How do you serve static files from an nginx server acting as a reverse proxy for a nodejs server?

Question

My current nginx config is this:

upstream nodejs {     server 127.0.0.1:3000; }  server {     listen 8080;     server_name localhost;     root ~/workspace/test/app;     index index.html;      location / {         proxy_pass http://nodejs;         proxy_set_header Host $host ;          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;     } } 

I'm very very new to nginx, but at the very least I know that nginx is better than node/express at serving static files. How can I configure the server so that nginx serves the static files?

Answer 1

I solved it using this new configuration:

upstream nodejs {     server localhost:3000; }  server {     listen 8080;     server_name localhost;     root ~/workspace/test/app;      location / {         try_files $uri @nodejs;     }      location @nodejs {         proxy_redirect off;         proxy_http_version 1.1;         proxy_pass http://nodejs;         proxy_set_header Host $host ;          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;     } } 

Thanks to the following Stack Overflow post:

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How to serve all existing static files directly with NGINX, but proxy the rest to a backend server.

Answer 2

You'll probably want another location block within your server for the static files.

location /static {   alias /path/to/static/files; } 

This uses the alias directive. Then you can hit files at localhost:8080/static/some_file.css

P.S. You don't need the root or index that you have set currently. (root is similar to alias with a slight difference in usage)