, but instead can be used for request redirection. They cannot be nested and cannot contain nested locations.

Combined locations#

Several location contexts that define identical configuration blocks can be compacted by listing all their matching expressions in a single location with a single configuration block. That's called a combined location.

Suppose that configurations A, D, and E from the previous example define identical configurations; you can combine them into one location:

location =/
         ^~/images/
         ~*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg)$ {
   # general configuration
}

A named location can also be a part of the combination:

location =/
         @named_combined {
   #...
}

Caution

A combined location can't have a space between the matching expression and its modifier. Proper form: location ~*/match(ing|es|er)$ ....

Note

Currently, a combined location cannot immediately contain neither proxy_pass directives with URI set, nor api or alias. However, these directives can be used by locations nested inside a combined location.

log_not_found#

Syntax

log_not_found on | off;

Default

log_not_found on;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables logging of errors about not found files into error_log.

log_subrequest#

Syntax

log_subrequest on | off;

Default

log_subrequest off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables logging of subrequests into access_log.

max_ranges#

Syntax

max_ranges number

Default

Context

http, server, location

Limits the maximum allowed number of ranges in byte-range requests. Requests that exceed the limit are processed as if there were no byte ranges specified. By default, the number of ranges is not limited.

0

disables the byte-range support completely

merge_slashes#

Syntax

merge_slashes on | off;

Default

merge_slashes on;

Context

http, server

Enables or disables compression of two or more adjacent slashes in a URI into a single slash.

Note that compression is essential for the correct matching of prefix string and regular expression locations. Without it, the //scripts/one.php request would not match

location /scripts/ { }

and might be processed as a static file. So it gets converted to /scripts/one.php.

Turning the compression off can become necessary if a URI contains base64-encoded names, since base64 uses the "/" character internally. However, for security considerations, it is better to avoid turning the compression off.

If the directive is specified on the server level, the value from the default server can be used.

msie_padding#

Syntax

msie_padding on | off;

Default

msie_padding on;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables adding comments to responses for MSIE clients with status greater than 400 to increase the response size to 512 bytes.

msie_refresh#

Syntax

msie_refresh on | off;

Default

msie_refresh off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables issuing refreshes instead of redirects for MSIE clients.

open_file_cache#

Syntax

open_file_cache off;
open_file_cache max=N [inactive=time];

Default

open_file_cache off;

Context

http, server, location

Configures a cache that can store:

  • open file descriptors, their sizes and modification times;

  • information on existence of directories;

  • file lookup errors, such as "file not found", "no read permission", and so on.

Caching of errors should be enabled separately by the open_file_cache_errors directive.

max

sets the maximum number of elements in the cache; on cache overflow the least recently used (LRU) elements are removed;

inactive

defines a time after which an element is removed from the cache if it has not been accessed during this time;
by default, it is 60 seconds;

off

disables the cache.

Example:

open_file_cache          max=1000 inactive=20s;
open_file_cache_valid    30s;
open_file_cache_min_uses 2;
open_file_cache_errors   on;

open_file_cache_errors#

Syntax

open_file_cache_errors on | off;

Default

open_file_cache_errors off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables caching of file lookup errors by open_file_cache.

open_file_cache_min_uses#

Syntax

open_file_cache_min_uses number;

Default

open_file_cache_min_uses 1;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the minimum number of file accesses during the period configured by the inactive parameter of the open_file_cache directive, required for a file descriptor to remain open in the cache.

open_file_cache_valid#

Syntax

open_file_cache_valid time;

Default

open_file_cache_valid 60s;

Context

http, server, location

Sets a time after which open_file_cache elements should be validated.

output_buffers#

Syntax

output_buffers number size;

Default

output_buffers 2 32k;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the number and size of the buffers used for reading a response from a disk.

port_in_redirect#

Syntax

port_in_redirect on | off;

Default

port_in_redirect on;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables specifying the port in absolute redirects issued by Angie.

