# Rewrite url segment staging site and live site

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [June 12, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531 "2012-06-12T16:47:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@aris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/aris)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531/1 "2012-06-12T16:47:34Z")

</div>

I have a staging site that I test anything relating to the website  
before we deploy. I have an nginx config that I also test with for this  
staging site.

I wanted to rewrite a uri segment where a section of the site changed  
names.

[example.com/old/page1](http://example.com/old/page1)  
/old/page2

[example.com/new/page1](http://example.com/new/page1)  
/new/page2

I added the following rewrite, which works perfectly on the staging  
site.

location /old {  
rewrite ^/old/? /new/$1 permanent;  
}

when I added this to the live nginx config, the rewrite works, but only  
sort of:

what I want:  
[example.com/old/page1](http://example.com/old/page1) → [example.com/new/page1](http://example.com/new/page1)

what I get:  
[example.com/old/page1](http://example.com/old/page1) → [example.com/new](http://example.com/new)

It’s fine for now, but I don’t know why the exact config would work  
different.

The live nginx config is different than the staging, but only in that it  
includes SSL info. This may be the problem, but I’m not sure why.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions and/or answers.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[rewrite url segment staging site and live site](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,227464,227464#msg-227464)**
>
> I have a staging site that I test anything relating to the website before we deploy. I have an nginx config that I also test with for this staging site. I wanted to rewrite a uri segment where a section of the site changed names....

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/caleboconnell)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531/2 "2012-06-12T19:23:35Z")

</div>

On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 10:47:10AM -0400, caleboconnell wrote:

Hi there,

> location /old {  
> rewrite ^/old/? /new/$1 permanent;  
> }

What do you think $1 is set to here?

(Usually, it is “the last thing matched”. So usually, it is worth making  
sure that you match something immediately before using it.)

> what I want:  
> [example.com/old/page1](http://example.com/old/page1) → [example.com/new/page1](http://example.com/new/page1)
> 
> what I get:  
> [example.com/old/page1](http://example.com/old/page1) → [example.com/new](http://example.com/new)

> **[Module ngx\_http\_rewrite\_module](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_rewrite_module.html#rewrite)**
>
> The ngx\_http\_rewrite\_module module is used to change request URI using PCRE regular expressions, return redirects, and conditionally select configurations.

“regex” can include things inside parentheses, which are then available  
as ${number} in “replacement”.

location /old/ {  
rewrite ^/old/(.\*) /new/$1 permanent;  
}

will probably do what you want; but read about the question mark, in  
case it matters.

> It’s fine for now, but I don’t know why the exact config would work  
> different.

Usually, the same config works the same way. If you’ve found a case  
where  
that isn’t the case, it may be worth investigating. But it is  
potentially  
the _whole_ config that matters here, where you use $1 without showing  
where it is set.

## f

Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/caleboconnell)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531/3 "2012-06-13T16:31:31Z")

</div>

That’s exactly what I thought, but when I used (.\*) at the end and used  
the $1 I kept getting 404. When I made it the way it is now, it worked  
on my staging site as expected but not on my live site.

I can confirm that on neither site, the following does not work (404  
error):

location /old {  
rewrite ^/old/(.\*)$ /new/$1 permanent;  
}

the following will redirect anything from old to the landing page for  
the new section

location /old {  
rewrite ^/old? /new permanent;  
}

here is the current config, with prior rewrites before this location  
block:

location / {  
index index.php;  
try\_files $uri $uri/ @ee;  
}

location @ee {  
rewrite ^(.\*) /index.php?/$1 last;  
}

location /old {  
rewrite ^/old? /new permanent;  
}

I tired to use (.\*) and $2 in hopes that the prior $1 wasn’t breaking  
it. Still no luck.

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: rewrite url segment staging site and live site](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,227464,227496#msg-227496)**
>
> I have a staging site that I test anything relating to the website before we deploy. I have an nginx config that I also test with for this staging site. I wanted to rewrite a uri segment where a section of the site changed names....

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/caleboconnell)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531/4 "2012-06-13T18:01:32Z")

</div>

Try to use your regex in the location path too.

location ‘/old’ only catches ‘/old’, not even ‘/old/’ and of course  
nothing  
lie ‘/old/…’  
Then, inside, you rewrite only URI which start with ‘/old/’, so _in  
fine_,  
nothing will be ever redirected.

## The machine does precisely what you asked it to do.

_B. R._

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/caleboconnell)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531/5 "2012-06-14T23:17:17Z")

</div>

On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 10:31:02AM -0400, caleboconnell wrote:

Hi there,

you have a working set up now, so all is good.

But still, I am very surprised that

> location /old {  
> rewrite ^/old/(.\*)$ /new/$1 permanent;  
> }

will not cause a redirection for any request that starts /old/, when  
replacing that location with

> location /old {  
> rewrite ^/old? /new permanent;  
> }

will lead to the expected redirection.

The solution you found was to change the location definition to avoid  
trying any regex locations. That suggests that you had other regex  
locations which were being matched instead of the ones above. But  
independent of that, the above two locations should redirect almost all  
of the same requests (all bar exactly “/old”) – so if the rest of the  
configuration didn’t change in between the two tests, you have found  
something odd.

> here is the current config, with prior rewrites before this location  
> block:

For information: because one request is handled by one location, the  
order of location blocks within the config file is not relevant (apart  
from regex ones).

Which just means that “the most recent match” may not be from the  
location  
block a few lines earlier in the config file.

All the best,

## f

Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@caleboconnell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/caleboconnell)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rewrite-url-segment-staging-site-and-live-site/220531/6 "2012-06-13T18:31:55Z")

</div>

The following worked. Thanks for helping me with this. Hopefully it  
answers another newbie’s question someday.

location ^~ /old {  
rewrite ^/old(.\*)$ /new$1 permanent;  
}

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Re: rewrite url segment staging site and live site](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,227464,227499#msg-227499)**
>
> I have a staging site that I test anything relating to the website before we deploy. I have an nginx config that I also test with for this staging site. I wanted to rewrite a uri segment where a section of the site changed names....