# Other headers disappear after adding Set-Cookie header

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [August 16, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353 "2010-08-16T13:58:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/d2c977/32.png) [@Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Unimatrix02)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353/1 "2010-08-16T13:58:25Z")

</div>

Hi,

I have the following problem.

In a configuration with several locations, I am using  
add\_header Set-Cookie “name=value; [domain=xyz.com](http://domain=xyz.com); path=/”;  
and some other headers, like  
add\_header X-Info “Some information”

When the Set-Cookie header is added, all additional headers suddenly  
disappear. When the Set-Cookie add\_header call is disabled, the  
additional headers appear as normal.

First I thought it might be a bug, but this behavior doesn’t occur when  
I put this combination of headers in another location in another  
(simpler) server block. I also upgraded from 0.7.67 to 0.8.49 to see if  
that would make a difference, but it still happens.

Apparently there is something that drops the additional headers, but I  
have no idea what. I have disabled all other locations, disabled all  
other things (like expires), but without any effect.

The server block in which this happens is build up as follows:

- Capture of a variable from the URL;
- Rewrite of certain URLs to a static HTML page;
- Location to serve the static HTML pages, which includes the add\_header  
call for Set-Cookie, to pass on the value from the captured variable in  
a cookie;
- Location to serve other static content (css, images, etc);
- Location to proxy to apache.

I hope someone knows why this happens, and if it should be considered a  
bug or not.

Thanks,

Raymond

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Other headers disappear after adding Set-Cookie header](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,120295,120295#msg-120295)**
>
> Hi, I have the following problem. In a configuration with several locations, I am using add\_header Set-Cookie "name=value; domain=xyz.com; path=/"; and some other headers, like add\_header X-Info "Some information"

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/d2c977/32.png) [@Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Unimatrix02)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353/2 "2010-08-16T14:19:30Z")

</div>

Hello!

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 07:57:51AM -0400, Unimatrix02 wrote:

> disappear. When the Set-Cookie add\_header call is disabled, the
> 
> bug or not.  
> Please show:

1. Exact config which exposes the problem.

2. nginx -V output

3. Debug log.

See [GitHub - nginxinc/nginx-wiki: ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki section of https://www.nginx.com · GitHub](http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxDebugging) for details.

Maxim D.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/d2c977/32.png) [@Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Unimatrix02)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353/3 "2010-08-16T15:23:19Z")

</div>

Hi Maxim,

Thanks for your reply. I hereby provide the requested details.

nginx -v output  
nginx version: nginx/0.8.49  
built by gcc 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)  
TLS SNI support disabled  
configure arguments: --user=nginx --group=nginx  
–prefix=/usr/share/nginx --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx  
–conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf  
–error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log  
–http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log  
–http-client-body-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/tmp/client\_body  
–http-proxy-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/tmp/proxy  
–http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/tmp/fastcgi  
–pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid --lock-path=/var/lock/subsys/nginx  
–with-http\_secure\_link\_module --with-http\_random\_index\_module  
–with-http\_ssl\_module --with-http\_realip\_module  
–with-http\_addition\_module --with-http\_sub\_module  
–with-http\_dav\_module --with-http\_flv\_module  
–with-http\_gzip\_static\_module --with-http\_stub\_status\_module  
–with-http\_perl\_module --with-mail --with-mail\_ssl\_module  
–with-cc-opt=‘-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D\_FORTIFY\_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions  
-fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic’  
–with-ipv6  
–add-module=/builddir/build/BUILD/nginx-0.8.49/nginx-upstream-fair  
–add-module=/builddir/build/BUILD/nginx-0.8.49/nginx-upload-progress-module  
–add-module=/builddir/build/BUILD/nginx-0.8.49/mod\_zip-1.1.5  
–add-module=/builddir/build/BUILD/nginx-0.8.49/nginx\_upload\_module-2.0.12  
–add-module=/builddir/build/BUILD/nginx-0.8.49/nginx\_mod\_h264\_streaming-2.2.7

nginx.conf  
user nginx;

worker\_processes 2;  
worker\_cpu\_affinity 0001 0010;

error\_log /var/log/nginx/error.log debug;  
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;

events {  
worker\_connections 8192;  
use epoll;  
}

http {  
server\_names\_hash\_bucket\_size 64;  
include /etc/nginx/ibood-mime.types;  
include /etc/nginx/conf.d/\*.conf;  
default\_type application/octet-stream;

log\_format common '$http\_X\_Cluster\_Client\_IP - $remote\_user  
[$time\_local] “$request” ’  
'$status $body\_bytes\_sent “$http\_referer” ’  
‘“$http\_user\_agent” “$http\_x\_forwarded\_for”’;

log\_format main '$remote\_addr $proxy\_add\_x\_forwarded\_for $remote\_user  
[$time\_local] $request ’  
'“$status” $body\_bytes\_sent “$http\_referer” ’  
‘“$http\_user\_agent” “$http\_x\_forwarded\_for”  
“$http\_x\_cluster\_client\_ip”’;

```
log_format details '$http_X_Cluster_Client_IP $remote_user

