nginx - serving static files, invoking PHP instead

Question

I'm having a problem migrating a website from Apache to nginx. Most of the things work fine, I just have a very specific problem with some static files here.

In the docroot of the server, a phpBB is installed, and the .css files from the theme are piped through the PHP interpreter, instead of directly being delivered by the nginx, and I just can't figure out why.

My nginx site config:

server {

  listen   81; ## listen for ipv4
  listen   [::]:81 default ipv6only=on; ## listen for ipv6

  server_name  www.wanda.eu;

  access_log  /var/log/nginx/wanda.eu.access.log;
  error_log   /var/log/nginx/wanda.eu.error.log debug;

  root /srv/www/wanda.eu;

  location /static {
    try_files $uri $uri/ @php_index =404;
    expires 24h;
  }

  location / {
    #Secure arbitrary code execution on NON php files (ex: .png with PHP code)
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php =404;
    include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/php-cgi/php-cgi.socket;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/www/wanda.eu$fastcgi_script_name;
  }
  location /dynamic {
    #Secure arbitrary code execution on NON php files (ex: .png with PHP code)
    try_files $uri $uri/ /dynamic/index.php =404;
    include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/php-cgi/php-cgi.socket;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/www/wanda.eu$fastcgi_script_name;
  }
}

(the dynamic block is a special block for the website which is configured there, which generates images - which is working fine)

The problem here is when requesting the url /forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css

With debugging enabled in the error_log, I see the following there:

2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http request line: "GET /forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css HTTP/1.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http uri: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http args: ""
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http exten: "css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http process request header line
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Host: www.wanda.eu:81"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Accept: text/css,*/*;q=0.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Connection: keep-alive"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Referer: http://www.wanda.eu:81/forum/"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http alloc large header buffer
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 malloc: 0000000001469B00:256
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 malloc: 0000000001497800:8192
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http large header alloc: 0000000001497800 8192
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http large header copy: 693
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 recv: fd:17 214 of 7499
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Pragma: no-cache"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header: "Cache-Control: no-cache"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http header done
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 event timer del: 17: 1344435925526
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 generic phase: 0
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 add cleanup: 00000000014972F8
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 generic phase: 1
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 test location: "/"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 test location: "static"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 test location: "dynamic"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 using configuration "/"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http cl:-1 max:1048576
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 generic phase: 3
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 post rewrite phase: 4
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 generic phase: 5
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 add cleanup: 0000000001497330
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 generic phase: 6
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 generic phase: 7
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 access phase: 8
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 access phase: 9
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 post access phase: 10
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 try files phase: 11
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 try to use file: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css" "/srv/www/wanda.eu/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 try file uri: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 malloc: 000000000152A140:4096
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http init upstream, client timer: 0
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "QUERY_STRING"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "QUERY_STRING: "
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "REQUEST_METHOD"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "GET"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "REQUEST_METHOD: GET"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "CONTENT_TYPE"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "CONTENT_TYPE: "
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "CONTENT_LENGTH"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "CONTENT_LENGTH: "
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SCRIPT_NAME"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SCRIPT_NAME: /forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "REQUEST_URI"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "REQUEST_URI: /forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "DOCUMENT_URI"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "DOCUMENT_URI: /forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "DOCUMENT_ROOT"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/srv/www/wanda.eu"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "DOCUMENT_ROOT: /srv/www/wanda.eu"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SERVER_PROTOCOL"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "HTTP/1.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SERVER_PROTOCOL: HTTP/1.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "GATEWAY_INTERFACECGI/1.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "GATEWAY_INTERFACE: CGI/1.1"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SERVER_SOFTWARE"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "nginx/"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "0.7.67"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SERVER_SOFTWARE: nginx/0.7.67"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "REMOTE_ADDR"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "95.130.252.148"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "REMOTE_ADDR: 95.130.252.148"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "REMOTE_PORT"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "62676"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "REMOTE_PORT: 62676"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SERVER_ADDR"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "109.75.187.90"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SERVER_ADDR: 109.75.187.90"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SERVER_PORT"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "81"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SERVER_PORT: 81"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SERVER_NAME"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "www.wanda.eu"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SERVER_NAME: www.wanda.eu"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "REDIRECT_STATUS200"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "REDIRECT_STATUS: 200"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "SCRIPT_FILENAME"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script copy: "/srv/www/wanda.eu"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 fastcgi param: "SCRIPT_FILENAME: /srv/www/wanda.eu/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http cleanup add: 000000000152A9E8
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 get rr peer, try: 1
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 socket 44
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 epoll add connection: fd:44 ev:80000005
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 connect to unix:/tmp/php-cgi/php-cgi.socket, fd:44 #684
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 connected
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http upstream connect: 0
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http upstream send request
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 chain writer buf fl:0 s:1816
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 chain writer in: 000000000152AA20
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 writev: 1816
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 chain writer out: 0000000000000000
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 event timer add: 44: 60000:1344435920767
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http run request: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css?"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http upstream check client, write event:1, "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http upstream recv(): -1 (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http upstream request: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css?"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http upstream process header
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 malloc: 000000000152FAB0:32768
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 recv: fd:44 12488 of 32768
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 01
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 06
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 00
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 01
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 1F
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: F8
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 00
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record byte: 00
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi record length: 8184
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi parser: 0
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi header: "X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze13"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi parser: 0
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http fastcgi header: "Content-type: text/html"

