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myNewAccount
Asked: 2021-08-26 15:04:46 +0800 CST

Does NGINX handle some error events / codes without them being set up in the config by default?

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Question: Are there some error events / codes that NGINX handles by default?

Background: The following portion of my config stops hotlinking and returns a 403 error.

    location ~* \.(jpg|png|svg|webp|ico)$ {
        valid_referers none blocked server_names ~\.bing\. ~\.duckduckgo\. ~\.facebook\. ~\.google\. ~\.instagram\. ~\.twitter\. ~\.yahoo\.;
        if ($invalid_referer) {
            return 403;
        }
    }

This section blocks unwanted HTTP methods and returns a 405 error.

if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD|POST)$) {
    return 405;
}

This got me thinking, are there any errors that I don't have to set up in NGINX?

For example, a 400 Bad Request error. Does NGINX know what a bad request is without adding an if statement and some logic to the config?

Alternately do I need to set up every error in the config that I plan to use and if I don't it can't be triggered? I always assumed this was the case but when I see how many different 400 and 500 errors there are I wonder if I'm not fully understanding this concept.

nginx

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Nginx will handle everything except application level errors. A few examples would be

    400 if the request breaks RFC specified format.
    403 if nginx cannot read a file due to permission.
    404 if the file isn't found.

    And so on so forth, the only thing nginx doesn't handle is non-RFC requirements like your anti-hotlinking and things outside its scope such as fastcgi/uwsgi/http backends.

    Basically don't worry about anything not related to your specific business logic.

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