nginx: auth_basic for everything except a specific location

Question

How can I enable HTTP Basic Auth for everything except for a certain file?

Here is my current server block configuration for the location:

location / {        auth_basic "The password, you must enter.";        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/htpasswd; }  location /README {        auth_basic off; } 

However, on /README, it is still prompting for a password.

How can we fix this?

Thanks! Mark

Answer 1

Try to use sign = , that helps you:

location = /README {        auth_basic off;        allow all; # Allow all to see content  } 

Answer 2

I am doing something similar using "map" instead of "if" to assign the auth_basic realm variable and htpasswd file:

map $http_host $siteenv {   default       dev;    ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.dev dev;   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devprofile devprofile;   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devdebug devdebug;   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.test test;   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.demo demo;   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.stage stage;    # Live   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.live live;   ~^.*\.(?P<subdomain>.+)\.[a-zA-Z]* live; }  map $http_host $auth_type {   default       "Restricted";    ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.dev "Development";   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devprofile "Development";   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.devdebug "Development";   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.test "Testing";   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.stage "Stage";   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.demo "Demo";    # Live   ~^(?<subdomain>.+)\.live "off";   ~^.*\.(?P<subdomain>.+)\.[a-zA-Z]* "off"; }  server {   .. etc ..    auth_basic            $auth_type;   auth_basic_user_file  /etc/nginx/conf.d/htpasswd-$siteenv; }