How do I set a location condition in Nginx that responds to anything that isn't equal to the listed locations?
I tried:
location !~/(dir1|file2\.php) { rewrite ^/(.*) http://example.com/$1 permanent; } But it doesn't trigger the redirect. It simply handles the requested URI using the rules in the rest of the server configuration.
According to nginx documentation
there is no syntax for NOT matching a regular expression. Instead, match the target regular expression and assign an empty block, then use location / to match anything else
So you could define something like
location ~ (dir1|file2\.php) { # empty } location / { rewrite ^/(.*) http://example.com/$1 permanent; } 
locations next to the redirecting one. The redirect wasn't working. Turns out I had to add a break; directive as per stackoverflow.com/a/14049884
there is no syntax for NOT matching however ~ ^/(?!(text or pattern not to match)) is valid regex and more importantly works.
i was looking for the same. and found this solution.
Use negative regex assertion:
location ~ ^/(?!(favicon\.ico|resources|robots\.txt)) { .... # your stuff } Source Negated Regular Expressions in location
Explanation of Regex :
If URL does not match any of the following path
example.com/favicon.ico example.com/resources example.com/robots.txt Then it will go inside that location block and will process it.
location ~ /public/(?!index.php$)+.*\.php$ { rewrite ^/(.*)$ /public/index.php?url=$1; }
As of 22-JAN-2023, nginx documentation states that !~ and !~* are valid operators, although it doesn't mention since which version they're available. See the documentation reference
if statements. Not for location detectives.
/aabbccand where are you going to redirect him?location ~ ^/(?!(dir1|file2\.php)) {}