Nginx reverse cache 301 redirects (permanent)

Question

Is it possible to have Nginx cache all 301 redirect requests for proxy_pass?

For example:

Request #1: Client A requests /some/path -> sent to proxy_pass -> results in 301 redirect to /some/other/path -> nginx caches this response since it's a 301 redirect.

Request #2: Client B requests /some/path -> nginx returns cached 301 redirect to /some/other/path.

Answer 1

nginx already can cache 301 redirects. You can change the amount of time they are cached with the proxy_cache_valid directive:

proxy_cache_valid 301 365d; # Cache permanent redirects for a whole year

Answer 2

I found that @Michael's answer got me most of the way there, but when I turned on proxy_cache, it would automatically cache files with Expires and Cache-Control. So I ended up with this solution.

proxy_cache_path /tmp/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=main-cache:8m max_size=1000m inactive=600m;
proxy_temp_path /tmp/nginx/tmp;
proxy_cache main-cache;
proxy_cache_valid 301 60m;
proxy_cache_key "$scheme://$host$request_uri";
proxy_ignore_headers X-Accel-Expires Expires Cache-Control;

Answer 3

If you want redirect all, you could use this way:

location / {
  proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/VirtualHostBase/https/$server_name:443/some/path/VirtualHostRoot;
}

Your examples could need the combination of rewrite and proxy_pass:

location / {
  rewrite ^(.*)$ /VirtualHostBase/https/$server_name:443/some/path/VirtualHostRoot$1 break;
  proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
}

Warning: you have got different rewrite redirect effect: break returns 301 instead permanent returns 302.

EDIT Upstream this module/s you need use proxy_cache_valid diretive:

proxy_cache_valid  301 1h;

Warning, upstream cache-related directives have priority over proxy_cache_valid value, in particular the order is:

1. X-Accel-Expires
2. Expires/Cache-Control
3. proxy_cache_valid

Reference: HttpProxyModule, Nginx reverse proxy + URL rewrite