```

[$time\_local] $request ’  
'“$status” $body\_bytes\_sent $bytes\_sent  
$connection “$pipe” ’  
'$msec $request\_time $request\_length ’  
'“$http\_referer” ’  
‘“$http\_user\_agent” “$http\_x\_forwarded\_for”’;  
access\_log /var/log/nginx/access.log common;  
sendfile on;  
tcp\_nopush on;  
keepalive\_timeout 15;

gzip off;

# — Virtual hosts —

[irrelevant vhosts cut out]

# The default server

server  
{  
listen 80 default backlog=1024;  
server\_name \_;  
server\_name\_in\_redirect off;

```
# Look for affiliate in URI
set $aff_id "";
if ($request_uri ~* "(affiliate,|affiliate=)([a-z0-9]*)")
{
  set $aff_id $2;
}

# Redirect old NL variants to main NL variant
rewrite ^/(depers|ad|iex|nu)/nl(.*)$ /nl/nl$2 permanent;

# Redirect banners to ext
rewrite ^/(banners/.*)$ http://ext.ibood.com/$1 permanent;

# Redirect feed requests to ext.ibood.com
rewrite ^/feeds/ibood_([^_/]+)_([^_/]+)\.xml$

```

[http://feeds.ibood.com/ibood/$1\_$2](http://feeds.ibood.com/ibood/$1_$2) permanent;

```
# Redirect all traffic on /feeds to ext.ibood.com
rewrite ^/feeds/(.*)$ http://ext.ibood.com/$1 permanent;

rewrite ^(/cms/.*)$ $1 break;

# Static content ----
rewrite ^([^\.]*)/imgdesign/([^\.]*)\.([^\.]*)$ 

```

/main/imgdesign/$2.$3  
last;  
rewrite ^([^.]_)/style/(._).css$ /main/style/$2.css last;  
rewrite ^([^.]_)/js/(._).js$ /main/js/$2.js last;  
rewrite ^/img/(._).(swf|js|ico|gif|jpg|JPG|png|css)$ /img/$1.$2  
last;  
rewrite ^/templates\_dynamic/(._).(js|ico|gif|jpg|JPG|png|css)$  
/templates\_dynamic/$1.$2 last;

```
# Remove trailing slash from .html URIs
rewrite ^(.+)\.html/?$ $1.html last;

# Rewrite for affiliate handling
#if ($request_uri ~

```

“^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)._(affiliate,|affiliate=)._”)  
#{  
# rewrite ^.\*$ /handle\_affiliate.php last;  
#}

```
# Serve static pages -----

# Only if not containing "affiliate"
#if ($request_uri !~ "(affiliate=|affiliate,)" )
#{
  rewrite

```

^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)/(product\_specs/._)$  
/static/generated/$1/$2 last;  
rewrite ^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)(/?)$  
/static/generated/$1/index.html last;  
rewrite ^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)/index._  
/static/generated/$1/index.html last;  
#}

```
# Redirect to splash page if request uri is still /
rewrite ^/$ /index.html last;

# ----

# Serve generated HTML files directly, but expire immediately
location ~ /static/generated/.*\.html$
{
  # Set cookie with affiliate ID, if present
  if ($aff_id != "")
  {
    add_header Set-Cookie "iboodaffiliates=$aff_id; path=/;

```

[domain=.ibood.com](http://domain=.ibood.com);";  
}

```
  add_header X-DebugInfo aff_id=$aff_id;
  add_header X-Info "Served by nginx 1:$uri";

  root /var/www/html;
  expires -1h;
}

# Serve static files directly
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|css|png|js|ico|xml|swf|pdf|doc|cur)$
{
  root /var/www/html;
  access_log off;
  # expires 30d;
  expires 12h;
  add_header X-Info "Served by nginx 2:$uri";
}

# Serve generated static pages
location /static/generated
{
  add_header X-DebugInfo aff_id=$aff_id;

  # Set cookie with affiliate ID, if present
  if ($aff_id != "")
  {
    #add_header Set-Cookie "testcookie=$aff_id; path=/;";
  }
  root /var/www/html;
  access_log off;
  expires 12h;
  add_header X-Info "Served by nginx 3:$uri";
}

# Set default languages
#rewrite ^/pl/?$ /pl/pl/ permanent;
#rewrite ^/nl/?$ /nl/nl/ permanent;
#rewrite ^/de/?$ /de/de/ permanent;
#rewrite ^/uk/?$ /uk/en/ permanent;
#rewrite ^/be/?$ /be/nl/ permanent;
#rewrite ^/ie/?$ /ie/en/ permanent;

#rewrite ^/$ /index.html last;
#rewrite ^(/cms/.*)$ $1 break;

# Pass calls to API client through without rewrites
#rewrite ^(/ac/.*)$ $1 break;

# Don't rewrite request to affiliate handler
#rewrite ^(/handle_affiliate.php) $1 break;

# Send everything to front controller
#rewrite ^.*$ /main/frontend.php break;

location /
{
  add_header X-Info "Served by apache";

  proxy_set_header Host $host;
  proxy_set_header X-Cluster-Client-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  proxy_set_header X-Request-URI $request_uri;

  proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
  proxy_redirect off;
}

error_page 404 /main/404.php;

