Returning a 503 status code using try files with a maintenance page activated

Server NGINX
1

Hello,

I am looking into streamlining our nginx maintenance page check logic.
In the nginx.org documentation there is an example usage for
try_files with a maintenance page.

http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html#try_files

location / { try_files /system/maintenance.html $uri $uri/index.html $uri.html @mongrel; } 
 location @mongrel {
     proxy_pass http://mongrel;
 }

This works, but when the maintenance page is activated it returns an
http status code of 200 instead of a 503.

What works for me on our site is something like this:

location / { if (-f /system/maintenance.html) { return 503; break; }

try_files /system/maintenance.html
$uri $uri/index.html $uri.html
@mongrel;
}

location @mongrel {
proxy_pass http://mongrel;
}

error_page 503 /system/maintenance.html;

location = /system/maintenance.html {
root /app;
}

Is it possible to remove the “if return 503” logic and have the
try_files logic from the nginx documentation, but have nginx return a
503 when the maintenance page is found?

I have a number of location directives that all have this “if return
503” logic and would like to reduce this duplication.

Thanks,
Zev

2

Hello,

On 05/10/2012 11:52 AM, Zev B. wrote:

Is it possible to remove the “if return 503” logic and have the
try_files logic from the nginx documentation, but have nginx return a
503 when the maintenance page is found?

I have a number of location directives that all have this “if return
503” logic and would like to reduce this duplication.

I have found a work around to my question.

I push the “if return 503” check into the location that defines
the proxy pass.

My working example becomes:

location / { try_files $uri $uri/index.html $uri.html @mongrel; }

location @mongrel {
if (-f /system/maintenance.html) {
return 503;
break;
}
proxy_pass http://mongrel;
}

error_page 503 /system/maintenance.html;

location = /system/maintenance.html {
root /app;
}

In the end, I do not use the maintenance path in the try_files.
This may not look like much of a change, but my refactoring helps
reduce the checks when I have multiple location directives that
all end with pass to @mongrel.

Zev