# Is there a length limitation on file extensions? **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [March 7, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220 "2016-03-07T23:04:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rafa\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/958977/32.png) [@Rafa\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rafa_F)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/1 "2016-03-07T23:04:26Z")
I am using Nginx to serve a website that hosts a .Net application. The file a user needs to download and that triggers installation is a \*.application file, and an MS Internet Information Server associates that with the mime type application/x-ms-application. However that file never gets any Content-Type header. I edited the mime.types configuration file to include that, but Nginx ignores that. When I rename the file to .app, and use a mime type definition for that file it works. I also tried various other file extensions of varying length, and it looks like there is a limit of 10 characters in a file type extenion of Nginx, and if that is exceeded there will be no Content-Type header. Is my assumption correct? Where is this in the source files? (I know how to compile Nginx). Or any other idea what causes my problem? Thanks, Joachim Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Is there a length limitation on file extensions?](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265148,265148#msg-265148)** > > I am using Nginx to serve a website that hosts a .Net application. The file a user needs to download and that triggers installation is a \*.application file, and an MS Internet Information Server associates that with the mime type... ---
**Author:** ![j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j.o.l)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/2 "2016-03-07T23:34:49Z")
j.o.l: > Is my assumption correct? Where is this in the source files? (I know how to > compile Nginx). Or any other idea what causes my problem? > Thanks, Joachim works here, so your assumption seems wrong. server { listen \*:80; server\_name localhost; location / { autoindex on; alias /tmp/; } types { application/x-ms-executable application; } } $ touch /tmp/foo.application $ curl -I localhost/foo.application HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:29:42 GMT Content-Type: application/x-ms-executable Content-Length: 0 Last-Modified: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:26:52 GMT Connection: keep-alive Accept-Ranges: bytes $ ---
**Author:** ![j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j.o.l)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/3 "2016-03-08T21:35:04Z")
Thanks a lot for providing a working example. I reproduced it and yes works with that server block. Then I tried to change until I discovered the following. Here is my server block: ``` server { listen 443 ssl; listen 8080; server_name xxx; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/xxx/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key ``` /etc/letsencrypt/live/xxx/privkey.pem; root /usr/local/nginx/conf/websites/xxx; autoindex on; types { application/x-ms-application application; } } When I access that server using http, Content-Type is returned as defined, when accessing it via https, Content-Type is missing. Strange, isn´t it? Btw. I am using nginx 1.8.0. Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Re: Is there a length limitation on file extensions?](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265148,265162#msg-265162)** > > I am using Nginx to serve a website that hosts a .Net application. The file a user needs to download and that triggers installation is a \*.application file, and an MS Internet Information Server associates that with the mime type... ---
**Author:** ![j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j.o.l)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/4 "2016-03-09T17:18:01Z")
Are you sure this configuration gets loaded (nginx -t OK, no error on configuration -re-loading)? You could try to replace your types block with an empty one (to override defaults if they are defined at upper level, or simply remove them) and add the following directive: default\_type application/x-ms-application ## You should se the Content-Encoding set to this special value by requesting with HTTP on port 8080 and HTTPS on port 443. If you get anything different, your request is probably served elsewhere. _B. R._ ---
**Author:** ![j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j.o.l)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/5 "2016-03-09T19:07:16Z")
yes, nginx -t reports OK. I tried the empty types block with default\_type as suggested - no change to the behavior. I verified that there is no other block processing the request. There is no other block that uses that certificate on port 443, and the port 8080 is used for that server block only. I also added an access\_log to that server block redirecting output to a different file, and yes, the output goes to that different file. I even defined my own log\_format that logs $sent\_http\_content\_type, and it reports application/x-ms-application for http, and - when using https… Any other idea what to try or check? Thanks a lot! Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Re: Is there a length limitation on file extensions?](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265148,265197#msg-265197)** > > I am using Nginx to serve a website that hosts a .Net application. The file a user needs to download and that triggers installation is a \*.application file, and an MS Internet Information Server associates that with the mime type... ---
**Author:** ![j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j.o.l)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/6 "2016-03-09T21:25:42Z")
after some more experiments it looks like I was caught by a looking at cached data. I was reloading the file for https as it was displayed as text (happens to be readable xml). However this reload was answered with not-modified without content-type (which is afaik standard conformant). Only on hard reload Chrome got a new copy with content type header. Goofish or not, maybe others stumble accross the same problem and this will help them to resolve the issue. Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Re: Is there a length limitation on file extensions?](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265148,265200#msg-265200)** > > I am using Nginx to serve a website that hosts a .Net application. The file a user needs to download and that triggers installation is a \*.application file, and an MS Internet Information Server associates that with the mime type... ---
**Author:** ![j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@j.o.l](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j.o.l)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-a-length-limitation-on-file-extensions/244220/7 "2016-03-09T21:26:17Z")
j.o.l: > Any other idea what to try or check? I would write two separate server blocks, server { listen 8080; server\_name xxx; root /usr/local/nginx/conf/websites/xxx; autoindex on; types { application/x-ms-application application; } } server { listen 443 ssl; ssl\_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/xxx/fullchain.pem; ssl\_certificate\_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/xxx/privkey.pem; server\_name xxx; root /usr/local/nginx/conf/websites/xxx; autoindex on; types { application/x-ms-application application; } }