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separator Tutorials Nginx Nginx config for www to non-www and non-www to www redirection

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Redirect non-www to WWW

Single domain

All domains

From WWW to non-WWW

Single domain

All domains

Nginx config for www to non-www and non-www to www redirection

There are many ways to force Nginx to use either WWW version or non-WWW version of URLs for your site.

We use following codes all the time.

Redirect non-www to WWW

Single domain


			server {
        server_name example.com;
        return 301 $scheme://www.example.com$request_uri;
}

All domains


			server {
        server_name "~^(?!www\.).*" ;
        return 301 $scheme://www.$host$request_uri;
}

From WWW to non-WWW

Single domain


			server {
        server_name www.example.com;
        return 301 $scheme://example.com$request_uri;
}

All domains


			server {
         server_name "~^www\.(.*)$" ;
         return 301 $scheme://$1$request_uri ;
}

In both cases, for other-www, we create a altogether different server { } block. IMHO, this is cleanest and optimised way to handle www to non-www and non-www to www redirection.

There are some WordPress plugins available there which can handle this at PHP-level. But for performance reason, always handle things in Nginx, that can be handled in Nginx alone! 😉

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Comments

Mitesh Shah

July 25, 2013

Instead of hardcodes http we can use $scheme

OLD:
return 301 External link to example.com$request_urihttp://example.com$request_uri;

New:
return 301 $scheme://example.com$request_uri;
Hardy Sam

October 24, 2013

Is it true that www if not redirected permanently to non-www, will hurt site ranking and Google would see it as duplicate contents?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 25, 2013
  
  I am not sure about Google but technically serving same page on www and non-www (root) domain should be considered duplicate.
rizky

November 3, 2013

hello thanks for the guide, im using redirect non to www
the code “for all domain” works for me but the single domain code is not work
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  November 5, 2013
  
  Please send your config for single domain via pastebin. Most likely your server_name directive is wrong.
Dr.Phunk

November 12, 2013

Can you tell me what’s the difference here between single and all domain.
If I need to strip www from even all the subdirectories then what shall be used ?
Dr.Phunk

November 12, 2013

Actually, I am an apache user and very new to nginx so please tell me where to save these codes under which directory and with what file name and file type?
As there is nothing like .htaccess for nginx
Sameer Joshi

November 13, 2013

The single domain config will add a redirection only to a specific domain that you have mentioned in the configuration. Hence, the config in the post has example.com domain which you can replace with the specific single domain.

The All domains config will add it to all the domains for which requests are made on the server.

These config will be added to your Nginx configuration file. It will typically be under
```
/etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
```
Once you add the rule test your nginx configuration by
```
nginx -t
```
If the test is passed then reload the Nginx process by
```
service nginx reload
```
Mardix

December 29, 2013

I don’t know if it’s a typo or something, but for me, to redirect WWW to Non-WWW I had to flip your code this way:

server {
server_name “~^www\.(.*)$” ;
return 301 $scheme://$1$request_uri;
}
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  December 30, 2013
  
  Looks like I forgot quotes. Updated article. Thanks.
Ana

January 17, 2014

Its not working for me. I tried many options of putting server {
server_name “~^(?!www\.).*” ;
return 301 $scheme://www.$host$request_uri;
}
but nothing works for me.
Here is my sites available file External link to pastebin.comhttp://pastebin.com/aTy9xtca
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  I think above 2 lines are losing precedence to *.bestdocumentariesonline.com
  Reference: External link to nginx.orghttp://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html
  
  In that case you can try adding a line like below index line inside server {..} block
```
if ( $http_host ~* "www\.(.*)") {
                 rewrite ^ http://$1$request_uri permanent;
}
```
  Please be careful about first line as I am writing it without tasting.
  1. Ana
    
    January 18, 2014
    
    Thanks Rahul but nothing works for me:(. I added your line and same, also I added this line server {
    server_name “~^(?!www\.).*” ;
    return 301 $scheme://www.$host$request_uri;
    } also in nginx.conf file so also isnt working (basically I try all these lines on different positions and same again. when without www it shows all ok when with www Server not found. Maybe problem in this that my External link to www.mysite.comhttp://www.mysite.com was never reachable? Maybe I should do something to bring this www to live site and then to redirect. ?
  2. Ana
    
    January 19, 2014
    
    Thanks Rahul but not success. I added this line and I was trying with different lines different positions and even different files f.e. ngnix.conf (where I should exactly add this line?)
    I think that problem can be because my www never was reachable . Maybe I should do something to make it reachable and to point to my site and then to redirect?
    1. Rahul Bansal
      
      January 22, 2014
      
      Sorry for delayed reply. At this point, I won’t be able to debug further via comments only.
      
