# Using variables on configuration (map?) for regex

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-variables-on-configuration-map-for-regex/244980>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [July 22, 2016, 8:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-variables-on-configuration-map-for-regex/244980 "2016-07-22T08:22:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sadaf\_N](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@Sadaf\_N](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sadaf_N)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 8:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-variables-on-configuration-map-for-regex/244980/1 "2016-07-22T08:22:37Z")

</div>

Hi

I’m trying to /clean/ up a config file and I’m having a headache trying  
to do it.

Consider the following scenario:

- Users from group gfoo must be allowed to GET URL foo, while adminfoo  
must be able to POST
- Users from group gbar must be allowed to GET URL bar, while adminbar  
must be able to POST
- …and so on for ~50 groups.

The configuration at this moment is similar to:

```
server {
     listen 80;
     server_name foo.domain.com;
     location ~ /content/foo {
         if ($denied_foo) {
             return 403 "Forbidden";
         }
         ...
     }
     location ~ /page/bar/action...and ~10 locations more per 

```

server…  
}  
server {  
listen 80;  
server\_name [bar.domain.com](http://bar.domain.com);  
location ~ /content/bar {  
if ($denied\_bar) {  
return 403 “Forbidden”;  
}  
…  
}  
location ~ /page/bar/action…and ~10 locations more per  
server…  
}  
…~200 [whatever.domain.com](http://whatever.domain.com) servers more  
map $request\_method:$request\_uri:$http\_groups $denied\_foo {  
default 1;  
~^GET:/content/foo:gfoo 0;  
~^POST:/content/foo:adminfoo 0;  
}  
map $request\_method:$request\_uri:$http\_groups $denied\_bar {  
default 1;  
~^GET:/content/bar:gbat 0;  
~^POST:/content/bar:adminbar 0;  
}  
…lots of map directives

I’ll like to be able to simplify it doing something like:

```
     server_name (?<myvar>.*)\.domain\.com;
...
map $request_method:$request_uri:$http_groups $denied {
     default 1;
     ~^GET:/content/$myvar:g$myvar 0;
     ~^POST:/content/$myvar:admin$myvar 0;
}

```

I have even tried using an auxiliary map this way:

```
map $servername $myvar {
~^(?<v>.*)\.domain\.com $v;
}

map $request_method:$request_uri:$http_groups $denied {
     default 1;
     ~^GET:/content/$myvar:g$myvar 0;
     ~^POST:/content/$myvar:admin$myvar 0;
}

```

But I haven’t succeeded so far. Could you help me?

Having ~200 configuration files doesn’t seem a good option, so omit  
“on-build config with script parameters”

Thanks in advance,

Regards.