The use of the primary server name in redirects is controlled by the server_name_in_redirect directive.

postpone_output#

Syntax

postpone_output size;

Default

postpone_output 1460;

Context

http, server, location

If possible, the transmission of client data will be postponed until Angie has at least size bytes of data to send.

0

disables postponing data transmission

read_ahead#

Syntax

read_ahead size;

Default

read_ahead 0;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the amount of pre-reading for the kernel when working with file.

On Linux, the posix_fadvise(0, 0, 0, POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL) system call is used, and so the size parameter is ignored.

recursive_error_pages#

Syntax

recursive_error_pages on | off;

Default

recursive_error_pages off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables doing several redirects using the error_page directive. The number of such redirects is limited.

request_pool_size#

Syntax

request_pool_size size;

Default

request_pool_size 4k;

Context

http, server

Allows accurate tuning of per-request memory allocations. This directive has minimal impact on performance and should not generally be used.

reset_timedout_connection#

Syntax

reset_timedout_connection on | off;

Default

reset_timedout_connection off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables resetting timed out connections and connections closed with the non-standard code 444. The reset is performed as follows. Before closing a socket, the SO_LINGER option is set on it with a timeout value of 0. When the socket is closed, TCP RST is sent to the client, and all memory occupied by this socket is released. This helps avoid keeping an already closed socket with filled buffers in a FIN_WAIT1 state for a long time.

Note

timed out keep-alive connections are closed normally.

resolver#

Syntax

resolver address ... [valid=time] [ipv4=on|off] [ipv6=on|off] [status_zone=zone];

Default

Context

http, server, location, upstream

Configures name servers used to resolve names of upstream servers into addresses, for example:

resolver 127.0.0.53 [::1]:5353;

The address can be specified as a domain name or IP address, with an optional port. If port is not specified, the port 53 is used. Name servers are queried in a round-robin fashion.

By default, Angie caches answers using the TTL value of a response.

valid

optional parameter allows overriding cached entry validity

resolver 127.0.0.53 [::1]:5353 valid=30s;

By default, Angie will look up both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses while resolving.

ipv4=off

disables looking up of IPv4 addresses

ipv6=off

disables looking up of IPv6 addresses

status_zone

optional parameter; enables the collection of DNS server request and response metrics (/status/resolvers/<zone>) in the specified zone.

Tip

To prevent DNS spoofing, it is recommended configuring DNS servers in a properly secured trusted local network.

resolver_timeout#

Syntax

resolver_timeout time;

Default

resolver_timeout 30s;

Context

http, server, location, upstream

Sets a timeout for name resolution, for example:

resolver_timeout 5s;

root#

Syntax

root path;

Default

root html;

Context

http, server, location, if in location

Sets the root directory for requests. For example, with the following configuration

location /i/ {
  root /data/w3;
}

The /data/w3/i/top.gif file will be sent in response to the /i/top.gif request.

The path value can contain variables, except $document_root and $realpath_root.

A path to the file is constructed by merely adding a URI to the value of the root directive. If a URI has to be modified, the alias directive should be used.

satisfy#

Syntax

satisfy all | any;

Default

satisfy all;

Context

http, server, location

Allows access if all (all) or at least one (any) of these modules allow access: Access, Auth Basic, or Auth Request.

location / {
  satisfy any;

  allow 192.168.1.0/32;
  deny  all;

  auth_basic           "closed site";
  auth_basic_user_file conf/htpasswd;
}

send_lowat#

Syntax

send_lowat size;

Default

send_lowat 0;

Context

http, server, location

If the directive is set to a non-zero value, Angie will try to minimize the number of send operations on client sockets by using either NOTE_LOWAT flag of the ref:kqueue method or the SO_SNDLOWAT socket option. In both cases the specified size is used.

send_timeout#

Syntax

send_timeout time;

Default

send_timeout 60s;

Context

http, server, location

Sets a timeout for transmitting a response to the client. The timeout is set only between two successive write operations, not for the transmission of the whole response. If the client does not receive anything within this time, the connection is closed.