      You need to make sure:
      
      1. For all desired domains, DNS lookup reaches to your server’s IP.
      2. Nginx server_name block as wildcard e.g. *.example.com and/or listening by default on that IP. “listening by default” is recommended for domain-mapping.
      3. You need to use rules like I posted in previous comment “if server_name starts with www, regex to fetch domain/hostname without www and redirect to it”
      
      There are few more ways and tricks but its not possible for me to debug it like this. You can give it a try, or may hire somebody as a last resort.
      1. Ana
        
        January 24, 2014
        
        Thanks Rahul. You idea brought me to solve this issue with redirection.
        Only I don’t know if I did it right way (to not have further problems).
        What I did: I added 2 CNAME records in my dns:
        CNAME * @
        CNAME www @
        and also your line for this article and all is redirecting now properly.
        What o you think is this all correct way as I newer heard for www line before.
        Cheers!
      2. Rahul Bansal
        
        January 24, 2014
        
        You don’t need CNAME record for WWW. It will be covered by wildcard record in your case.
Alexander

January 18, 2014

Putting it in to nginx.conf inside http { } but it’s not working.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  What error did you get?
Alexander

January 18, 2014

No error, it just not redirecting from www to non-www. Using nginx as reverse proxy with apache.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  Why are you using Apache? I think you haven’t followed our setup so I am not sure what problems you are facing.
  
  If you can start afresh, try using easyengine – External link to rtcamp.comhttp://rtcamp.com/easyengine
Fahad

January 25, 2014

I am very impress with your all article.

Please guide how do we enable functionality for External link to www.subdomains.domain.comhttp://www.subdomains.domain.com where subdomains list come from database namse is subdomain.php . i tried following which is not working

server { listen 80; server_name www.domain.com *.domain.com; ............

**if ($http_host !~ "^(www\.)?domain\.com"){ rewrite !^subdomain\.php$ /subdomain.php break; }**

location / { root /usr/share/nginx/html/domain.com/; index index.php; .......
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 27, 2014
  
  Sorry, I couldn’t understand your problem properly.
  1. Fahad
    
    January 27, 2014
    
    When client do visit at rahul.mydomain.com
    
    First it will auto redirect at External link to www.rahul.mydomain.comhttp://www.rahul.mydomain.com and check rahul name my db by using php code “subdomains.php”
    
    & get the all profile page
    
    like External link to www.rahul.mydoamin.comhttp://www.rahul.mydoamin.com/index.
    like External link to www.rahul.mydoamin.comhttp://www.rahul.mydoamin.com/profile.
    like External link to www.rahul.mydoamin.comhttp://www.rahul.mydoamin.com/contect.
    
    i tried followings on Nginx
    
    if ($http_host !~ “^(www.)?domain.com”){
    rewrite !^subdomain.php$ /subdomain.php break;
    }
    
    Please Help
    1. Rahul Bansal
      
      January 29, 2014
      
      I assume rahul from www.rahul.mydomain.com will be passed to subdomain.php as an argument.
      
      Something like: subdomain.php?domain=rahul
      
      If that is the case, you need to change regex to something like: (please note first line)
```
if ($http_host !~ "^(www.)?([^\.]*)\.domain.com"){
    try_files /subdomain.php?domain=$2 =404;
}
```
      I am assuming subdomain.php is present in root.
      
      I think you don’t need rewrite. You just need to tell nginx to use subdomain.php in a particular case (with may be some arguments)
Chirag

February 13, 2014

I would like to redirect one page on my site to homepage. Without affecting sub-pages..

like redirecting site.com/abc to site.com without getting redirect loop in site.com/abc/xyz

How can that be done? I read about modifying conf file in /etc/nginx… but in my case there is no nginx directory within etc.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 14, 2014
  
  In site.com server block, add rewrite ^/abc$ http://site.com/abc/xyz last;
  
  ^ and $ will make sure no redirect loop starts.