Nginx: error_page does not work

503-errorcustom-errorsnginx

I try to set up a maintenance page for my rails app, using this snipplet.

error_page 503 /system/maintenance.html;
if (-f $document_root/system/maintenance.html) {
  return 503;
}

This works as far as the presence of the maintenance.html causes the webserver to return a 503. But it returns the minimal nginx default error_page, not my maintenance.html. Why?

nginx 1.0.12 on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

The complete vhost configuration: https://gist.github.com/1948225

Best Answer

"if" and "return" directives are the part of ngx_rewrite_module. Since you declare such condition at server level you don't live a chance to nginx to handle error_page.

Make your config clear:

root /home/igel/www/stage.example.com/current/public;
error_page 503 /system/maintenance.html;

location / {
       if ( -e /system/maintenance.html ) {
              return 503;
       }
}
location = /system/maintenance.html {
}
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