nginx location proxy pass with file extension

Question

I have the following config:

location /api/ {        
    proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host:$server_port;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}

it works, except not for any path with an extension, ie .html or .txt.

tried

location ~ ^/api/(.*) {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/$1;
     proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host:$server_port;
     proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
     proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
 }

but that results in 502 bad gateway.

tried removing the trailing slash but results in 404s to the proxied server. is there a simple way to make it work, WITH extensions?

I also have this later on which may be conflicting?

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}

EDITED:

here is the full config.

# configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
user ubuntu;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 768;
    # multi_accept on;
}

http {

    ##
    # Basic Settings
    ##

    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    # server_tokens off;

    # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
    # server_name_in_redirect off;

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    ##
    # SSL Settings
    ##

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ##
    # Logging Settings
    ##

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    ##
    # Gzip Settings
    ##

    gzip on;

    # gzip_vary on;
    # gzip_proxied any;
    # gzip_comp_level 6;
    # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    # gzip_http_version 1.1;
    # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Virtual Host Configs
    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#   # See sample authentication script at:
#   # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
#
#   # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#   # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#   # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
#
#   server {
#       listen     localhost:110;
#       protocol   pop3;
#       proxy      on;
#   }
#
#   server {
#       listen     localhost:143;
#       protocol   imap;
#       proxy      on;
#   }
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-geoip2.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip2_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-image-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_image_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-xslt-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_xslt_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-mail.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_mail_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-stream.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_stream_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/70-mod-stream-geoip2.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_stream_geoip2_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types:

types {
    text/html                             html htm shtml;
    text/css                              css;
    text/xml                              xml;
    image/gif                             gif;
    image/jpeg                            jpeg jpg;
    application/javascript                js;
    application/atom+xml                  atom;
    application/rss+xml                   rss;

    text/mathml                           mml;
    text/plain                            txt;
    text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor      jad;
    text/vnd.wap.wml                      wml;
    text/x-component                      htc;

    image/png                             png;
    image/tiff                            tif tiff;
    image/vnd.wap.wbmp                    wbmp;
    image/x-icon                          ico;
    image/x-jng                           jng;
    image/x-ms-bmp                        bmp;
    image/svg+xml                         svg svgz;
    image/webp                            webp;

    application/font-woff                 woff;
    application/java-archive              jar war ear;
    application/json                      json;
    application/mac-binhex40              hqx;
    application/msword                    doc;
    application/pdf                       pdf;
    application/postscript                ps eps ai;
    application/rtf                       rtf;
    application/vnd.apple.mpegurl         m3u8;
    application/vnd.ms-excel              xls;
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject         eot;
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint         ppt;
    application/vnd.wap.wmlc              wmlc;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml  kml;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kmz      kmz;
    application/x-7z-compressed           7z;
    application/x-cocoa                   cco;
    application/x-java-archive-diff       jardiff;
    application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp;
    application/x-makeself                run;
    application/x-perl                    pl pm;
    application/x-pilot                   prc pdb;
    application/x-rar-compressed          rar;
    application/x-redhat-package-manager  rpm;
    application/x-sea                     sea;
    application/x-shockwave-flash         swf;
    application/x-stuffit                 sit;
    application/x-tcl                     tcl tk;
    application/x-x509-ca-cert            der pem crt;
    application/x-xpinstall               xpi;
    application/xhtml+xml                 xhtml;
    application/xspf+xml                  xspf;
    application/zip                       zip;

    application/octet-stream              bin exe dll;
    application/octet-stream              deb;
    application/octet-stream              dmg;
    application/octet-stream              iso img;
    application/octet-stream              msi msp msm;

    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document    docx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet          xlsx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation  pptx;

    audio/midi                            mid midi kar;
    audio/mpeg                            mp3;
    audio/ogg                             ogg;
    audio/x-m4a                           m4a;
    audio/x-realaudio                     ra;

    video/3gpp                            3gpp 3gp;
    video/mp2t                            ts;
    video/mp4                             mp4;
    video/mpeg                            mpeg mpg;
    video/quicktime                       mov;
    video/webm                            webm;
    video/x-flv                           flv;
    video/x-m4v                           m4v;
    video/x-mng                           mng;
    video/x-ms-asf                        asx asf;
    video/x-ms-wmv                        wmv;
    video/x-msvideo                       avi;
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/[retracted]:
server {
    # Redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name my.[retracted].app;  # Replace with your domain name
    
    location / {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }
}

server {

    # SSL configuration
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name my.[retracted].app;  # Replace with your domain name

    # Certbot managed SSL certificates
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/my.[retracted].app/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/my.[retracted].app/privkey.pem;
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;

    # Root directory and index file
    root /var/www/html/[retracted];  # Replace with your site's root directory
    index index.html;

    gzip on;
    gzip_min_length 1000;    
    gzip_types text/plain application/javascript application/transit+json application/json;
    
    location /api/ {        
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host:$server_port;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    
    # Deny access to hidden files
    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~* \.(?:html|txt)$ {
        expires -1;
    }

    location ~* \.(?:js|css)$ {
        expires max;
    }

}

# configuration file /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf:
# This file contains important security parameters. If you modify this file
# manually, Certbot will be unable to automatically provide future security
# updates. Instead, Certbot will print and log an error message with a path to
# the up-to-date file that you will need to refer to when manually updating
# this file.

ssl_session_cache shared:le_nginx_SSL:10m;
ssl_session_timeout 1440m;
ssl_session_tickets off;

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384";

Answer 1

To resolve the issue with the Nginx configuration where paths with extensions like .html or .txt under /api/ are not properly proxied, you can modify the location block for /api/. The key is to ensure that the proxy pass directive correctly handles the request URI, including the extension. Here's a revised snippet for the /api/ location block:

location ~ ^/api/(.*)$ {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/$1;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host:$server_port;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}

This revised Nginx configuration for the /api/ location uses a regular expression to capture all requests, including those with file extensions, and proxies them correctly to the local service running on port 3000.