sendfile#

Syntax

sendfile on | off;

Default

sendfile off;

Context

http, server, location, if in location

Enables or disables the use of sendfile().

aio can be used to pre-load data for sendfile():

location /video/ {
  sendfile       on;
  tcp_nopush     on;
  aio            on;
}

In this configuration, sendfile() is called with the SF_NODISKIO flag which causes it not to block on disk I/O, but, instead, report back that the data are not in memory. Angie then initiates an asynchronous data load by reading one byte. On the first read, the FreeBSD kernel loads the first 128K bytes of a file into memory, although next reads will only load data in 16K chunks. This can be changed using the read_ahead directive.

sendfile_max_chunk#

Syntax

sendfile_max_chunk size;

Default

sendfile_max_chunk 2m;

Context

http, server, location

Limits the amount of data that can be transferred in a single sendfile() call. Without the limit, one fast connection may seize the worker process entirely.

server#

Syntax

server { ... }

Default

Context

http

Sets configuration for a virtual server. There is no clear separation between IP-based (based on the IP address) and name-based (based on the "Host" request header field) virtual servers. Instead, the listen directives describe all addresses and ports that should accept connections for the server, and the server_name directive lists all server names.

Example configurations are provided in the How Angie processes a request document.

server_name#

Syntax

server_name name ...;

Default

server_name "";

Context

server

Sets names of a virtual server, for example:

server {
  server_name example.com www.example.com;
}

The first name becomes the primary server name.

Server names can include an asterisk ("*") replacing the first or last part of a name:

server {
  server_name example.com *.example.com www.example.*;
}

Such names are called wildcard names.

The first two of the names mentioned above can be combined in one:

server {
  server_name .example.com;
}

It is also possible to use regular expressions in server names, preceding the name with a tilde ("~"):

server {
  server_name ~^www\d+\.example\.com$ www.example.com;
}

Regular expressions can contain captures that can later be used in other directives:

server {
  server_name ~^(www\.)?(.+)$;

  location / {
     root /sites/$2;
  }
}

server {
  server_name _;

  location / {
     root /sites/default;
  }
}

Named captures in regular expressions create variables that can later be used in other directives:

  server {
    server_name ~^(www\.)?(?<domain>.+)$;

    location / {
       root /sites/$domain;
    }
  }

server {
    server_name _;

    location / {
       root /sites/default;
    }
  }

Note

If the directive's parameter is set to $hostname, the machine's hostname is inserted (hostname).

During searching for a virtual server by name, if the name matches more than one of the specified variants, (e.g. both a wildcard name and regular expression match), the first matching variant will be chosen, in the following order of priority:

  • the exact name

  • the longest wildcard name starting with an asterisk, e.g. "*.example.com"

  • the longest wildcard name ending with an asterisk, e.g. "mail.*"

  • the first matching regular expression (in order of appearance in the configuration file)

Attention

To make server_name work with TLS, you need to terminate the TLS connection. The directive matches the Host in an HTTP request, so the handshake must be completed and the connection decrypted.

server_name_in_redirect#

Syntax

server_name_in_redirect on | off;

Default

server_name_in_redirect off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables the use of the primary server name, specified by the server_name directive, in absolute redirects issued by Angie.

on

the primary server name, specified by the server_name directive

off

the name from the "Host" request header field is used. If this field is not present, the IP address of the server is used.

The use of a port in redirects is controlled by the port_in_redirect directive.

server_names_hash_bucket_size#

Syntax

server_names_hash_bucket_size size;

Default

server_names_hash_bucket_size 32 | 64 | 128;

Context

http

Sets the bucket size for the server names hash tables. The default value depends on the size of the processor's cache line. The details of setting up hash tables are provided in a separate document.

server_names_hash_max_size#

Syntax

server_names_hash_max_size size;

Default

server_names_hash_max_size 512;

Context

http

Sets the maximum size of the server names hash tables. The details of setting up hash tables are provided in a separate document.

server_tokens#

Syntax

server_tokens on | off | build | string;

Default

server_tokens on;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables emitting Angie version on error pages and in the Server response header field. The build parameter enables emitting the build name, set by the respective configure parameter, along with the version.