.... and a lot more lines, which indicate that it is sent out by nginx.

The problem is here, that the content type is set to text/html, and very clearly, the php interpreter is run for the stylesheet, which is absolutely unnecessary.

Especially these lines here throw me in for a loop:

2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 http script var: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 try to use file: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css" "/srv/www/wanda.eu/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"
2012/08/08 16:24:20 [debug] 13885#0: *669 try file uri: "/forum/styles/bastisstyle/theme/stylesheet.css"

nginx is looking for the correct file in the correct location, but doesn't seem to recognize it. It isn't a permission problem, as I can open the file when I su to the www-data user (which is the nginx user).

Any help here, why the server is showing this behaviour, would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards, Jens

EDIT 1

I think I solved it by myself, although I don't have a real clue how this config is so different from the first one, and why the behaviour in the first config example was as I described it. I tried to fix another problem I had with that site, and it fixed the problems with the stylesheets as well.

Here is the config which works:

server {

  listen   81; ## listen for ipv4
  listen   [::]:81 default ipv6only=on; ## listen for ipv6

  server_name  www.wanda.eu;

  access_log  /var/log/nginx/wanda.eu.access.log;
  error_log   /var/log/nginx/wanda.eu.error.log debug;

  root /srv/www/wanda.eu;
  index index.php index.html;

  location /static {
    try_files $uri $uri/ @php_index =404;
    expires 24h;
  }

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ $uri/index.html $uri/index.htm @php;
  }
  location /dynamic {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /dynamic/index.php =404;
    include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/php-cgi/php-cgi.socket;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/www/wanda.eu$fastcgi_script_name;
  }

  location @php {
    try_files $uri /index.php =404;
    include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/php-cgi/php-cgi.socket;
   fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/www/wanda.eu$fastcgi_script_name;
  }

  location ~ \.php$ {
    try_files $uri /index.php =404;
    include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/php-cgi/php-cgi.socket;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /srv/www/wanda.eu$fastcgi_script_name;
  }
}

Welcome to Server Fault. I'm glad to hear you solved your problem. But please be aware that answers should be placed in the answers section below, rather than appended to your question. The system will let you do this in a few hours. — Michael Hampton, Aug 8, 2012 at 15:42
Okay, thanks for the hint. I knew I couldn't do that in the comments, but wasn't aware that I just had to way a few hours to answer that myself. And thanks for the welcome :) — jhoffrichter, Aug 8, 2012 at 15:49
Once you're no longer new, you will be able to answer your own questions immediately. :) — Michael Hampton, Aug 8, 2012 at 15:55

Fleshgrinder · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-20 23:38:15Z

The answer to your question is, that you told nginx to always run PHP whenever a request matches that location. No matter what kind of file it is. Let me elaborate.

location / {
    fastcgi_pass php;
}

Now anything that matches this location will be processed by PHP, no matter what.

location / {
    try_files $uri /index.php;
    fastcgi_pass php;
}

This doesn't change anything! If the $uri matches, nginx goes on and will process the fastcgi_pass php; directive. If $uri doesn't exist it will do an internal redirect to /index.php go on and process the fastcgi_pass php; directive.

location / {
    try_files $uri @php;
}
location @php {
    fastcgi_pass php;
}

Well, this changes a lot. If $uri matches there's nothing left to process, so nginx will simply return the file. If $uri doesn't match nginx will go on and see the named location @php and therefor goes to that location where it then encounters the fastcgi_pass php; directive, which it will process of course.

This should answer your specific question. You already found the solution yourself, but I thought it might be from interest to you why this is as it is.

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