# Variable $1 is Empty **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [October 14, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438 "2010-10-14T13:03:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/77aa72/32.png) [@Dobai-Pataky\_BSSSSl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Dobai-Pataky_BSSSSl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438/1 "2010-10-14T13:03:33Z")
Hi everyone, This is my first time installing nginx. I install it on my Debian 5.0.3 VPS and use Debian’s repository to install it (version: 0.6.32). I’m having problem with using regular expression at server\_name. Here’s my configuration: server { listen 80; server\_name ~^(.+).mydomain.com$; location / { root /home/$1/public\_html; index index.html index.htm; } } When I hit [myusername.mydomain.com](http://myusername.mydomain.com), where /home/myusername/public\_html/ is exist. It gives me a 404 error. And when I view the log file, seems like $1 is null or something. 2010/10/14 10:47:08 [error] 4924#0: \*3 “/home//public\_html/index.html” is not found (2: No such file or directory), client: 173.245.73.113, server: ~^(.+).mydomain.com$, request: “GET / HTTP/1.1”, host: “[myusername.mydomain.com](http://myusername.mydomain.com)” Am I doing wrong? Any helps will be appreciated, thanks in advance. Indra ---
**Author:** ![Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Indra_S)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438/2 "2010-10-14T13:58:56Z")
I think you should change server { listen 80; server\_name ~^(.+).mydomain.com$; location / { root /home/$1/public\_html; index index.html index.htm; } } to server { listen 80; server\_name ~^(.+).mydomain.com$; set $name $1; location / { root /home/$name/public\_html; index index.html index.htm; } } 2010/10/14 Indra S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): ---
**Author:** ![Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Indra_S)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438/3 "2010-10-14T14:52:14Z")
Hello! On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 05:56:34PM +0700, Indra S. wrote: > server\_name ~^(.+).mydomain.com$; > 2010/10/14 10:47:08 [error] 4924#0: \*3 “/home//public\_html/index.html” > is not found (2: No such file or directory), client: 173.245.73.113, > server: ~^(.+).mydomain.com$, request: “GET / HTTP/1.1”, host: > “[myusername.mydomain.com](http://myusername.mydomain.com)” > > Am I doing wrong? > Any helps will be appreciated, thanks in advance. Changes with nginx 0.7.44: … \*) Bugfix: if there is the single server for given address:port pair, then captures in regular expressions in a “server\_name” directive did not work. … Adding another server listening on the same socket should resolve the issue, though I would recommend to upgrade. 0.6.\* branch is legacy and not supported, and you are using an old version from this branch. Additionally, it’s _really bad_ idea to use enumerated captures in server\_name. Things may be screwed up easily - it’s enough to add another regexp to config (e.g. regexp location) to break anything. There are two possible safe aproaches: 1. Use named captures as available in nginx 0.8.25+. See [Server names](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html) for details. 1. For old versions - use server-level if, i.e. Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Indra_S)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438/4 "2010-10-14T14:59:10Z")
Hello! On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 04:51:05PM +0400, Maxim D. wrote: […] > Adding another server listening on the same socket should resolve > the issue, though I would recommend to upgrade. 0.6.\* branch is > legacy and not supported, and you are using an old version from > this branch. Ah, as António pointed out - 0.6.\* don’t have server\_name captures at all, so the only options is upgrade or use “if” matching. Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Indra_S)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438/5 "2010-10-15T22:59:08Z")
On 14 Out 2010 11h56 WEST, [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > listen 80; > server\_name ~^(.+).mydomain.com$; > location / { > root /home/$1/public\_html; > index index.html index.htm; > } > } According to [Server names](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html) you need version \>= 0.7.40 in order to use regex with capturing groups in server\_name. Apart from that your config seems correct. — appa ---
**Author:** ![Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Indra\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Indra_S)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-1-is-empty/197438/6 "2010-10-14T18:16:53Z")
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 7:58 PM, Maxim D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Ah, as Antnio pointed out - 0.6.\* don’t have server\_name > captures at all, so the only options is upgrade or use “if” > matching. > > Maxim D. Antnio, Maxim, Thanks for your reply, if that’s the problem, I will install the latest version of Nginx.