# Server\_name '\_' and custom error\_page

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/server-name-and-custom-error-page/198298>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [October 29, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/server-name-and-custom-error-page/198298 "2010-10-29T12:43:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/77aa72/32.png) [@Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dobai-Pataky_BSSSSl)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/server-name-and-custom-error-page/198298/1 "2010-10-29T12:43:50Z")

</div>

Hi,

This is my first time post, hi everybody.

The reason of this post is that I found some Nginx behaviour that I  
don’t understand.  
I would like to know if it’s a bug or not.  
Version: nginx/0.8.52

I pointed all DNS requests to my Nginx server (using a CNAME wildcard).  
Every none matched server names are handled by the snippit below (a  
fallback server configuration)

server {  
# CONFIG  
server\_name \_;

```
     # SETTINGS
     listen 80 default;
     root /var/www/host/default/public;
 access_log /var/www/home/log/nginx/default.access.log;

 error_page 404 /error_page/404.html;
 location /error_page/ {alias /var/www/home/error_page/; allow all;

```

internal;}

```
 }

```

A request to [kjhtgfcdh.example.com](http://kjhtgfcdh.example.com) will be catched by the fallback  
configuration and then serves  
my custom defined 404 because the root directive points to an empy  
directory; thus no file is found.

This way I can inform clients (with a custom error\_page) they are  
accessing the wrong host.

But this seemed wrong so I changed it to:

server {  
# CONFIG  
server\_name \_;

```
     # SETTINGS
     listen 80 default;
 access_log /var/www/home/log/nginx/default.access.log;

 error_page 404 /error_page/404.html;
 location /error_page/ {alias /var/www/home/error_page/; allow all;

```

internal;}

```
 return 404;

 }

```

This is almost the same, but it has no root directive and a return  
directive.  
This seems the way to do it because it skips the need to look for a file  
in the root and returns with a 404  
immediately, but it doesn’t serve my custom error\_page. It serves the  
nginx internal 404 document.

So I changed it to:

server {  
# CONFIG  
server\_name \_;

```
     # SETTINGS
     listen 80 default;
 access_log /var/www/home/log/nginx/default.access.log;

 error_page 404 /error_page/404.html;
 location /error_page/ {alias /var/www/home/error_page/; allow all;

```

internal;}

```
     location / {
         return 404;
     }

 }

```

Again no root directive but the return directive is wrapped in a  
location block and it DOES  
serve my custom error\_page.

My questions:  
Did I found a bug? And if I did; what would be correct behaviour?  
And if I did not; what is the correct behaviour in this context?

- Mark

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mark\_Bekkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Mark\_Bekkers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Bekkers)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 1:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/server-name-and-custom-error-page/198298/2 "2010-10-29T13:04:31Z")

</div>

Hello!

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:23:20PM +0200, Mark Bekkers wrote:

> Every none matched server names are handled by the snippit below (a
> 
> directory; thus no file is found.  
> # SETTINGS
> 
> ```
> # CONFIG
> location / {
> 
> ```
> 
> Did I found a bug? And if I did; what would be correct behaviour?  
> And if I did not; what is the correct behaviour in this context?

Behaviour you see is correct. By adding

```
return 404;

```

at server{} level you instructed nginx to generate 404 on every  
server rewrite processing. Server rewrites are processed on every  
internal redirect, including ones generated by error\_page. Thus  
something like this happens:

- …initial request…
- server rewrites: generate 404
- error\_page: redirect 404 to your custom /error\_page/404.html  
(and set flag “we’ve already done error\_page redirection”)
- server rewrites: generate 404
- error\_page: wow, we’ve already done error\_page redirection and  
this resulted in another error, return default error page

Maxim D.