lookahead regex in nginx location

Question

I'm trying to match /category/anything, except /category/paid in nginx location.

I have the following regex, but it's not working. Google tells me that I can use lookahead in nginx. Am I doing something wrong?

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location ^/category(?!/paid)/ {

}

Answer 1

You either need a slash before it or an escaped slash.

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location ~ (category/(?!paid)) { .. }
location ~ (category\/(?!paid)) { .. }