Added in version 1.1.0: PRO

In Angie PRO, if the directive sets a string, which may also contain variables, the error pages and the Server response header field will use the string's variable-interpolated value instead of server name, version, and build name. An empty string disables emitting the Server field.

status_zone#

Syntax

status_zone zone;

Default

Context

server, location, if in location

Allocates a shared memory zone to collect metrics for /status/http/location_zones/<zone> and /status/http/server_zones/<zone>.

Multiple server contexts can share the same zone for data collection; the special value off disables data collection in nested location blocks.

subrequest_output_buffer_size#

Syntax

subrequest_output_buffer_size size;

Default

subrequest_output_buffer_size 4k | 8k;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the size of the buffer used for storing the response body of a subrequest. By default, the buffer size is equal to one memory page. This is either 4K or 8K, depending on a platform. It can be made smaller, however.

Note

The directive is applicable only for subrequests with response bodies saved into memory. For example, such subrequests are created by SSI.

tcp_nodelay#

Syntax

tcp_nodelay on | off;

Default

tcp_nodelay on;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables the use of the TCP_NODELAY option. The option is enabled when a connection is transitioned into the keep-alive state. Additionally, it is enabled on SSL connections, for unbuffered proxying, and for WebSocket proxying.

tcp_nopush#

Syntax

tcp_nopush on | off;

Default

tcp_nopush off;

Context

http, server, location

Enables or disables the use of the TCP_NOPUSH socket option on FreeBSD or the TCP_CORK socket option on Linux. The options are enabled only when sendfile is used. Enabling the option allows

  • sending the response header and the beginning of a file in one packet, on Linux and FreeBSD 4.*;

  • sending a file in full packets.

try_files#

Syntax

try_files file ... uri;

try_files file ... =code;

Default

Context

server, location

Checks the existence of files in the specified order and uses the first found file for request processing; the processing is performed in the current context. The path to a file is constructed from the file parameter according to the root and alias directives. It is possible to check directory's existence by specifying a slash at the end of a name, e.g. $uri/. If none of the files were found, an internal redirect to the uri specified in the last parameter is made. For example:

location /images/ {
  try_files $uri /images/default.gif;
}

location = /images/default.gif {
  expires 30s;
}

The last parameter can also point to a named location, as shown in examples below. The last parameter can also be a code:

location / {
  try_files $uri $uri/index.html $uri.html =404;
}

In the following example,

location / {
  try_files $uri $uri/ @drupal;
}

the try_files directive is equivalent to

location / {
  error_page 404 = @drupal;
  log_not_found off;
}

And here,

location ~ \.php$ {
  try_files $uri @drupal;

  fastcgi_pass ...;

  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name;

#  ...
}

try_files checks the existence of the PHP file before passing the request to the FastCGI server.

Example in proxying Mongrel:
location / {
  try_files /system/maintenance.html
           $uri $uri/index.html $uri.html
           @mongrel;
}

location @mongrel {
  proxy_pass http://mongrel;
}
Example for Drupal/FastCGI:
location / {
  try_files $uri $uri/ @drupal;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
  try_files $uri @drupal;

  fastcgi_pass ...;

  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name;
  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME     $fastcgi_script_name;
  fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING    $args;

#  ... other fastcgi_param
}

location @drupal {
  fastcgi_pass ...;

  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/index.php;
  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME     /index.php;
  fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING    q=$uri&$args;

#  ... other fastcgi_param
}
Example for Wordpress and Joomla:
location / {
  try_files $uri $uri/ @wordpress;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
  try_files $uri @wordpress;

  fastcgi_pass ...;

  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name;
#  ... other fastcgi_param
}

location @wordpress {
  fastcgi_pass ...;

  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/index.php;
#  ... other fastcgi_param
}

types#

Syntax

types { ... }

Default

types text/html html; image/gif gif; image/jpeg jpg;

Context

http, server, location

Maps file name extensions to MIME types of responses. Extensions are case-insensitive. Several extensions can be mapped to one type, for example:

types {
  application/octet-stream bin exe dll;
  application/octet-stream deb;
  application/octet-stream dmg;
}

A sufficiently full mapping table is distributed with Angie in the conf/mime.types file.

