Nginx Location – Fix Nested Nginx Location Not Working

nginx

I'm having trouble understanding nested locations in nginx. I have two locations with some configuration directives in common, so rather than repeat the directives, I'd prefer to repeat the URI using a regular-expression:

location ~ /a|/b {
        location /a {
        }
        location /b {
        }
}

However, this gives the error 

nginx: [emerg] location "/a" is outside location "/a|/b" in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:36

Without the or | it seems okay, though.

location ~ /a {
        location /a {
        }
}

What am I doing wrong? Is there a better way to do this without repeating anything? Can I group locations in another way?

Best Answer

Old question, but the issue is because the parent location is a regex location while the nested locations are prefix locations.

When a parent location is defined by a regex, any nested locations must also be defined by regexes:

location ~ ^/(a|b) {
        location ~ ^/a {
        ...
        }
        location ~ ^/b {
        ...
        }
}

You may only define nested prefix locations when the parent location is also a prefix location:

location /a {
        location /a {
               # You can also skip this location and just write
               # your code directly under the parent location
        }
        location /a/b {
        ...
        }
}

However, you may define nested regex locations when the parent location is a prefix location:

location /a/b {
        location ~ /a {
        ...
        }
        location ~ /b {
        ...
        }
}
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