Status code in nginx try_files directive

Question

Is it possible to use the current status code as a parameter in try_files?

For example, we try to provide a host specific 503 static response, or a server-wide fallback if it wasn't found:

error_page 503 @error503;

location @error503 {
    root /path_to_static_root/;
    try_files /$host/503.html /503.html =503;
}

There are a number of these directives, so it would be convenient to do something like:

error_page 404 @error
error_page 500 @error
error_page 503 @error

location @error {
    root /path_to_static_root/;
    try_files /$host/$status.html /$status.html =$status;
}

But the Variables documentation doesn't list anything that we could use to do this.

Is it possible, or is there an alternative way to do this?

Answer 1

Your examples have infinite loop.

Probably, you want something like this:

error_page 404 @error404;
error_page 500 @error500;
error_page 503 @error503;

location @error404 {
    root /path_to_static_root/;
    try_files /$host/404.html /404.html =404;
}

location @error500 {
    root /path_to_static_root/;
    try_files /$host/500.html /500.html =500;
}

location @error503 {
    root /path_to_static_root/;
    try_files /$host/503.html /503.html =503;
}

..and it will work faster then with variables.

NGINX FAQ: Is there a proper way to use nginx variables to make sections of the configuration shorter, using them as macros for making parts of configuration work as templates?

Update:

The community wiki is not documentation. From the official documentation:

$status - response status (1.3.2, 1.2.2)

@ http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html#variables