To make a particular location emit the "application/octet-stream" MIME type for all requests, the following configuration can be used:

location /download/ {
  types        { }
  default_type application/octet-stream;
}

types_hash_bucket_size#

Syntax

types_hash_bucket_size size;

Default

types_hash_bucket_size 64;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the bucket size for the types hash tables. The details of setting up hash tables are provided in a separate document.

types_hash_max_size#

Syntax

types_hash_max_size size;

Default

types_hash_max_size 1024;

Context

http, server, location

Sets the maximum size of the types hash tables. The details of setting up hash tables are provided in a separate document.

underscores_in_headers#

Syntax

underscores_in_headers on | off;

Default

underscores_in_headers off;

Context

http, server

Enables or disables the use of underscores in client request header fields. When the use of underscores is disabled, request header fields whose names contain underscores are marked as invalid and become subject to the ignore_invalid_headers directive.

If the directive is specified on the server level, the value from the default server can be used.

variables_hash_bucket_size#

Syntax

variables_hash_bucket_size size;

Default

variables_hash_bucket_size 64;

Context

http

Sets the bucket size for the variables hash table. The details of setting up hash tables are provided in a separate document.

variables_hash_max_size#

Syntax

variables_hash_max_size size;

Default

variables_hash_max_size 1024;

Context

http

Sets the maximum size of the variables hash table. The details of setting up hash tables are provided in a separate document.

Built-in Variables#

The http_core module supports built-in variables with names matching the Apache Server variables. First of all, these are variables representing client request header fields, such as $http_user_agent, $http_cookie, and so on. Also, there are other variables:

$angie_version#

Angie version

$arg_ name#

argument name in the request line

$args#

arguments in the request line

$binary_remote_addr#

client address in a binary form, value's length is always 4 bytes for IPv4 addresses or 16 bytes for IPv6 addresses

$body_bytes_sent#

number of bytes sent to a client, not counting the response header; this variable is compatible with the "%B" parameter of the mod_log_config Apache module

$bytes_sent#

number of bytes sent to a client

$connection#

connection serial number

$connection_requests#

current number of requests made through a connection

$connection_time#

connection time in seconds with a milliseconds resolution

$content_length#

"Content-Length" request header field

$content_type#

"Content-Type" request header field

$document_root#

root or alias directive's value for the current request

$document_uri#

same as $uri

$host#

n this order of precedence: host name from the request line, or host name from the "Host" request header field, or the server name matching a request

$hostname#

host name

$http_ name#

arbitrary request header field; the last part of a variable name is the field name converted to lower case with dashes replaced by underscores

$https#

on if connection operates in SSL mode, or an empty string otherwise

$is_args#

?, if a request line has arguments, or an empty string otherwise

$limit_rate#

setting this variable enables response rate limiting; see limit_rate

$msec#

current time in seconds with the milliseconds resolution

$pid#

PID of the worker process

$pipe#

p if request was pipelined, . otherwise

$proxy_protocol_addr#

client address from the PROXY protocol header
The PROXY protocol must be previously enabled by setting the proxy_protocol parameter in the listen directive.

$proxy_protocol_port#

client port from the PROXY protocol header
The PROXY protocol must be previously enabled by setting the proxy_protocol parameter in the listen directive.

$proxy_protocol_server_addr#

server address from the PROXY protocol header
The PROXY protocol must be previously enabled by setting the proxy_protocol parameter in the listen directive.

$proxy_protocol_server_port#

server port from the PROXY protocol header
The PROXY protocol must be previously enabled by setting the proxy_protocol parameter in the listen directive.