```

}  
}

debug log  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
"(affiliate,|affiliate=)([a-z0-9]_)" matches  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: _,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: 1 "^/(depers|ad|iex|nu)/nl(.)$"  
does not match “/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client:  
192.168.32.50, server: , request: “GET  
/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host: “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: 1 "^/(banners/.)$" does not  
match “/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50,  
server: , request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”,  
host: “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: \*1  
"^/feeds/ibood([^/]+)_([^\_/]+).xml$" does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1 "^/feeds/(._)$" does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1 "^(/cms/._)$" does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
"^([^.]_)/imgdesign/([^.]_).([^.]_)$" does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1 "^([^.]_)/style/(._).css$"  
does not match “/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client:  
192.168.32.50, server: \_, request: “GET  
/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host: “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: 1 "^([^.])/js/(._).js$" does  
not match “/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50,  
server: \_, request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”,  
host: “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
"^/img/(._).(swf|js|ico|gif|jpg|JPG|png|css)$" does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
"^/templates\_dynamic/(._).(js|ico|gif|jpg|JPG|png|css)$" does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: \*1 “^(.+).html/?$” does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
"^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)/(product\_specs/._)$"  
does not match “/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client:  
192.168.32.50, server: \_, request: “GET  
/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host: “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: \*1  
“^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)(/?)$” does not match  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
"^/(pl/pl|nl/nl|de/de|uk/en|be/nl|ie/en|bild/de)/index._" matches  
“/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
“[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”  
2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: \*1 rewritten data:  
“/static/generated/nl/nl/index.html”, args: “”, client: 192.168.32.50,  
server: \_, request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”,  
host: “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”

I hope this helps to figure it out. My idea is that it has something to  
do with the placement of the add\_header call in a specific location  
block but I haven’t been able to reproduce this problem with a simpler  
server block.

Posted at Nginx Forum:  
[http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,120295,120324#msg-120324](http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,120295,120324#msg-120324)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/d2c977/32.png) [@Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Unimatrix02)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353/4 "2010-08-16T16:41:46Z")

</div>

Ah, that explains it. Thank you very much.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: Other headers disappear after adding Set-Cookie header](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,120295,120348#msg-120348)**
>
> Hi, I have the following problem. In a configuration with several locations, I am using add\_header Set-Cookie "name=value; domain=xyz.com; path=/"; and some other headers, like add\_header X-Info "Some information"

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/d2c977/32.png) [@Unimatrix02](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Unimatrix02)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/other-headers-disappear-after-adding-set-cookie-header/193353/5 "2010-08-16T16:30:39Z")

</div>

Hello!

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:22:07AM -0400, Unimatrix02 wrote:

[…]

> ```
> add_header X-DebugInfo aff_id=$aff_id;
> add_header X-Info "Served by nginx 1:$uri";
> 
> ```

This code defines two locations. One of them has add\_header array  
set to “X-DebugInfo, X-Info” and another one (implicitly defined  
by “if”) has it redefined to “Set-Cookie”.

You have to duplicate other add\_header directives within implicit  
location defined by “if”, i.e.

```
location ... {
    add_header X-DebugInfo ...
    add_header X-Info ...

    if (...) {
        add_header Set-Cookie ...
        add_header X-DebugInfo ...
        add_header X-Info ...
    }
}

```

Further reading:

> **[GitHub - nginxinc/nginx-wiki: ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki...](https://github.com/nginxinc/nginx-wiki)**
>
> ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki section of https://www.nginx.com

[…]

> debug log  
> 2010/08/16 15:12:22 [notice] 24579#0: _1  
> "(affiliate,|affiliate=)([a-z0-9]_)" matches  
> “/nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/”, client: 192.168.32.50, server: \_,  
> request: “GET /nl/nl/index/affiliate,Affilinet/ HTTP/1.1”, host:  
> “[r.dev.ibood.com](http://r.dev.ibood.com)”

This isn’t a debug log as you haven’t recompiled nginx with  
–with-debug option. Doesn’t matter though, problem is clear from  
the config itself.

Maxim D.