$proxy_protocol_tlv_ name#

TLV from the PROXY Protocol header. The name can be a TLV type name or its numeric value. In the latter case, the value is hexadecimal and should be prefixed with 0x:

$proxy_protocol_tlv_alpn
$proxy_protocol_tlv_0x01

SSL TLVs can also be accessed by TLV type name or its numeric value, both prefixed by ssl_:

$proxy_protocol_tlv_ssl_version
$proxy_protocol_tlv_ssl_0x21

The following TLV type names are supported:

  • alpn (0x01) - upper layer protocol used over the connection

  • authority (0x02) - host name value passed by the client

  • unique_id (0x05) - unique connection id

  • netns (0x30) - name of the namespace

  • ssl (0x20) - binary SSL TLV structure

The following SSL TLV type names are supported:

  • ssl_version (0x21) - SSL version used in client connection

  • ssl_cn (0x22) - SSL certificate Common Name

  • ssl_cipher (0x23) - name of the used cipher

  • ssl_sig_alg (0x24) - algorithm used to sign the certificate

  • ssl_key_alg (0x25) - public-key algorithm

Also, the following special SSL TLV type name is supported:

  • ssl_verify - client SSL certificate verification result, 0 if the client presented a certificate and it was successfully verified, non-zero otherwise.

The PROXY protocol must be previously enabled by setting the proxy_protocol parameter in the listen directive.

$query_string#

same as $args

$realpath_root#

an absolute pathname corresponding to the root or alias directive's value for the current request, with all symbolic links resolved to real paths

$remote_addr#

client address

$remote_port#

client port

$remote_user#

user name supplied with the Basic authentication

$request#

full original request line

$request_body#

request body
The variable's value is made available in locations processed by the proxy_pass, fastcgi_pass, uwsgi_pass and scgi_pass directives when the request body was read to a memory buffer.

$request_body_file#

name of a temporary file with the request body
At the end of processing, the file needs to be removed. To always write the request body to a file, client_body_in_file_only needs to be enabled. When the name of a temporary file is passed in a proxied request or in a request to a FastCGI/uwsgi/SCGI server, passing the request body should be disabled by the proxy_pass_request_body off, fastcgi_pass_request_body off, uwsgi_pass_request_body off or scgi_pass_request_body off directives, respectively.

$request_completion#

"OK" if a request has completed, or an empty string otherwise

$request_filename#

file path for the current request, based on the root or alias directives, and the request URI

$request_id#

unique request identifier generated from 16 random bytes, in hexadecimal

$request_length#

request length (including request line, header, and request body)

$request_method#

request method, usually "GET" or "POST"

$request_time#

request processing time in seconds with a milliseconds resolution; time elapsed since the first bytes were read from the client

$request_uri#

full original request URI (with arguments)

$scheme#

request scheme, "http" or "https"

$sent_http_ name#

arbitrary response header field; the last part of a variable name is the field name converted to lower case with dashes replaced by underscores

$sent_trailer_ name#

arbitrary field sent at the end of the response; the last part of a variable name is the field name converted to lower case with dashes replaced by underscores

$server_addr#

an address of the server which accepted a request
Computing the variable's value usually requires one system call. To avoid it, the listen directives must specify addresses and use the bind parameter.

$server_name#

name of the server which accepted a request

$server_port#

port of the server which accepted a request

$server_protocol#

request protocol, usually "HTTP/1.0", "HTTP/1.1", or "HTTP/2.0"

$status#

response status

$time_iso8601#

local time in the ISO 8601 standard format

$time_local#

local time in the Common Log Format

$tcpinfo_rtt, $tcpinfo_rttvar, $tcpinfo_snd_cwnd, $tcpinfo_rcv_space#

information about the client TCP connection; available on systems that support the TCP_INFO socket option

$uri#

current URI in request, normalized
The value of $uri may change during request processing, e.g. when doing internal redirects, or when using index files